Alice Brings Free up to 3.3M IPTV-Capable Subscribers

Free released an analysis of its 2008 results that stated that it has 423,868 unbundled subscribers as part of the business that it acquired from Alice, France. All of these subscribers can get free IPTV channels as part of their broadband service, assuming that they have an appropriate set-top box. Adding these Alice unbundled subscribers to Free's 2.900,000 unbundled subscribers give the company a total of 3,323,868 unbundled subscribers.

All of the Free unbundled subscribers have a set-top box that can receive its IPTV service. Free recently made a similar set-top box available to its Alice subscribers.

It is always interesting counting IPTV subscribers for Free. I think it is fair to count all of Free's 2.9M unbundled subscribers. How to handle the Alice unbundled subscribers is less clear. Today, I would split the difference. In another couple of years, I would count all of them.

IPTV Services Highly Concentrated

I just completed a short analysis based on the 4Q08 results that I have gathered so far. I have identified over 700 carriers globally with some level of IPTV activity. About 340 are in North America with 180 in Europe and 100 in Asia.

I estimate that there are more than 20 million IPTV subscribers globally and five carriers have more than one million IPTV subscribers each:

1. Free in France
2. Verizon in the U.S.
3. China Telecom
4. France Telecom
5. AT&T in the U.S.

These top 5 companies account for more than 40 percent of the total subscribers. The top 20 service providers account for 80 percent of the total and the top 50 account for 95 percent of the subscribers.

Swisscom Adds 23K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

Swisscom added 23,000 new IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, ending the year with 118,000. The company had $US 129M in IPTV revenue in 2008.

Swisscom had a good year with its IPTV service in a competitive IPTV market. Its new fiber deployment should enhance its position nicely.

Belgacom Adds 63K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

Belgacom added 63,000 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, giving it a total of 506,000 at the end of 2008. It stated that it had a 30 percent share of the Pay TV market at the end of 2008. It now supports a second TV in the home using VDSL. There were 65,000 customers with a second TV at the end of the year. It IPTV ARPU grew to 17.2 euros during 2008 largely through the improved success of on demand services. Its total IPTV revenue grew to 86M euros in 2008.

Belgacom offers HD services using VDSL, which is available to 64 percent of the Belgian population. The ADSL-based IPTV service is available to 86 percent of the Belgian population.

Belgacom is making good progress and is showing how other operators in Europe can succeed in a cable-dominated market.

BBC Canvas to Compete with BT Vision IPTV

The BBC is considering its Canvas Project that will compete with BT's BT Vision IPTV service.

The BBC is seeking permission to form a new joint venture partnership with other broadcasters and Internet Service Providers to define and promote a set of standards for digital television delivered via broadband Internet connections (IPTV) as well as digital broadcasts via DSat and DTT.

Users would need to buy a new set top box or other device which takes its broadcast signal from an aerial, like Freeview, or from a satellite dish, like Freesat.

Canvas users would also require a broadband connection to take advantage of on-demand features. They would need to:

• Subscribe to a broadband service which usually carries a monthly fee, or
• Utilise their existing broadband connection. It is possible they may need to
• upgrade their existing broadband packages to a faster connection, or
• upgrade their existing broadband packages to one which allows greater volumes of data downloads

The BBC said that Canvas would help protect the competitiveness of free-to-air platforms (like Freeview) and allow audiences who do not wish to pay for subscription television services to access a range of on-demand and linear services.

It wishes to develop Canvas in conjunction with the planned launch of HD services on the DTT platform (Freeview). Subject to approval, Canvas would launch at some point in 2010.

This is an interesting approach by a broadcaster to utilize broadband to reach its audience in addition to its over the air broadcasting. It looks very much like BT Vision to me. I wonder how BT will survive with this kind of competition from the broadcaster. This is a model that could be exported to other countries and create a new competitor to the existing Pay TV outlets.

Deutsche Telekom Adds 20K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

Deutsche Telekom reported that the number of Entertain IPTV lines activated climbed to around 353,000 by the end of 2008. The number of orders received up to this point in time were around 480,000. This was an increase in the number of IPTV subscribers of 20,000 in 4Q08.

It looks like Deutsche Telekom missed its goal of 500,000 IPTV subscribers by the end of 2008 by a large margin. The company seems to be struggling with creating a winning formula for the service.

Telecom Itallia Adds 111K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

Telecom Italia added 111,000 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08, giving a total of 329,000 at the end of 2008. It was able to achieve its objective of 300,000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008. Its IPTV service has now achieved a penetration of 4.9 percent of its broadband customers.

Telecom had a great fourth quarter. Let's see if it can keep up the pace.