UNE EPM of Columbia has 30K IPTV Subscribers

TV LATAM published an article that stated that UNE EPM in Medelin, Columbia has 30,000 IPTV subscribers. UNE plans to extend its service to Bogota and grow to 150,000 IPTV subscribers before the end of 2009.

TV LATAM said that this is the largest IPTV deployment in South America. There is significant potential in this continent for IPTV if the regulatory issues that exist in many companies are favorably resolved.

Charter Introduces 60 Mbps Cable Modem Service

Charter has introduce a 60 Mbps downstream DOCSIS3.0 cable modem service in St. Louis, Missouri. This service will be priced at $129 per month for its video customers.

This is a premium offering that goes well beyond what ATT can offer with U-verse. Not too many people can afford such a pricey package, so it is not a direct attack on U-verse. Charter will have to bring the price of the service down before it will make a real dent in ATT's success.

ATT Adds 264K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

ATT added 264,000 U-verse IPTV subscribers in 4Q08 ending the year with 1.045 million subscribers. The company achieved its goal of 1 million IPTV subscribers by the end of 2008. Its U-verse service now reaches 17 million homes.

ATT completed its rollout of its whole home DVR and two stream HD support by the end of 2008.

ATT made good progress and has established U-verse as a significant competitor in the U.S. pay TV market. It has stated that it will continue its investment in this service while it cuts CapeEx in other areas.

Verizon Adds 303K IPTV Subscribers in 4Q08

Verizon added 303,000 IPTV subscribers in 4Q08 leaving it with a total 1.918 million at the end of the year. This compared to the 282,000 FiOS Internet subscribers it added in the quarter, ending the year with 2.481 FiOS Internet subscribers. Its FiOS ARPU was more than $133 per month in the quarter.

Verizon had a good year, adding nearly 1 million IPTV subscribers in 2008. This shows the strength of its FTTH strategy.

Deutsche Telekom Announces IPTV Winner

The PIN Project, entered by IPTV developer team Trenfield and Regner, was declared the winner of the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award.

With the PIN Instant Information System, useful additional details to go with the program on the TV screen, such as links to further information or the recipe of the menu that is being prepared in a cookery show, can be downloaded and shown in an inconspicuous little pop-up window on the edge of the screen. Using the remote control, viewers can then, by simply pressing a button, send the information as an URL or a text message to their PC or mobile phone and access it later whenever they want. The Instant Information System delivers information directly and spontaneously. No film is interrupted and no viewer is pulled out of the entertainment. Viewers decide for themselves whether they want this extra information and can activate the PIN system as and when required.

As the winner of the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award the Trenfield/Regner team can now look forward to a further €200,000 in award winner’s prize money.

This has been an interesting exercise. It will be interesting to see if any of the leading applications in this contest catch fire in the IPTV market.

Deutsche Telekom Plans for 1M IPTV Subscribers by the end of 2009

Reuters published an article that Deutsche Telekom plans to have 1 million IPTV subscribers at the end of 2009. The company reportedly had 500,000 IPTV subscribers at the end of 2008.

I will be interested to see the official numbers for 2008. Apparently it achieved its goal for 2008, which was a real stretch.

Telekom Austria has 63.7K IPTV Subscribers

Telekom Austria ended 2008 with 63,700, which is up from 10,930 at the end of 2007.

Telekom Austria had a good year for IPTV in 2008.