Over in the mother country it seems everyone is struggling to get their IPTV numbers. As recently as May Virgin promised to be on air next year in its ambitious triple play to cover the spots in the U.K. where cable wasn't. This week it has all been put off till at least 2009 with broadband now the "hero" product for Richard Branson's latest attempt to upset the competitive landscape.
As the incumbent, BT announced it had 60,000 customers for its video product--a long way short of its promised hundreds of thousand by the end of 2007 and nowhere near the two- to three-million customers BT hope to have in the medium term.
Another mooted player, France Telecom's Orange network has also gone very shy about its very public plan to have a TV service in the U.K. by Christmas. And at Tiscali's Homechoice, customer numbers have fallen 10,000 to a modest 30,000 over the last year.
More reports:
- Virgin scales back TV ambitions Report
- BT misses its targets Report
- Missing, presumed tardy: Orange IPTV Report