Today sees the launch of Tiscali TV – IPTV expanded from the HomeChoice service that was previously only available in London. In the following months, the service will become available in, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Birmingham spreading to Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool by the middle of the year; Tiscali aim to be supplying digital TV to 10 million homes in the UK by the end of 2007, and have their entire network of subscribers being able to be services by the end of 2008.
Tiscali are providing their TV services for free for those who are Tiscali Broadband customers - the combined service offers Broadband connection, digital channels with free on-demand features, and free evening and weekend calls (including line rental) from £19.99 a month.
Programmes are received through the HomeChoice set-top box and are broadcast over a BT phoneline – as such Tiscali TV is arguably the only ‘true’ IPTV service in the UK so far, as no peripheral device (such as an aerial or satellite dish) is required to receive programmes – everything is handled over a phoneline. An HDTV set-top box complete with a 160GB digital video recorder is set for a July release.
With the Virgin/Sky melee having just ended in an ugly manner, and with BT soon to release their IPTV platform, more competition on the market will invariably mean a price drop as companies vie for living room loyalty.
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