Having conceded their position in of the UK Broadband League middle ground to TalkTalk, Tiscali are again set to raise the stakes by finally pressing on with their IPTV service.
Tiscali bought Homechoice, one of the first IPTV platforms to roll in the UK, in August last year and since then has been quietly inking deals with content providers, including one deal with Sky, which gives Tiscali the broadcasting rights to show the so-called ‘missing channels’, i.e. everything that was dropped from Virgin Media following the carriage fee farce this March.
It is understood that there will be a basic Tiscali TV package that will be made available via a Freeview set-top box with a wireless IPTV connection for the on-demand content – you get this, plus broadband and phone for a one-off £30 set up fee and a monthly subscription. There will be the option to pick and choose from a range of on-demand content and add subscription packages, such as Sky Sports, for additional monthly fees a la BT Vision.
Tiscali, whose broadband customer base exceeds 1.5 million, hope to get their IPTV boxes under each subscriber’s Christmas tree this year:
“By Christmas 2007 Tiscali TV will reach almost 10 million homes and we believe we can offer great value digital TV and the best value Triple Play service in the UK for those who don’t want to pay for expensive premium TV, but do want more than Freeview,” says Mary Turner, chief exec at Tiscali UK.
Discussions with sports broadcaster Setanta are still going on, but as the new football season has already begun, it may well be that Tiscali have missed that particular boat, this time at least. However, the presence of the coveted Sky channels alone could put more pressure on an already embattled Virgin…
Those Tiscali TV packages in full:
With 2Mbps Broadband - £19.99 per month plus £30 setup fee
- TV Variety Pack - over 60 TV & radio channels, including Sky One
- Over 350 on-demand programmes
- On-demand access to over 1,000 movies
- 7 day BBC, C4 and FX catch up service
- Includes all UK and international Weekend calls
- Phone line rental included
- Free set top box and free wireless router included
With 8Mbps Broadband - £24.99 per month plus £30 setup fee
- TV Variety Pack - over 60 TV & radio channels, including Sky One
- Over 350 on demand programmes
- On-demand access to over 1,000 movies
- 7 day BBC, C4 and FX catch up service
- Includes all UK and international Anytime calls
- Phone line rental included
- Free set top box and free wireless router included
Similar Posts:
Mike Perry said on 05 Sep 2007 at 8:33 am #
Might be worth checking out, you get value for money broadband + phone calls, plus the best of Sky TV, minus all of the low budget foreign dramas such as ‘Moment of Passion’ and all of the other crap that Sky have the cheek to charge a premium for.
Steve Smith said on 07 Sep 2007 at 2:34 pm #
If Tiscali get their act together with regard to customer service, they might just have a winner on their hand here…
Darth Littlejohn said on 10 Sep 2007 at 11:20 am #
The Tiscali TV deals actually look pretty good, although I’d only want to watch the Sci-Fi channel out of the Entertainment Xtra mix.
I won’;t even be considering this tho, until Tiscali unbundle in my postcode area.