By: MarkJ - 6 April, 2009 (12:32 PM) - Views: 2152 - Categories: Fixed Line Broadband, Online Video

Tiscali UK had managed to connect an estimated 100,000 households to its broadband based Tiscali TV (IPTV) service by the end of Q4-2008, which is roughly half the figure they had targeted (200,000) to achieve for the same period (original news). Statistics for the service have been increasingly hard to come by over the past 12 months, while the recent closure of their Italian IPTV service and failed UK Internet access division sale to BSkyB (here) hasn’t exactly helped confidence.

Thankfully we noticed that Ofcom's latest Digital Television Update – Q4 2008 (Adobe Reader .PDF format) included Gfk statistics for TV over ADSL (Broadband Internet TV) services, which only referenced Tiscali. This came as a surprise since Tiscali UK hasn't included these details in its financial results for more than a year. It's worth pointing out that, at the end of 2008, Tiscali UK informed us of how they had "no plans to cease IPTV services in the UK."

Ofcom's TV over ADSL figures did not include BT Vision (BTV) customers, to whom live scheduled programming is delivered via DTT (in Freeview coverage areas) rather than by broadband. BT Vision's (BTV) comparable product recently (Q4-2008) topped 398,000 customers and is continuing to grow at a steady pace. The UK has yet to establish a real market for IPTV services, largely due to the lack of an adequate broadband infrastructure.