Director of Fluidata Expects UK IPTV Services to Pressure ISP Support Lines

The Managing Director (MD) of UK business ISP Fluidata, Piers Daniell, has predicted that the new generation of internet based TV / IPTV (television) services, which are expected to surface from several broadband providers this year ( e.g. TalkTalk TV via YouView ), could put more pressure on customer support lines because consumers have higher expectations of TV reliability.

Piers Daniell, MD of Fluidata, explained:

“If I was watching iPlayer, for example, and the Internet connection failed I would probably reboot the router and then have a cup of tea. If it didn’t come back it would probably be 50/50 if I would then call the support line. More likely I would get on with some other jobs or move towards the TV.

With the advent of IPTV however we agreed that the likelihood of calling support would be much higher. If you were in the middle of Eastenders or watching a football game I am sure you wouldn’t wait to call support. Our tolerance would be much lower, just because our expectations have been so high so so long.”

Daniell points out that the old terrestrial method of TV distribution, which most of us still use, has traditionally been both simple and highly reliable (assuming you get good reception of course). It’s certainly a fair point to make, especially with broadband having a somewhat more patchy reputation for reliability.

Sticking IPTV over consumer broadband connectivity effectively requires “high levels of guaranteed uptime“, which would normally have more in common with an expensive business service than home solutions.

Luckily the new generation of superfast broadband solutions tend to be significantly less susceptible to failure than the likes of unstable ADSL / ADSL2+ connectivity. This would of course place more responsibility on your ISP, as opposed to the physical infrastructure, to ensure that they can adequately support a significant increase in data demand.