Subscriber Gains

TelcoTV 2008: Give us your observations

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:37:54 -0500

TelcoTV 2008 begins today in Anaheim, Calif. It will provide a good opportunity to assess a market many U.S. telcos are probably pleased with, many vendors probably find lacking, and many international observers probably believe is at least slightly behind the times.

The service providers probably are happy simply because they have made the jump. They are providing TV service, and even if their adoption numbers are small right now, they likely feel they are better poised to promote bundled services consumers are ready to embrace in a tough economy for discount prices.

The vendors, of course, always would like the carriers to be spending more money, but amid the economic pressures, some vendors appear to be growing increasingly nervous about the possibility that carriers could slow down their TV expansions-- i.e., that the second phase of the telco TV era in the U.S. could last much longer than the first.

And despite the fact the one U.S. telco TV provider--Verizon Communications--has about 1.6 million IPTV customers, and another--AT&T--is nearing 1 million, the U.S, in terms of telco TV market maturation, trails France, Japan and a few other countries.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone attending TelcoTV 2008 this week comes away from the show with different observations. Please post a comment to this column later in the week and let us know.

Meanwhile, I'll predict right now that the big news for the telco TV industry in the U.S. for 2009 will not have as much to do with subscriber gains, as it will have to do with telcos' relations with the content industry. Telco TV players have a chance to leverage unique, often niche-market programming that cable TV offerings haven't pursued. But most content developers, whether major Hollywood studios, social networking devotees or college sports conferences, may still have revenue expectations that telcos can't satisfy. The next several months will see much talk and negotiation on how to develop content partnerships that satisfy both service providers and content developers. I'm not sure how that will pan out, but the near-term success of telco TV, after the initial customer fascination period passes, may rely on telco's ability to have an answer to this simple question: What's next?

-Dan

Global IPTV subscriber round-up

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:33:36 -0500

Following our earlier posts on third quarter TV subscriber additions from AT&T, Verizon Communications, Chunghwa Telecom and others, here are the third quarter figures for several more carriers around the globe:

China Telecom added more than 550,000 IPTV subs since May and now has more than 1.5 million total.

France Telecom added 70,000 IPTV customers in France, about 211,000 pay TV users overall in Europe, and now has 1.74 million TV subscribers overall.

TeliaSonera added 23,000 IPTV customers to give it 450,000 subscribers in Scandinavia.

Poland's TPSA added 3,000 IPTV subscribers, giving it more than 57,000 total.

United Arab Emirates firm du reported it has passed 50,000 IPTV subscribers.

These numbers were reported by IPTV News and in third quarter earnings reports. More numbers specific to other international and U.S. carriers will be available later this week.

Verizon adds 233,000 FiOS TV customers

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:42:33 -0400

Verizon Communications declined to give AT&T the honor of being the fastest-growing U.S. telco TV provider during the third quarter. Verizon reported today that it added 233,000 TV customers during Q3, which was just 1,000 or so more than AT&T reported for the third quarter last week. Verizon's FiOS TV service also remains the most successful telco TV service in the land with 1.6 million subscribers.

AT&T last week provided the first clue that telecom industry watchers don't have to worry too much yet about slower TV subscriber growth, and Verizon confirmed the notion and the recent bullish stance of its own CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, by posting big TV numbers. The third quarter's additions totaled about 57,000 more than FiOS TV's subscriber additions of 176,000 in the second quarter. The FiOS TV customer base has more than doubled since this time last year.

Also, Verizon said in its earnings report that FiOS TV sales penetration increased to 19.7 percent, compared with 15.2 percent in last year's third quarter. The service is now available to about 8.2 million households.

For more:
FierceTelecom has the full earnings report

Sigma Designs teeters on DB's IPTV outlook

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:10:18 -0400

Semiconductor firm Sigma Designs saw Deutsche Bank cut its stock rating from "buy" to "hold" this week, on what Barron's Blogs said were concerns about the near-term IPTV outlook and Sigma's business opportunities with IPTV set-top box manufacturers. The DB analyst said IPTV rollouts throughout the world would slow within the next year, and specifically that AT&T's subscriber gains will slow.

That outlook might be hard for some to believe, as it comes on the heels on surprisingly strong IPTV subscriber gains by AT&T in the third quarter. There also have not yet been other indicators suggesting other IPTV launches will slow down, though at some point, the market obviously will be mature enough in some regions that rollouts will become fewer.

For more:
Barron's Blogs has this post

Euro telcos post IPTV sub increases

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:46:38 -0400

European telcos France Telecom and Spain's Telefonica, two of the world's largest and most influential IPTV carriers, continued to post strong subscriber additions to their IPTV services during the second quarter of 2008. France Telecom added 107,000 customers during the quarter, 76 percent higher than the same period last year, and now has about 1.54 million IPTV customers throughout France, Spain and Poland. The company is still targeting an eventual TV launch in the U.K. France Telecom competitor Free did not discuss its own IPTV numbers, but did say last week that it had added 93,000 ADSL customers (it counts TV as one of several value-added services it delivers over ADSL).

Telefonica reported a 22 percent increase in IPTV customers over last year, and addition of 22,513, to bring its total IPTV customer base to 576,558 (about 27,000 more than U.S. IPTV player AT&T). Meanwhile, elsewhere in Europe, BT added about 50,000 users to its live video streaming service in the U.K., bringing its total to about 300,000. BT has pledged a fiber-to-the-home deployment in some parts of the U.K., which will support expansion of TV and other services at a time when competitor France Telecom is readying its competitive invasion.

Worth noting is that both France Telecom and Telefonica appear to be experiencing a slowing in their IPTV additions, at least if the progress from the first quarter of this year to the second quarter is to be believed.

For more:
- read this report at Light Reading

Related articles:
France Telecom and Telefonica made our recent list of IPTV Players Worth Watching
Telefonica added 43,000 IPTV subscribers in the first quarter. Telefonica report

Telefonica adds 43,000 IPTV subs

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:31:49 -0400

Spain's Telefoncia acquired 43,000 new IPTV subscribers during the first quarter of 2008, and increased its IPTV penetration rate among its existing broadband customers to more than 11 percent, from just over 10 percent this time last year. Telefonica's impressive IPTV additions cam amid reports of strong subscriber gains by other European carriers, such as France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Belgacom.

The IPTV numbers helped Telefonica to a 22.4 percent increase in first quarter net income to $2.38 billion. Telefonica also saw revenue rise just over 1 percent to $21.5 billion.

For more:
- see this story at Light Reading Europe

Related articles:
- Telefonica's O2 mobile unit has become interested in IPTV, too. Telefonica report