Iliad buys Alice, Free grows VOD sales

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:34:23 -0400

French broadband service provider Iliad, which already runs the Free IPTV service, has finalized a deal to buy Telecom Italia's Alice France unit for slightly more than $1.1 billion. News of the deal has been circulating for month, as Telecom Italia has been trying to streamline and reduce costs, while Iliad was trying to beef up in the competitive broadband market in France.

Meanwhile, Iliad's Free ISP unit said demand for its Freebox TV IPTV video-on-demand offering had surged this year, with sales of nearly 2.9 million VOD titles in the first half. Subscriber usage of VOD has tripled in the last two years, the company said.

For more:
- see this Dow Jones Newswires post at Easy Bourse
- check out this story at IPTV News

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Iliad makes of move on Alice, with TI's blessing

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:11:32 -0400

French broadband service provider Iliad is engaging in exclusive negotiations to acquire Telecom Italia's French network business, Liberty Surf Group SAS, aslo known as Alice France, for about $1.3 billion. Telecom Italia's is in the midst of a restructuring and recovery process, so the negtiations do not come as much of a surprise, though TI reportedly had been looking to sell for a while and had drawn interest from a number of parties.

The acquisition would give Iliad, which operates the Freebox TV service in the tightly-competitive French market, a larger base of new potential TV customers. Iliad currently is considered the third-ranked broadband service provider in France behind France Telecom and Neuf Cegetel.

For more:
- read this story at Light Reading

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IPTV players worth watching IPTV report
Telecom Italia also is facing more IPTV competition back home. Telecom Italia report

Freebox Tv

Iliad buys Alice, Free grows VOD sales

Iliad makes of move on Alice, with TI's blessing