UK 'failing to exploit' IPTV

Media analyst Screen Digest has conducted research which shows compared to the rest of Europe, the UK is lagging behind in exploiting IPTV.

Screen Digest says that IPTV in the UK is "so far behind the rest of Europe" with only one national service available - BT Vision.

Over 60 IPTV services operate across Europe, including eight services in France, four major operations in Spain, two in Italy and two in Germany.

The UK began 2007 with 54,000 IPTV customers, and although BT is now adding 2,000-3,000 customers per week, the staggered national roll-out of competitor Tiscali TV means that fewer than one in 100 UK households will be taking IPTV by the end of the year.

According to Screen Digest predictions, nearly one in 25 will have it in Spain and around one in ten French households will take IPTV by the beginning of 2008.

Screen Digest’s IPTV analyst Richard Broughton said: "The acceleration seen in the uptake of European IPTV this year is symptomatic of the success operators have had in marketing and targeting their services. BT can only be hoping that its service will emulate this success."