We've doubled IPTV viewers, says provider

Inuk has doubled the number of IPTV viewers in the UK with more than 40,000 joining its Freewire TV service, it has claimed.

The company's growth since September is due almost entirely to deals with more than 40 universities to supply broadband, telephone and television via its closed IP network to students' bedrooms.

In the third quarter of last year Tiscali TV said it had 36,000 customers. BT Vision has more than 150,000 but is a digital terrestrial-IPTV hybrid.

Inuk chief executive Marcus Liassides said: "As an IPTV platform we get real-time reporting on every single one of our customers and the data is throwing up some very interesting patterns and habits of student TV viewers."

The company is now planning a residential launch in partnership with Cable & Wireless which it says can reach "the majority" of UK homes. Liassides said it wanted to capitalise on the analogue switch-off.