Carphone Warehouse 'backs' Tiscali TV

Carphone Warehouse has given a tentative backing to Tiscali TV following its acquisition of the internet service provider.

The company recently completed its £236m takeover of Tiscali's UK assets after getting the go-ahead from the European Commission.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone revealed that his company is currently evaluating its options for expanding Tiscali TV.

Dunstone accepted that he has previously been sceptical about the merits of Carphone Warehouse entering the digital TV industry.

However, he added that there are no immediate plans to "switch off" Tiscali's IPTV service, which currently has around 50,000 customers.

The new ownership situation could, in fact, offer a strong opportunity for Tiscali, as Carphone Warehouse is currently the second biggest broadband provider in the UK.

In theory, this could open up not only new subscribers for the service, but also a greater number of enabled exchanges to expand the network footprint.

However, Tiscali's director of TV Simon Hunt told Digital Spy last month that Tiscali TV is "pretty well rolled out" at the moment.

"Considering the number of exchanges we have enabled, we are currently available in ten million homes, depending on how much bandwidth is available in those homes," he said.

"This covers Scotland to the South of England. The only place we are not available is Wales and Northern Ireland."

Another important factor may be that Tiscali's network footprint is also TV-enabled, which ensures a superior service quality for the customer.

Executives at both businesses will now look at ways to boost the profitability of Tiscali TV, which could include a possible alliance with the BBC, ITV and BT joint venture Project Canvas.

On this issue, Dunstone added: "We might say Canvas isn't the answer and we will go and reinvigorate Tiscali TV."