@ IPTV World Forum: Orange Keeps Fire Burning For UK IPTV Service

Finally put on hiatus in November after delays of two years, could Orange’s near-dead UK IPTV ambitions be jump-started again? Speaking at IPTV World Forum on Wednesday, Orange IPTV director Francois Seligmann said: “We are making some surveys on that. As you know, the UK market is a very competitive one. Today we are surveying the public on this market, and I can’t say any more than that.”

Orange first announced the UK roll-out in June 2006, then promised it would launch in 2007. Last year, Orange told us it would launch in 2008, but UK CEO Tom Alexander canned the idea in November, admitting it’s too similar BT (NYSE: BT) Vision, which itself has struggled on adoption. but he didn’t close the door on the scheme completely, hinting there could be more investment in mobile TV instead. I asked Orange UK exactly what the “survey” includes, but no word so far.

Orange’s ADSL TV service is popular across its European markets and has more than 2.1 million subscribers in France alone. But the French market is leaving the UK behind: Orange has an advanced three screen strategy, allowing its customers to watch its channels seamlessly across PC, TV and mobile.

IPTV has simply failed take off in the UK like elsewhere – 20 percent of French households had IPTV in Q408, Britain sits at thirteenth in the world IPTV table, with just 418,000 subscribers. BT , Virgin Media and Italian ISP Tiscali have all struggled to win digital TV market share from BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) and its dominance must surely put off anyone considering joining the fray. Tiscali bought British IPTV provider Homechoice in 2006, and rolled out the service to most of the UK in 2007, but its plans to reach 10 million customers have since been abandoned amid failed attempts to sell off its UK ISP business

But the BBC’s Canvas initiative (BBC Trust rulings permitting) could very quickly make the UK Europe’s leading IPTV nation by providing a cheap, free-to-air option combining BBC and other PSB content, as well as commercial programming.

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