The jewel in the crown

Interview with Stéfane France, Director of International Television for Orange

To launch and maintain a successful IPTV service in today's cutthroat pay-TV markets is no mean feat. To become the world's most successful IPTV operator, with operations across a swathe of Europe and beyond now totalling 1.535mn subs (including becoming a part of the family for 1.389mn French households) since the launch of Orange TV in 2003, is nothing short of brilliance. France is recognised globally as the engine-room of IPTV in Europe, and it is the country's former incumbent which plays a star role.

Stéfane France, Director of International Television for Orange, names simplicity as one of the reasons for this success, saying that by trying to make the service very simple and easy to use, and making it innovative but as simple as possible, it will appeal to a wider section of the population, both to its grandparents and their online-savvy grandchildren. A one-price approach through its triple-play strategy also bolsters operational continuity, with voice, Internet and TV all delivered under the one brand, he adds. But the main reason is innovation, according to Stéfane, who says that upon launching IPTV in 2003, the company became the first to offer the service in Europe, the first to offer catch-up TV, the first to extend distribution to mobile TV, and the first to propose a hybrid IPTV/satellite service.

Orange also aims to deliver content to all three screens of TV, PC and mobile, with Mr France saying that every time the company does something new on the TV, it thinks about how to deliver this to the other platforms. Exclusive content and features also play their role, he adds, citing the Orange football Saturday night offering, which enables consumers to exclusively follow Ligue 1 action on their TV, PC and mobiles, and interactivity options to access real-line match stats such as goal count, attempts, corners and cards; and the Orange Cinéma Series, offering six premium channels of films and TV series, as well as on-demand titles and exclusive content from Warner Bros. International Television and HBO, and the ability to transfer downloaded content onto mobile devices.

Quality of Service is inevitably named as another reason for the success of Orange TV, with Stéfane saying that people simply don't accept picture quality inferior to other pay-TV services such as satellite. He adds that Orange itself is moving into the satellite world in order to offer triple-play services to all of the population. Moving on to plans for the future, he says that the company is looking to build bridges between the TV, PC and mobile, and aims to go even further with convergence between the three.

The operator is also developing its own fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network, giving access to much more bandwidth and enabling greater forays into high-definition, added-value services and whole-home distribution (AT&T recently launching a notable example of the latter), and Mr France says that they are now beginning to switch users over to the new network, although it is not nationwide yet. On words for the UK, the only information available was that trials continue, so we shall have to wait and see when and how that nut gets cracked.