France Telecom ushered in a new era for its MaLigne TV service last month when the company moved beyond redistributing satellite TV bouquets across its DSL lines and became a content aggregator in its own right. On February 1st the company introduced ‘Le Bouquet TV’, a selection of 30 popular general and thematic channels that will be available to all MaLigne TV subscribers, via DSL, regardless of whether they sign up to a Pay TV package from France Telecom’s existing content partners, the French DTH satellite platforms TPS and CANALSAT.

Satellite bouquets

Previously, a new subscriber paid the MaLigne TV subscription fee (Eu8 instead of Eu16 per month during a special promotion in February) in return for immediate access to the MaLigne TV user interface and France Telecom’s VOD package of movies and classic television series. Consumers then chose whether to buy a Pay TV subscription from TPS or CANALSAT, each of whom provides a specially tailored multi-channel TV offer for the DSL service.

The new France Telecom content package is designed to compete with the free-to-air DTT offering, TNT (Télévision Numérique pour Tous), but is broadcast over DSL access networks. In one way, it is also competitive to France Telecom’s existing content partners, giving consumers an alternative to their pay bouquets, yet it could also benefit the satellite operators if it keeps people away from TNT and draws them into an environment where they can watch the new France Telecom channels and VOD for a relatively small Pay TV subscription (i.e. the access fee to MaLigne TV), and retain the option of upgrading to a ‘premium’ Pay TV bouquet from TPS or CANALSAT.

MPEG-4 Part 10

The most notable technical aspect of the new channel offering is that France Telecom is launching exclusively in MPEG-4 Part 10, the next-generation compression format that squeezes video into half the bandwidth needed with MPEG-2. Existing broadcast TV services from TPS and CANALSAT, and the France Telecom VOD services, are currently delivered in MPEG-2.

In order to receive Le Bouquet TV, MaLigne TV customers require an MPEG-4 capable set-top box. France Telecom has been shipping these since November. These receivers contain MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 decoders so they can decode the new Le Bouquet channels and all existing services, and they are also hybrid DSL/DTT devices that can take content off France Telecom’s wired network or through a rooftop aerial.

We understand that France Telecom wants to offer all its 30 channels via its DSL network but if this is not possible for a particular channel - perhaps because of rights issues - the DTT tuner/receiver means customers should still be able to access the digital channel off-air (assuming it is part of the TNT digital terrestrial bouquet). These hybrid boxes are being supplied by Sagem today with Thomson also selected as a preferred set-top supplier.

France Telecom believes DSL delivery provides important advantages for Le Bouquet TV including more options for interactivity and personalisation. This approach contrasts the plans unveiled by the UK incumbent, BT, which says it will rely on Freeview (the UK’s free-to-air digital terrestrial bouquet) for the broadcast TV component of the IPTV service it is scheduled to launch this summer. It is understood France Telecom’s ‘Le Bouquet TV’ will also include exclusive France Telecom channels, marking yet another evolution of the MaLigne TV service.

Le Bouquet is a significant landmark for one of Europe’s most successful IPTV services and the company expects uptake to accelerate significantly from February.

MaLigne TV launched in 2003 as part of France Telecom’s strategy - shared by telcos worldwide - to offer triple-play and also avoid customers viewing them as just an access line provider. Helped by relatively low Pay TV penetration (compared to the rest of Europe) and the increasingly rare position of two competing satellite providers (TPS and CANALSAT, who look set to merge), the service grew to 75,000 subscribers in its first year (Q4 2004) and added another 25,000 by the start of 2005 and a further 100,000 during the rest of 2005.

230 channels

Today the service includes over 200 live ‘premium’ television channels, 30 ‘free-to-air’ channels (free after paying the ‘access fee’ to the MaLigne TV platform) and a VOD offer that will soon grow to 1,000 movies, including a large back-catalogue.

Planned service introductions include Personal Video Recorder, so users can record programmes in their home and pause live television for up to one hour. France Telecom is also expected to introduce some form of HDTV in time for the World Cup (there is speculation about whether this will be a commercial service launch or trials). Multi-room television is scheduled for introduction in the second half of this year.

TPS or CANALSAT?

Viewers accessing the service before February were met with a user interface that provided access to their chosen television bouquet (TPS or CANALSAT) or the France Telecom VOD package, branded ‘24/24 Video’. If accessing live television, they enter what is effectively a portal controlled by the appropriate content provider and this contains the TPS or CANALSAT branding and ‘look-and-feel’. TPS provides an interactive TV guide with two pages of 20 video thumbnails and the CANAL guide is similar.

MaLigne TV is now on its fifth generation of VOD interface, having taken account of user experience during the first two years of service. One of the lessons learned is that many viewers only buy films that are being actively promoted, prompting MaLigne to advertise three films prominently instead of one and give easy access to another 24 movies of different genres. Since it launched, MaLigne also expanded its movie categories to 12 and is now back down to six, suggesting that French consumers are wary of too many choices.

Easy access

France Telecom has managed to provide easy access to around 100 films without the need to drill down into submenus and this is a figure other operators could find hard to improve on using current technologies. HDTV promises more exciting user interfaces and, potentially, the ability to put more films within easy reach.

Another lesson that has been integrated into MaLigne TV is the need for a ‘ticker’ application that represents ‘please wait, something is happening’. Consumers like the reassurance that their television has got the message when they ask it to do something. Since launch, France Telecom has also become more explicit in explaining what is required in order to access a function or service.

Thus, for example, a link for more information has evolved into a request to press ‘OK’ for more information.

France Telecom acts as ‘front of house’ for the television offer and provides a full customer care function. However, all content related issues relating to the TPS or CANALSAT bouquets are referred to the satellite operators themselves.

From February 1st France Telecom took responsibility for content issues within Le Bouquet TV as well as its VOD service.

Maligne TV currently boasts a 10 million home footprint, which includes all of France’s major cities. Current expansion plans focus on smaller cities and large towns.

The service benefits from France Telecom’s recent determination to upgrade its networks to ADSL2+ and in the core network it recently transitioned from ATM to IP to make multicasting easier, as well as gain access to cheaper equipment.

Distributed VOD

While Le Bouquet TV will be delivered from GlobeCast’s headend, the existing MaLigne TV VOD offer originates from a France Telecom super-headend in Paris that feeds the capital city and a distributed VOD network that includes a further 15 server sites. Each movie is multicast to each VOD site.

The core network has coped easily with the introduction of television and what technical hurdles have been confronted have been in the last mile, between the DSLAM and the home. France Telecom’s installation engineers have had to solve some interesting puzzles, including intermittent interference caused by neon lights on nearby buildings and disused home phone lines of significant length (like to the top of an apartment building) acting as an aerial to disturb signals. Removing the disused wires resulted in perfect reception. Do-it-yourself home phone wiring has been another inconvenience but overall the service has proved a successful self installation, plug-and-play offering.

World Cup boost

MaLigne TV is one of the largest and fastest growing IPTV offerings in Europe, with each Christmas period (covering mid-December to mid-January) proving particularly fruitful for subscription sales. Consumers can subscribe via retail outlets or the Internet, with services usually available within seven days of ordering. Like all Pay TV operators in Europe, France Telecom expects this year’s World Cup soccer finals in Germany to boost uptake of the service.