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T-Online France is first commercial European launch with Microsoft IPTV Edition, offering 150 channels Rendering PiP in the encoder will take burden off Microsoft system
TV consumers in France have more IPTV choices than ever, as T-Online France launched IPTV through its Club Internet service in June. The service offering includes more than 150 broadcast channels, PVR with up to 50 hours of recording time, more than 1,000 VOD programmes and subscription VOD over DSL. Also notable is the fact that, although a number of European operators have announced they would be introducing IPTV services based upon the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition, T-Online is the first one characterising its deployment to be a commercial launch, as opposed to a trial.The T-Online France deployment delivers video to subscribers in two different formats: standard-definition television in MPEG-2 and low resolution video for picture-in-picture display in MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264). This approach is made possible by Harmonic’s DiviCom Electra 5000 video encoder. Other equipment in the deployment includes Intel processor-based IP1000- series standard-definition set-top boxes from Thomson and DSL network equipment from Lucent Technologies. Content protection and digital rights management are integral parts of the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform. Although T-Online was the primary systems integrator, Harmonic was an integral partner in the integration of this deployment. The system is designed to render the picture-in-picture video in the encoder; the intent being to reduce the video processing burden on the Microsoft TV system, which would reduce the number of servers in the network and lower the overall cost to the operator. Because France is considered to be the least regulated country in Europe with respect to IPTV, allowing deployments over unbundled local loops, T-Online France is launching into a competitive landscape that also includes Orange (formerly MaLigne TV, from France Telecom), Neuf Telecom, Telecom Italia’s AliceTV and Free, a company of the Iliad Group. According to Thierry Fautier, director of Telco and IPTV solutions at Harmonic, supplier of T-Online’s video headend, the T-Online user experience differentiates it from the rest. All of the IPTV services in France provide TV bundles and some others provide VOD, yet T-Online’s channel change time “stands in great contrast with Free’s service, which takes as long as ten seconds,” said Mr. Fautier, adding that “of course, Free’s service is free so people learn to live with that.” Other differentiators include TV and VOD programme search, picture-in-picture display and semi-transparent overlays in the user interface, making it more appealing to the subscriber. Overall, France has more than ten million ADSL broadband subscribers, yet T-Online considers it still to be an emerging market. Of about 700,000 IPTV triple-play subscribers, half subscribe to Pay TV services and the other half subscribe to Freebox. T-Online France expects about 50,000 subscribers by the end of 2006 and the company is very encouraged by the initial interest; especially given that its only marketing push has been to promote IPTV via email to its current broadband subscribers. Report by Steve Hawley |
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