A little line in the Deutsche Telekom figures out recently reveals that the long anticipated struggle to 1 million IPTV customers was missed last year. It not only has just 900,000 subs but that’s the total at the end of Q1 2010. The company says that it has connected 0.9 million Entertain customers, but has signed 1.2 million (130,000 of them in the last quarter) indicating that some 300,000 installations are still in the pipeline as of March 31st. That’s a hell of a backlog.
Deutsche Telekom in April said that it would delist from the NYSE, primarily so that it would save money and reduce its reporting requirements. It says that it would continue to remain transparent in its filings, but has immediately moved to obscure its IPTV customer base by removing detailed quarterly comparisons.
But CEO Ren’ Obermann addressed the Entertain IPTV services saying that this year it must become mass market, and followed this up with introductions of two all in one packages Entertain Comfort at €44.95 and Entertain Premium from €49.95 a month. The idea of these new offers is that they are bookable at any time, and can be terminated at a month’s notice and are designed to simplify the package structure.
These deals include a flat telephone rate for German calls to the fixed network, plus high-speed DSL and TV with about 70 channels. They also offer network PVR VoD with remote programming from a PC or mobile phone. In addition, Deutsche Telekom has added new TV channels from March which can be ordered directly through the Entertain menu a month at a time. Hopefully the reporting next quarter will make it clear if these maneuvers worked.