IPTV is definitely a slow growth market compared with some hypergrowth internet based businesses, so it’s difficult to see just how well some systems are doing until a considerable time has passed. And the IPTV system that Belgacom offers in its native Belgium, delivered using Siemens Surpass hardware and Myrio software was launched 18 months ago, so it’s time the company owned up to IPTV numbers.
The company says that it has reached 139,665 TV connected homes at the end of 2006 beating its own projections of 100,000 homes by year’s end according to CEO Didier Bellens speaking as this year’s results were announced.
But monthly ARPU from Belgacom TV subscribers has reached just €12.6 ($16.60) month, which shows what a huge gap there is between US pay TV services and some of the European countries. By the end of 2006 Belgacom’s IPTV service was in reach of 79.5% of the 10.4 million Belgian population.
While this may not be fast enough growth to prevent fixed voice price erosion at the Belgian group, another year of expansion at this rate will see it with almost as many customers as France Telecom has today. Although France Telecom has a number of rivals it also has a population of 6 times the size of Belgium to target, so it’s at least a creditable performance and we’ve noted no criticism of its ability to scale anywhere in print, something that must irk Microsoft and Alcatel.