The importance of a final paragraph must not be underestimated...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...271844,00.html

"The turmoil in the broadband market has encouraged Tiscali to appoint Goldman Sachs to pursue a merger with Video Networks, which operates the Homechoice television and broadband service in London."

As a ex customer ot tiscali i just have to say they were the worst supplyer of broadband i have ever had with there lack of broadband speeds i had.
(tell you the truth i dont think i had any sort of speed in the end i was using my 56k modem)

so ive got one thing to say!!!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

tw

Mmm interesting i hope someone buys Homechoice Soon, itd be sad to lose it.

"Broadband Speeds depend on the quality of the phone line, not the provider of the Broadband, if one cant give you 8meg on your BT line then none of them can" - Confuscious - a BT Employee friend of mine.

hmm - this would be interesting from my point of view.

Tiscali is the only LLU who's unbundled my exchange - so if they were to merge to Homechoice and then roll-out Homechoice across their LLU network, I'll actually be able to get it!

On the Tiscali front though - I think they're also a provider who's 'stood' still for the last year or so. When I last checked their services (about a month ago) they still only offer 2Mb max service over their LLU network. When, I think, ever other ISP, including BT, are now offering up to 8Mb at least, it kinda implies a lack of development there.

So, maybe they've been waiting for this to happen and then upgrade their network all at once rather than do it now and then have to do it again in a few months?

From the comparison on their website it looks as if they offer 8Mb:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/br...omparison.html

If this all goes ahead it can only be a good thing, Homechoice need to go national and they need the money to do it.

in my opinion bt are guilty of the same practice as waterboards and it is all coming home now

I'm sure I remember a chap by the name of Peter We saying how Homechoice would survive all of this. Seems unlikely now if this is true, hope for you guys' sake Tiscali don't completely gut the service.

Well its described as a "merger" not a buy-out. So hopefully we wont see a drastic change in direction or a thinning out of the service.

Hrm ntl and Telewest was described as a 'merger' but ntl pull all the strings.

Actually I was quoting someone else who said the only survivers will be ISP's who can provide a video service/triple play. Content providers are simple not interested in any more ISP's contracts because its not worth the effort. So if ISP's want to compete they will need to deal with one of the existing providers and only HC is possible. One way or the other the HC service will continue - that will equal to its survival AFAIC.

You miss the key point, ISP's are ten-a-penny me-too companies, they can all merge into one or two and it will make no difference. Tiscali needs HC more that the other way round, they won't 'gut the service' they will expand it to their customers to add value and therefore profit.

Tiscali in my experience are pretty bad, a change of name to Homechoice would help them.

Really? Tiscali UK makes money, HC doesn't.

Tiscali also boast a pretty impressive expansion in their user base recently thanks to heavy duty advertising. While you and I may think of Tiscali retail in a bad light the average punter does not.

It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens, though I'd say that HC badly need Tiscali's money after failing to raise cash for a wider LLU rollout. With the advent of Sky almost certainly firing VOD down Sky Broadband lines the Homechoice USP is reduced.

Weren't Video Networks looking for someone to buy them quite actively last year, and continue to be a loss making operation?

You can but hope that Tiscali just take the tech and leave the Homechoice service alone, I doubt you guys want to be calling Tiscali in India for tech support.

On the upside though while Tiscali retail is generally poor Tiscali Wholesale is a far more professional operation by all accounts

That withstanding neither Tiscali nor anyone else needs to take an interest in Homechoice for anything bar their experience with TV over DSL. Off the shelf solutions are now available.

So, you work for Tiscali Wholesale

There is no 'off shelf solution' for TV over DSL. You are obviously a network/IT person and see the problem as simply a technical issue. Its not, its a content contract issue. Content providers do not want to provide content to any more ISP's, they are happy for them to be consolidated down to a couple of big companies. Being a pure ISP has no profitable future, its a baked bean stack-them-high-and-sell-'em-cheap business.

Tiscali's only USP is its terrible customer service, once price is no longer an issue (all companies have the same costs) then it too will be history.

If Video Networks balance sheet showed more black and less red I'd agree with you. As it is they'll shortly have 100% coverage overlap with a certain BSkyB's triple play and probably with BT's triple play as well. I'm not convinced they've managed to get enough customers or get a tight enough grip on them to stop at least some from jumping ship.

Ah who knows what the future will hold. Regardless of their USP HC still lose out where it most counts, on making money. I'm sure that they'll exist in one form or another but as far as it being as Video Networks I'm not optimistic at all, quite the opposite they need to be bought before they bust.

If all other ISPs apart from Homechoice and a very select few others are doomed why are the other ISPs still operating and those publically traded still having their shares purchased?

For all this USP stuff these pile it high and sell it cheap ISPs make money and I'm not sure why content companies would care who they give their content to so long as the price is right.

Just my point of view you understand as someone who considers the point of businesses is to make money for their shareholders, so long as that money comes in who cares whether it's from an ISP or a telco or a conventional broadcaster? To sell my content to 2 companies at a million pounds a month say each, or to 4 at 3/4ths of a million each..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/03/video_networks/

Hasn't come to much yet. Hope they've a tad more than 34,000 customers of 2.4 million covered signed up now, even the cablecos manage a penetration of 30%.

Oh and I'm no relation to Tiscali in any way, shape or form, no more so than you work for Video Networks.

ISP's make money?? for how long, another year possibly?

Content companies will not deal with ISP's, at any price.
Read this
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06...v_vod_content/
And these articles
http://www.digitaltx.tv/blog/


You are an ex-NTL employee though and now, presumably, working for a ISP of some sort. You should explain and mention your vested interests when making comments.

As for me -
I have never worked for any ISP, cable, Sky company or know anyone who does. I also have no shares or other financial interest in them whatsoever.

No vested interest here at all, I actually work for a content company.

I'm flattered that you saw the need to look through my post history though.

You and I will agree to disagree, as will industry analysts. If they were so negative about the prospects of ISPs in such a short term I'd expect their share prices to be virtually non-existent as the companies would be worthless.

Evidently Carphone Warehouse disagree, you appear to think their investment is a waste of time as they have no IPTV.

There will always be a market for a dumb fat pipe until content is 100% controlled by those who want to distribute it from them to customer, which is unlikely to happen for far longer than just one year.

Who says ntl pull all the strings? Take a look at the senior management structure and tell me who is left from ntl?

I think you will find that ex Telewest hold key positions with others coming in from outside.

Zen

ntl ways of working imposed on Telewest call centre and engineering staff, TW HQ closing in favour of ntl HQ, Telewest staff taking the majority of the redundancies. That's what I meant by strings being pulled by the ntl side.

Not to mention that it was described as a merger but was infact a buyout of Telewest's share capital largely with cash by ntl but with some shares resulting in it being described as a merger.

Not that it mattered majorly the big shareholders were common between the two companies.

Though what your post had to do with the subject in hand I'm not entirely sure about, guess you just felt the need to try and correct me