hi all,i was told that homechoice wil be soon available in the whole uk.
and they will be using high definition too,and iptv technology.
and video on demad,with 1000 tv and film channels.

i think this will be better option than sky.

Um - ok who told you that? It's looking more and more likely that Homechoice as a brand will be slowly wound down now and any nationwide launch will be through Tiscali - who now own Homechoice's parent company.

As for the other stuff (HDTV, more channels etc.) these have been promised by Homechoice for quite a while now. I don't think anyone's really holding their breath waiting for them....

Quite a few of us have been told February... (but they've never said if it's 2007, 2008, 2009...)

On-demand TV company Homechoice hopes to reach 10 million UK homes by the end of 2006 and may merge with Sky, according to company insiders.

"Plans are afoot to roll out beyond London," Homechoice press officer Barney Hooper told vnunet.com today. "We are hoping to reach about 10 million homes by the end of the year, though I can't say yet which cities we'll cover."

Since its relaunch in 2004, Homechoice has built a customer base of 45,000 in the London area for its TV-over-internet (IPTV) service. The package combines broadband, home phone and digital TV. Monthly subscriptions start at £17.99.

Special deals with networks including CNN and the BBC allow subscribers to view movies, music videos and other programmes on demand.

Subscriber numbers are dwarfed by Sky's 8.1 million and NTL/Telewest's 5.5 million. Homechoice may be looking to attract a big-name buyer as it faces stiff competition from the telco giants.

BT launches its BT Vision IPTV service this autumn, offering broadband, on-demand digital TV and a Freeview personal video recorder. Orange, which now owns ISP Wanadoo, has also confirmed plans to launch a home TV plat form.

Cable providers are also joining the IPTV act, with Telewest offering some on-demand content as part of its Teleport package.

Industry rumours have long mooted a Sky takeover of Homechoice. Press reports have suggested price tags from £50m to £200m.

A takeover could benefit both companies. Sky could use Homechoice to achieve its all-important IPTV presence, and a buy-out could stem Homechoice's losses.

The company's present owner, Video Networks, made losses of £46.5m in 2004, up from £1.5m the year before. Last November it appointed investment bank CSFB to assess its options.

Sky bought broadband provider Easynet for £211m in October. If it buys Homechoice, it could merge Easynet and Homechoice to form a larger business.

Hooper predicts a bright future for IPTV. "I think the services will get faster and cheaper, with more sophisticated technologies like TV through your phone line coming in the next couple of years," he said.

"Most of Europe's big telecoms companies are looking to launch a TV service, or have launched one already. There are thriving services in France and Italy, and Germany's just getting started

Its a bit old that article now and pre the Tiscali take over of HC.

If you like the idea of VoD then HC is the best on the market (having done loads of research!). However you do have to have their Big Pack to get most of the VoD content and the prices do go up after the initial first 3 months. They are kinda looking kinda pricey now.....
Last edited by dazbear : 28-01-2007 at 14:16

Just give them a call every month and whinge about the lack of progress. I've yet to pay a month full price...

hehe - yeah I am on my 4 months free, but looking to move in 5 weeks and not sure I want to get back into another 12month contract with them.

hmmm

Hmmmm.

VoD over cable isn't IPTV either. The article feels like it's written by IPTV fanboys. Until fibre to home or at very least VDSL 2 are widespread cable, DTB and DTH satellite will be the way to go with IPTV for VoD or where the above aren't available only.

Once the bandwidth is there cool things should happen but there'll certainly be broadcast over traditional means for a while
Last edited by BBRealist : 28-01-2007 at 15:00

Lack of progress in what area? Always up for a moan me. I love their replay function.

They've been saying new services/channels will be coming for a while, but nothing new has happened, they have only lost content.

HC had planned to go to other major cities but the couldn't get the funding. They reckoned that networks are under-used and expencive to build . BT really don't help either. They dropped the idea early last year. The plan became:- linking up with other network owners as a content/technology provider.

They really working on HDTV though, and not the stripped down Sky version either.

There's a very interesting document Homechoice wrote to Ofcom somewhere - I can't seem to find it on Google at the moment - the problems of network equality with BT vs Homechoice (or AN Other LLU provider).

And a REALLY good article here about IPTV and general pipe costs - basically it's shockingly expensive to roll out these networks... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02...ost/page3.html