moneysupermarket.com comments on the launch of Tiscali TV Service

Commenting on the launch of Tiscali TV Service, Jason Lloyd, head of broadband, moneysupermarket.com said: "I think Tiscali is trying to fly under the radar a little with this launch, mainly because it wants to avoid the current battle between the bigger triple play players, namely Sky and Virgin Media. Unlike these other names it has limited UK availability, which does not make it a truly credible alternative to Sky, Virgin Media or even BT Vision. It seems to be aiming the TV bundle squarely at trying to take a share from the 12 million Freeview customers who have a set top box but haven't considered the benefit of adding broadband and/or a phone product together to deliver significant cost savings. This could be a smart move.

“Offering a triple play deal of 2Mb/unlimited broadband, free weekend calls to UK landlines and the Tiscali TV base pack of 30 digital TV channels and 100 hours of on demand content for £19.99 a month is very attractive for consumers, especially as this comes without a monthly line rental fee. This will make it the cheapest triple play deal on the market at the moment and I'm sure that this will attract many price conscious consumers to their offer. However, if these people look a little closer and compare this deal to the Sky See Surf Speak 3 for £15 deal, (total cost £26 a month with line rental) it is not that great a saving. With Tiscali customers get 30 digital TV channels and free weekend landline calls, whereas with Sky they can get 68 digital TV channels and free landline calls anytime for £6 a month more. It seems a small price to pay for a whole deal more.

"Looking at the Tiscali offer in more detail, it plays heavily on the fact that its video on demand service will be able to deliver the most content ever, with over 6,000 hours of content. However, I think Tiscali needs to be careful here as it will find that as a content business Sky will always be able to offer more on demand content than anyone else and I suspect that the Tiscali figure will soon be superseded by Sky Anytime. Similarly, the inclusion of the offering of a PVR with a 160Gb hard drive is nothing new.

"Overall the launch of the Tiscali TV Service is good for consumers as it delivers more choice and makes the bundled market more competitive. It would be very foolish of its competitors to underestimate Tiscali launching into the triple play arena, as the former Homechoice (TiVo) technology on which the platform is built is strong and easy to use. Add to this that Tiscali is one of the cleverest marketers in the broadband market, and I expect that it will take a bit of the Freeview market share and possibly pick up some disaffected Sky and Virgin Media customers who don't want to pay for premium content."