Homechoice to sell IPTV wholesale
Homechoice, the video-on-demand and LLU broadband provider in London (and Stevenage), is to start to offer it's on-demand video over broadband services wholesale. This would mean that other Internet service providers could offer their broadband customers on-demand TV and music programmes without having to develop the hardware and content agreements themselves.
This would have been a perfect move for Homechoice 2 years ago, but they were insistent on doing everything themselves. Now it appears that they have been unable to source the investment required for them to build their own LLU nationwide network, and need to get some new funds in sharpish.
This is a shame, because the Homechoice service has massive potential, and is easily the best video-on-demand service I've seen (and I'm not just saying that because I used to work there!). The Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) is very fluid and intuitive and some of the content is great.
The downside of the service has always revovled around three factors:
1) Availability - as they had to use their own LLU network, Homechoice was always very limited on the number of users it could sign up.
2) Content - there were some great items of content available, including some of the films, comedy series, and music videos, but there was a lot of dross too. The on-demand content wasn't refreshed often enough, and soon felt stale to the ongoing users (a bit like Sky Movies in that way - you've seen everything you want to see, and there is nothing new).
3) Technology - without a doubt, Homechoice used some good technologies, but it never quite hung together. The broadband was up-and-down like the proverbial tart's knickers, and the set-top box failure rate was very worrying.
Overall though, the service does still have potential, and it could still be saved. I hope it works out, if only for the good guys who are still working there....
This would have been a perfect move for Homechoice 2 years ago, but they were insistent on doing everything themselves. Now it appears that they have been unable to source the investment required for them to build their own LLU nationwide network, and need to get some new funds in sharpish.
This is a shame, because the Homechoice service has massive potential, and is easily the best video-on-demand service I've seen (and I'm not just saying that because I used to work there!). The Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) is very fluid and intuitive and some of the content is great.
The downside of the service has always revovled around three factors:
1) Availability - as they had to use their own LLU network, Homechoice was always very limited on the number of users it could sign up.
2) Content - there were some great items of content available, including some of the films, comedy series, and music videos, but there was a lot of dross too. The on-demand content wasn't refreshed often enough, and soon felt stale to the ongoing users (a bit like Sky Movies in that way - you've seen everything you want to see, and there is nothing new).
3) Technology - without a doubt, Homechoice used some good technologies, but it never quite hung together. The broadband was up-and-down like the proverbial tart's knickers, and the set-top box failure rate was very worrying.
Overall though, the service does still have potential, and it could still be saved. I hope it works out, if only for the good guys who are still working there....
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