The Italian ISP Tiscali is to cease its IPTV service Tiscali TV at the end of the year. In a letter to its existing subscribers, the company writes the service will be terminated and the subscription fee for the month of December will be waived. The letter also said carriage of the digital terrestrial Italian channels will cease on January 15. No reason was given for the termination of the service.
Tiscali TV was launched in mid-2007 and has so far attracted about 50,000 subscribers. It was the third entrant into the IPTV business following Fastweb TV and Telecom Italy (Alice Home TV). Initially only available in Cagliari, Roma and Milan, the service was subsequently also rolled out in Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Naples, Palermo and Turin. There were also plans to take it national.
Tiscali TV offered a number of personalised TV services but failed to contract programming from Sky Italia.
The decision will also throw the UK TV operations into question, where BSkyB recently walked away from a possible sale.
