Deutsche Telekom has warned that Germany is reaching market saturation. Announcing year-end subscriber numbers to its T-Entertain IPTV service of 852,000, the company said that against a background of strong market penetration, market growth would begin to slow. “Deutsche Telekom may not be able to convince the customers sufficiently of the benefits of the new innovative products and services or raise acceptance among customers. Sales of IPTV services such as Entertain will also be influenced by the prevalence of cable TV connections in Germany ad a wider range of free-to-air channels than in other countries.”
Telekom hopes to boost the take-up of T-Entertain by expanding the number of HD channels available on the IPTV network during 2010.
The number of IPTV subscribers outside of Germany, notably in Southern and Eastern Europe, more than doubled in 2009 to reach 400,000.
In Greece, Telekom-owned OTE reported 16,000 subscribers to its IPTV service launched earlier this year. In Hungary, Magyar Telekom more than doubled its IPTV numbers to 68,000 from 28,000 one year ago. Slovakia also performed well, increasing from 36,000 at the start of the year to 62,000 at the end of 2009. The launch of Magio TV’s DTH service will extend coverage across the country.
Croatia added 100,000 to reach 236,000.
Three years after the launch of the Dolce satellite service in Romania OTE’s Romanian subsidiary has now received the go-ahead in 2009 to launch an IPTV product in ten cities around the country.
