With more than 60,000 IPTV customers, the operator recently upgraded its IPTV head end from TANDBERG Television to meet the demand for higher quality and less bandwidth, part of the Ericsson group.
New video-processing platforms, such as TANDBERG's iPlex, coupled with a push to increase bandwidth through VDSL, are needed to make IPTV grow into a mass market, says Felix Graf, Swisscom's head of TV & Portal.
Great video, happy customers
Indeed, the challenge now for telcos that have entered the television business is to develop a TV offering sufficiently different from existing TV content that cable, satellite, and online competitors may offer, says Ray Dogra, global IPTV lead with consultancy Accenture.
Ensuring high video quality is key. Offering a bundle where video, web and mobile devices interact can also be powerful, Dogra says.
"It could be something as simple as using your mobile phone to set the video recorder remotely," he says.
Keeping it simple
Swisscom has been upgrading its broadband network to offer download speeds of up to 30Mbps, while also adding new channels that appeal to a broad audience. Today, Bluewin TV boasts 120-plus TV channels, 80-plus radio channels and more than 500 movies on demand.
The company carefully avoided technology hype in its marketing material. "We never talk about IPTV - we only market the experience," Graf says. "We tell our customers, 'you can watch Barcelona Real (soccer matches) live, order movies out of our large library, and watch them whenever you like.'
Mixing old and new
Swisscom's video-on-demand service has been highly successful, but the operator is staying away from other interactive features for now - including advertising tailor-made for IPTV. From an advertiser's point of view, Bluewin TV's customer base is currently still too small for that, Graf says.
"Today, we are concentrating on providing a strong TV service," he says. "The people we serve still lean back in the sofa, they don't lean forward."
Swisscom also decided to publish a printed TV guide that all its customers receive in the mail for free. It repeats the information available on the online platform.
An unnecessary expense? Well, it works, Graf says.
"Families love to sit around the kitchen table and look at the magazine," he says. "That's been one of the main drivers for our TV growth."
