Tiscali (BIT:TIS) has taken a further step to expanding Homechoice, the former London-based IPTV provider, in to a nationwide service. The Italian ISP has made Tiscali TV, its product offering around 80 channels over broadband to a lounge set-top box, available to much of the UK. Tiscali TV had only been available in London, Surrey and Hertfordshire since Tiscali acquired the innovative local VOD supplier in 2006, boasting just 50,000 customers. Reuters: “The Tiscali TV service will be available outside London for the first time, becoming available in central, north and north west England while locations in the north east and Scotland will be added from October ... It expects to reach 10 million homes by the end of the year and, of those, it hopes to sign up at least half a million to its internet-based TV service.” Tiscali is shaping up to be a possible contender to BT Vision in the UK IPTV stakes. It last month struck a deal to carry Setanta Sport’s package, with a third of live Premiership soccer matches, and was earlier in reported talks to carry Sky’s basic channels, which are still unavailable on Virgin Media. Its offering comes with on-demand features and is own, Virgin 1-like C1 channel, comprised of US imports.

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