[APS]

The point about the French network being spurred on by IP TV is also what is spurring on BT for its 21CN. It allows the telecon provider to make money by selling subscription or PPV content, e.g. digital TV, films, sport. This is the main way they will make money to cover the cost of the investment in a fast network right out to the end-user. It is normally argued that they generally don't and won't make much money at all out of providing cheap broadband access alone, in fact other companies use it as a loss-leader to sell other services, e.g. carphone wh, Sky, etc.

Virgin Media would seem to be in a difficult position here as they can already provide PPV and subscription TV via their normal cable service. There is little to gain in revenues for providing faster internet access until there is a major shift to IP based multimedia hardware, instead of using TV technology. At that point they will no doubt switch over, but whatever happens don't expect to be able to stream HD quality movies and TV etc for free - you are going to pay for them some way or another.

APS