BT has revealed that it has signed up more than 150,000 customers to BT Vision, its broadband TV service, just over a year after its launch.
The telecoms company said that the number of BT Vision subscribers had "accelerated in line with plans", with customer numbers "more than doubling" in the last three months of the year to 120,000.
BT, reporting results for the nine months to the end of December, added that it has so far signed up more than 150,000 to the service.
The company said this figure is in line with its projected targets, although rivals contend that BT had originally stated it wanted "hundreds of thousands" of BT Vision customers by the end of its first year of operation.
Ian Fogg, an analyst at JupiterResearch, said that BT had revised targets for the broadband TV service in July last year to around 100,000 and has managed to boost customers by making a BT Vision content package more attractive to customers.
BT Vision is a hybrid service offering broadband video on demand via a Freeview digital terrestrial TV set-top box.
"BT was struggling to hit targets but bundling the BT Vision set-top box free to new broadband customers in the run-up to Christmas has enabled it to really push subscriber numbers," Fogg said.
"This is, however, costly and the issue going forward is whether it will continue the approach in the long term or revert to a separate sales strategy again."
BT Vision was offered to customers in a range of packages which could cost as much as £60 for installation, £30 connection fee and in some instances a BT Home Hub costing between £30 and £50.
A revised strategy offered free installation and a free set-top box for new broadband customers, with a £30 connection fee.
Late last year Tiscali, which acquired and rebranded the broadband TV pioneer Home Choice said its customer base dropped to 36,000 from 45,000, although the company pledged to increase that number to 200,000 by the end of 2008.
Orange is planning to launch its own broadband TV service by the end of March.
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