Europe's Carriers Defend Turf

TV in Europe is about to change. Amid a flood of heavyweight companies pushing products that deliver Web content and services to the TV set, telecommunications operators in the UK, France and Germany are defending their turf by beefing up their services.

The result is a battle for content and viewers in Europe that could mean billions in revenue for the winners. That's because Europe is a fertile market for these types of services, still lacking large dominant players that are able to cross borders. European countries such as the UK and France were early pioneers in delivering basic television programming over broadband, in a service similar to cable called Internet protocol television, or IPTV. For that reason, there are nearly twice as many paying IPTV subscribers in Europe compared with the US.