From the start of the new season on 11 August 2006, Bundesliga on Premiere powered by T-Com was scheduled for distribution as IPTV over Deutsche Telekom’s new high-speed VDSL network. Premiere planned to show all 612 matches in Germany’s first and second divisions live, individually and in its conference feed.
Reception required a T-Com VDSL connection and a media receiver capable of delivering digital television signals in real time over IP. Coverage included live stadium links, expert discussions, interviews, a statistics data channel and a highlights channel. Premiere planned to transmit the day’s leading match in HDTV.
Premiere chairman Georg Kofler positioned IPTV as a third major delivery route alongside cable and satellite and promoted a single connection for television, internet and telephony. The Bundesliga package cost €9.95 per month, with early-booking credits available until 21 August 2006. Premiere’s other packages were also scheduled to become available over Telekom’s VDSL network in August at the same subscription prices as cable and satellite delivery, billed through the telephone account.
The initial VDSL deployment covered around three million households in Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich and Nuremberg, plus Offenbach and Fürth. Telekom planned to increase the total to approximately six million connected households by early 2007. Premiere reported that half of its subscriber households already had DSL and 82 percent had internet access.
