In the first ever survey of the on-demand audiovisual services in Europe, the European Audiovisual Observatory has identified 696 services from 366 different providers that were operational at the end of December 2008.

The United Kingdom had the most services (145), followed by France (106) and Italy (93). More than half these services were delivered via the internet, 30% on a DSL network (in the IPTV mode), 7% on cable and less than 3% by satellite. At the moment, the only on-demand services delivered by digital terrestrial television are available on the Top Up TV platform in the United Kingdom.

The Observatory’s survey does not take account of services distributed on mobile telephones (which have proliferated thanks to the success of the Apple iPhone) or websites devoted solely to the provision of information, trailers or adult programmes. Nor does it consider the channels set up by commercial undertakings in the context of video sharing sites such as YouTube or Dailymotion.

Despite some significant service closures (especially those caused by the shutdown of the Tiscali Italia platform on 31 December 2008), the number of new services has not stopped growing in 2009, so it is justified to assume that there are currently more than 700 services operating in Europe.

Story filed 23.10.09