Experience in France, the UK, the USA and other countries demonstrates that triple-play bundles of TV, voice and broadband services have proven themselves as a means of increasing market share, according to a new report, Quadruple-Play Bundling Strategies, published by Analysys.

Triple-play packages have enabled US cable operators to double ARPU and halve churn, says Analysys, while, in France, competing unbundlers with low-price packages that offer high broadband access speeds, free landline calls to 50 countries and IPTV services have found a very receptive market.

"There is plenty of evidence that TV-based triple-play bundles work," says the report's author, Margaret Hopkins. "But quadruple-play packages suffer from the mismatch between the elements' target markets: TV services are targeted towards families, but mobile phone services are aimed towards individuals. Incumbent operators have used quadruple-play services as a defence against competitors' TV-based triple-play bundles, but without noticeable success."

Key findings from the new report include:

• Not all markets are ready for a quadruple-play strategy - multi-play bundles tend to be introduced in maturing markets where there are fewer opportunities for innovation in single services.
• Quadruple-play packages are inevitable despite the lack of certainty about their success, and residential broadband and pay-TV operators must plan now to be ready for their introduction.
• Implementing a successful quadruple-play bundle is challenging because they are difficult to design and market. In addition, it will be difficult to use them to create new sources of revenue - for example, from advertising or value-added services - because these services will require major software development projects.

This new report examines the case for bundling TV, fixed telecoms, broadband and mobile services into unified quadruple-play offers. It identifies promising target markets and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of TV and telecoms companies in addressing this opportunity. The report includes case studies of the multi-play bundling strategies adopted in: Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Sweden, the UK and the USA. It considers the evidence for the effectiveness of multi-play strategies, and projects likely future developments.