BT blankets TV with broadband ads

Part of £33m campaign

By Tim Richardson, 19th September 2002

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BT is to spend a whopping £33m over the next couple of weeks in a bid to double the take-up of broadband in the UK. From Sunday the monster telco is to spend £1m a day in a ten-day nation-wide TV campaign to plug broadband.

Immediately after it will launch into a £23m campaign promoting its no-frills, access-only BT Broadband service with the view of signing up 500,000 customers by next summer.

The 10 days of blanket TV advertising is a key part of BT's drive to get one million ADSL broadband connections by summer 2003. It's also designed to increase the average weekly sign-up to ADSL from 12,000 to 24,000.

Speaking to The Register BT Retail CEO Pierre Danon said: "It is ambitious but we have enough indications that we can do it."

He argued that the scale of what BT is doing is yet further indication of the telco's intention "to put broadband at the heart of BT" while becoming the "flag-bearer for the industry in the government's drive to make Broadband Britain a reality".

BT reckons its broadband strategy will generate £681 million a year by 2004/05. The official launch of the no-frills, access-only BT Broadband service is set for early next month. However, it's been available since June, during which time some 10,000 people have signed up.

"This campaign, on top of the other initiatives BT Group has introduced in recent months to kick-start the market, should help provide all operators supplying broadband in the UK with the launch pad they need to sell their products and services in unprecedented numbers," said Danon.

BT has also signed up high street retailer Carphone Warehouse to help flog the no-frills BT Broadband service. ®