Optimal stream is a Danish company, which delivers IPTV to the Danish broadband households. At the moment a number of Danish and foreign TV channels are available on the platform. To be able to receive the TV channels one must have:
- A broadband connection of minimum 2 Mbit/s
- An ISMA -compatible MPEG-4 set-top-box or an ISMA compatible MPEG-4 player like Quick time or VLC player
- A subscription
The service is accessible from https://www.optimalstream.net/ , and the TV channels available on the platform are:
Animal Planet, BBC World News, CNBC Europe, Discovery Channel Europe, Discovery Civilisation (from mid November 2005), Discovery Science, Travel and Living – Discovery (from mid November 2005) DR 1 & DR 2 (Danish Public Service), The UK Golf Channel, Horror Channel, NRK1 & NRK2 (Norwegian Public Service), Lokal-TV (Local TV in Copenhagen area), Pro Sieben (German movie and news),TV2 Danmark (Danish Public Service), TV Danmark 2, TV2 Norge, TV4 Sverige, and VIVA.
The number of services I similar to the services available in the cable TV networks. The subscription cost is 99 DKr (about 15 US$).
Two observations about the Optimal Stream service:
- The quality is not as good as the Danish cable TV services. The advantage compared to the cable TV services is, however, that the subscribers are not dependent on one infrastructure. The services can be accessed Whenever one has access to a broadband network
- Even though the service is similar to cable TV it is not subject for cable TV regulations