AT&T is raising its bet on TV by more than $1 billion. The telco giant has revised the estimated expenditure for its struggling IPTV offering known as U-Verse for this year and 2008, according to a 10-Q filed Friday.

In addition, AT&T will have to spend more to reach fewer subscribers than initially projected: The target subscriber base was lowered by 1 million to 18 million homes.

U-Verse, which delivers TV via Internet to select markets, initially was expected to require $5.1 billion to reach 19 million homes by 2008. But the latest estimate envisions AT&T dishing out as much as $4.5 billion over the next two years, which amounts to a $1.4 billion increase over the original cost projection.

AT&T has reported just 20,000 U-Verse subscribers to date, a drop in the bucket compared with the cable industry's sizable advantage in the multichannel category. U-Verse has encountered legal and technical problems, resulting in AT&T putting the service in four fewer markets than originally expected last year.
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