3Pod, Bigpoint, Kiip, PricewaterhouseCoopers, & Parks Associates address new strategies for entertainment companies at GDC

Parks Associates will moderate a special session at the Game Developers Conference Online (GDC), held October 5-8 in Austin, Texas. The session, “How economic context affects game development from start-up to grown-up companies,” will be held Thursday, October 7th, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m., and is sponsored by Canada at GDC, The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and represented by the Canadian Consulate General Dallas.

The electronic entertainment industry is going through massive transformations: financial constraints, declining software sales, increasing success of the used games segment, growing percentages of digital sales, etc. This panel, moderated by Parks Associates’ gaming analyst Pietro Macchiarella, will investigate the importance of international economic contexts in supporting the interactive entertainment industry and new strategies for developers, including retail and digital distribution.

The panel offers perspectives from executives developing games in Canada and the USA. Participants include:

Frédérick Brassard, President, 3Pod

Nils Holger Henning, Chief Communications Officer, Bigpoint

Dean Morrison, Advisor, Entertainment & Media Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP—Toronto
Brian Wong, Founder, Kiip

For information about this session or to reserve your seat, visit
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/industry_events/gdc_2010.htm.

Cox: Managed Services Model with gateways?

Cox Communications is adding diagnostic capabilities into its data network that could lead to a managed services offering for some of its home networking customers.

In June, Cox started selling data gateways with DOCSIS 3.0 and 802.11n from Cisco and Netgear directly to its customers. While the nation's third-largest cable operator has a long history of selling home networking gear to its subscribers, the new gateways could lead to Cox dipping its toe into managed services for home networking.

"We're figuring out whether to move to more of a managed services model with the gateways," said Seth Hogan, Cox's vice president of strategy and product development . "We're putting some capabilities into our network that give us the ability to do some remote diagnostics and remote repair. We could offer customers the option for us to manage their home networks for some kind of recurring fee.

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Parks Associates supporting Digital Media Conference West

Parks Associates is supporting the Digital Media Conference West on October 27th in San Francisco, California.

DMC West is a full day of in-depth discussions and networking focused on the top business issues impacting digital media companies, including online video, social media, investments, online advertising, mobile entertainment, mobile apps, the future of news media and the relationship between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. More Info

Parks Associates is supporting 4G World, Chicago

Parks Associates is supporting 4G World as a Key Research Sponsor from October 18-21 in Chicago.

4G World, the first and only conference and expo covering the entire ecosystem of next-generation technologies that enable the mobile Internet revolution including mobile network infrastructure, advanced devices, applications and content. More Info

Time Warner Cable expands availability of Whole House On Demand

From CED, Time Warner Cable's Whole House On Demand service recently became available in Lincoln, Nebraska and surrounding areas.

Whole House On Demand allows subscribers to watch purchased on demand programming on digital boxes throughout the home . If a customer purchases an on demand program on a TV in the family room, they can now also watch it on a TV in another room.

Sigma Designs powers NETGEAR's Push2TV

NETGEAR's Push2TV is a solution within the wireless laptop-to-HDTV link product category that we're closely watching.

This past week, Sigma Designs announced that the SMP8653 secure media processor is the
first and only media processor powering wireless PC-to-TV display devices. NETGEAR’s
Push2TV™ adapter uses Sigma’s chipset to display content from Intel® Wireless Display
enabled notebook PCs on the big screen HD-TV, wirelessly.

The market for wireless PC to TV display devices is growing fast. More than 40 laptops
available today come with Intel Wireless Display technology and the number of supported
laptops is expected to grow significantly next year.

Comcast to re-launch its TV Everywhere offering - Xfinity Online

From Fierce Cable, Comcast's CFO Michael Angelakis said the comany will "re-launch" TV Everywhere next month. The service, which has been in beta trial "for a couple months" will be called Xfinity Online and "will provide our customers with the content they want anytime anywhere."

Time Warner Cable may a Compressed Window $20-$30 VoD in 2011

From AP and The Boston Globe,Time Warner Inc.'s chief financial officer John Martin said Thursday that early next year the company will likely test letting people pay $20 or $30 to watch new-release movies at home within a month or two of their debut in theaters.

No question the demand is there, even at these price points, as we tested in previous surveys. Demand will be particularly significant in households with children, where the cost of going out to the movies, plus the babysitter, are going to be high. One significant problem the cable operators face is serious pushback from the movie theater operators, who have been asked to make significant investments in both digital cinema and now 3D projection, and who probably feel like the rug is being yanked out from under their feet.

Viacom joins Warner Bros. and NBC Universal in backing away from Apple TV

From C21Media.net, NBC Universal and Viacom are the latest major US players to rule out placing their content on Apple TV's revamped TV rental service, following a similar call from Warner Bros.

Apple's latest attempt to penetrate the TV market has so far enticed Disney-ABC - unsurprising, considering Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the Mouse's largest shareholder - as well as News Corp-owned Fox and BBC America, which will offer individual episodes at US$0.99. However, many other companies have expressed concerns over the rental.

Yesterday, Viacom became the latest to back away from the Apple service, with CEO Philippe Dauman telling investors the price tag would not "work" for either the company nor the content industry, according to reports in the US.

CableCARD going away?

In this article from Broadcasting and Cable, The FCC has tentatively slated changes to the CableCARD regime for its Oct. 14 meeting.

As part of its push for a universal gateway device to unite online and traditional video, the FCC also proposed varoius changes to the CableCARD regime, underwhich broadcasters were required to implement a hardware solution to separating the surfing and security functions in cable digital set-tops. The FCC mandated the separation to goose a retail market in set-tops, but has since conceded it did not work.

While the FCC's proposal is to replace the current set-top regime with a universal device cabable of integrating traditional and online video, in the meantime it said it wanted to make some tweaks to the CableCARD system to improve it.

FCC opens up "white space" to promote "super-Wi-Fi" development

On September 23, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took steps to free up vacant airwaves between TV channels - called “white spaces” - to unleash a host of new technologies, such as “super Wi-Fi.”

According to Fierce Cable, the spectrum will be most available in rural and suburban areas where there are fewer TV stations and more spectrum. Larger cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, with already crowded airwaves, are expected to feel less impact, although super WiFi, with its ability to penetrate buildings, is an attractive technology there.

The commission's decision was made over broadcaster protests that using that spectrum--freed up as part of the analog-to-digital transition--might interfere with their signals.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell went so far as to suggest that using white spaces could negate the need for net neutrality broadband regulations because super WiFi devices running in the new spectrum will offer a "competitive alternative to existing broadband providers."

Concurrent moves from plain vanilla VoD to IP and multi-screen capabilities with TellyTopia aquisition

On Friday, Concurrent announced it is accelerating its multi-screen video delivery and monetization strategy through the acquisition of key technology assets from TellyTopia, one of the world’s first companies to bring user-generated and Internet hosted video directly to TV over service providers’ existing network infrastructures. TellyTopia’s patent-pending, cloud-based, online video platform becomes part of Concurrent’s multi-screen portfolio and further extends the company’s leadership in multi-screen video delivery, advertising and media data management.

Liberty Global may share "über-box" with other operators

In an interview at the CTAM EuroSummit, Liberty Global Mike Fries said that his company is in discussion with other operators about adopting its forthcoming multimedia gateway box, which the company plans to roll out next summer.

Interviewed by CNN presenter Richard Quest at the summit, Fries said that Liberty was in “discussion with multiple operators” about the device. “We believe that there is a great opportunity for others to fall in line and benefit from this platform,” he said. In relation to the spec of the box, however, Fries said that the company had wanted to get the box rolled out in a relatively short time-frame, and had therefore not wanted to become involved in a consortium of multiple operators in designing it.

Director of Health & Mobile Product Research From Park Associates Presenting at VITAL

Parks Associates is supporting VITAL (Vision Innovation Technology Adoption Living), a conference taking place on October 6th 2010 in San Francisco, CA.

Harry Wang, Director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates is presenting on the session “Incentives For Reimbursement of Personal Health Technologies” from 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM.

Healthcare is at the crossroads of a consumer revolution. As the patient moves to the center of healthcare delivery, innovative personal health technologies empower the consumer with a wealth of data and information. This new consumer is responding by changing their behaviors and taking ownership over their own health outcomes.

VITAL brings together all the key stakeholders shaping this revolution to evaluate consumer preferences, and the impact consumer health technologies have on health outcomes to meet the needs of an empowered digital health consumer.

For more Information, please click here.

Parks Associates is Supporting Next Generation Mobile Devices

Parks Associates is supporting the Next Generation Mobile Devices conference, that will take place on October 7th-8th 2010 in London, UK.

Next Generation Mobile Devices will focus on identifying and discussing the key issues around strategic priorities for mobile broadband devices, examining Open-OS enablers, application/content drivers, HSPA+ and LTE air-interface evolution, exploring embedded connectivity options and more.

For more information, please click here.

Parks Associates Supports Connected Home Global Summit

Parks Associates is supporting Connected Home Global Summit. The event is taking place on October 5th-6th in London, UK.

With increasing digital connectivity and intelligent devices in and around the home, the time is right to examine the key trends and influences within the Connected Home proposition.

The Connected Home Global Summit will explore whether the evolution of Broadband Access, the emergence of Converged Digital Devices and advances within Home Entertainment is ripe to explode into a full blown Connected Home revolution.

For more information, please click here.

Urban Myths and Truths for the European Cable Industry

I'm at the CTAM EuroSummit'10 in Budapest, and had the chance to talk about some urban legends and myths on a panel session titled “TV Retakes Center Stage.” My job was to discuss five urban myths and the truths as it relates to TV service and the cable operator’s role:

1. Urban Legend 1: “Online Video Cannibalizes Traditional TV Viewing” – not true according to our data, and the speaker from Liberty Global and Virgin Media had their own data that showed an increase in television viewing.
2. Urban Legend 2: “People simply won’t ‘cut the cord’” – not yet, anyway. However, I showed our data that indicates that consumers who are active in watching online video through connected devices or configurations (game consoles and PC-to-TV connections) are 3x more likely to be a cord-cutting threat. I then showed some numbers for expected worldwide penetration of connected CE devices, with a comment that the operators can choose to work with connected CE and take advantage of it or try to fight it (and probably lose). A speaker from Solon (a consultancy in Munich) indicates that 36% of the TVs sold in Germany in the first half of 2010 were Web-connectable. So, that’s very similar to what we’re seeing in the U.S. (where close to one-third we expect to be sold as Internet-capable). When we get to 2015, we'll see household penetration of connected TVs worldwide at more than 200 million, not to mention the tens of millions of households with connected Blu-ray players, game consoles, set-top boxes, and other IP-video-receiving devices.
3. Urban Legend 3: “Consumers don’t care about home networking” – I rephrased it to dispel the myth that consumers don’t see additional value in home networking to focus on video features such as whole-home DVR. After all, we already know that more than 250 million households (well over one-half of global households with broadband) have home networks in some way shape or form. Our data indicates a strong interest in whole-home DVR, and high percentages of consumers in Western Europe indicating willingness to pay a premium for such a feature. Verizon indicates that significantly higher than 25% of its FiOS TV customers are taking its Home Media DVR, paying a premium of $4 per month. So, there are in fact new revenue streams to be created from home networking, and I showed our estimate for the number of connected devices on global home networks growing to four billion by year-end 2014 – that’s an average of eight nodes per networked households, and it will include consumer electronics, mobile and portable devices, routers and femtocells, and nodes for home, health, safety, security, and energy monitoring. So, cable operators need to be considering more of a holistic approach to the connected home.
4. Urban Legend 4: “There’s no premium to be charged for TV Everywhere” – Not true – our data shows that 16% of consumers in U.S. broadband households are willing to consider paying up to $5 additionally per month, and it was noted earlier this week at the Connected Home World Summit conference that operators are deploying TV Everywhere at a €5-6 premium.
5. Urban Legend 5: “The connected TV causes little concern, because it’s all about video … and we do it best” – Not true – certainly, cable operators will have an advantage over many online video services because of the high quality video formats that they can deliver to the consumer. However, interest in connected TV applications is going to go beyond video, so cable operators need to consider features such as social networking, family calendaring, gaming, music, and other services that complement the television experience. They should also consider the ways in which they can leverage their networks, their billing relationships, and tools such as device discovery and management to ensure a high-quality entertainment experience across devices, even those beyond the set-top box. They can actually use dynamic provisioning and configuration tools to bring more devices into the video experience and use this to both reduce customer support calls and to build a more highly-valuable service.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

NCR and MOD Systems Launch Download-to-SD-Card Kiosks at U.S. Airports

Kiosk manufacturers NCR Corp. and MOD Systems Sept. 20 said they have installed machines in 12 U.S. airports that allow consumers for the first time to rent and buy movies downloaded to a secure digital (SD) card (the press release from MOD Systems is here and an article from Home Media Magazine is here).

Considered by many as a successor to the DVD, SD cards and USB chips allow users to play movie files on portable media devices.

The Download2Go kiosks are deployed at 20 InMotion retail airport locations, including Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, Denver International, John F. Kennedy International, Lambert-St. Louis International, Los Angeles International, Memphis International, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Sacramento International, Salt Lake City International, San Antonio International, San Francisco International and Seattle-Tacoma International.

About those ivi TV legal challenges...

In my introductory post to ivi TV, I had noted that ivi TV's model of redistributing broadcast TV over the Internet was likely to face legal challenges. The company has received cease and desist orders from NBC-Universal, CBS, Disney, ABC, The CW Television Stations, Inc., Fox Television, Major League Baseball, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, WGBH, WNET.org, and Fisher Communications. In addition, The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) filed a legal challenge earlier this week. In the meantime, ivi itself has filed its own complaint in U.S. district court.

The Complaint states that ivi is legally operating under U.S. Copyright Law. According to section 16 of page 3 of the Complaint, "The Copyright Act expressly authorizes secondary transmissions of copyrighted works embodied in primary transmissions. For example, the Copyright Act expressly approves of the secondary transmission of an original television broadcast where the secondary transmission is subject to a statutory license. Under Section 111 of the Copyright Act, statutory licensing fees are paid periodically to the Register of Copyrights in accordance with an established scale and schedule. Section 111 further provides that the secondary transmission of an over-the-air primary transmission is not an infringement of copyrights in the works contained in the primary transmission."

Fierce Online Video has its take on the suit-countersuit action.

Parks Associates presents new consumer data at CEDIA Expo

Parks Associates’ Director of Home Systems Research, Bill Ablondi will lead and moderate the keynote panel session “The Future of Energy Management” during the CEDIA Expo on Friday, September 24 in Atlanta, GA. Leaders in consumer technology, energy management, and smart grid technology will deliver the state of the union as it relates to energy management and the electronic systems industry during this keynote panel. Speakers include: Control4 Energy Systems, Direct Energy, GlobalSmartEnergy, Home Automation, Inc. (HAI), and Intel Corp.

Bill will present findings from Parks Associates’ Residential Energy Management project, including consumer research, new opportunities for manufacturers and service providers to deliver energy solutions, and strategies for companies to communicate the benefits of smart grid technologies and successfully engage consumers.

In the new white paper “Consumer Attitudes and the Benefits of Smart Grid Technologies,” Parks Associates reports more than 80% of U.S. broadband households are interested in learning about ways to cut energy expenditures, but utilities and their partners will be challenged in designing solutions to meet consumers’ varying needs and budgets.

Advertising Analyst speaking at Digital Hollywood Fall

Parks Associates is supporting the 2010 Digital Hollywood Fall in Santa Monica, California.

Heather Way, Research Analyst, Parks Associates will be moderating the session, "Advertising on Tablets and SmartPhones - the Immersive Commerce and Communication Experience" on Thursday, October 21 from 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM.

Digital Hollywood is the premier entertainment and technology conference in the country. For more information about this event, click here.

European Service Providers Embracing the Connected Home

We're in London for the Connected Home World Summit, and I chaired yesterday's sessions. The operators in attendance are from a wide spread of European markets - everywhere from Greenland, Estonia, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, and countries in between. I was furiously writing notes during the keynotes and the panels, and came away with the following takeaways:

• There are very different takes on the economics of deploying the "God Box"/über-box, which would bring in the functionality of the residential gateway (modem, routing, remote manageability, etc.) along with multiple set-top boxes (tuners, transcoding, server capability, etc.). For reasons related to cost, lifecyle differences in CPE, and the risk of one point of failure, many operators are taking a very conservative approach in deploying a fully integrated customer premise equipment hardware. At the same time, Intel (which was represented at the event by Brendan Traw) has had early success with some service providers, including Telecom Italia and Liberty Global, to deliver a high-powered gateway that takes on much of the functionality of the über-box.
• The effort formerly known as Project Canvas (now known as YouView is making progress, and we can expect to see set-top boxes and then connected televisions with the implementation in 2011.
• There are some interesting thoughts about whether the concept of TV Everywhere is simply a nice-to-add feature or a true revenue generator. Our own research finds a good percentage of consumers willing to pay a $5 premium per month for access to their cable channels on different IP-connected devices, and Irdeto - which delivers content protection solutions - indicates that one of its European service provider customers is getting a good take rate on a TV Everywhere service at a €5-6 premium.
• Irdeto's representative also spoke of the evolution of digital rights management, indicating the the renewability DRM - that is, its ability to be updated as new threats emerge - will be a critical trend. It's one of the key reasons that Irdeto acquired Cloakware.
• A speaker from Vodafone shared the company's key connected home strategies, which includes the deployment of both residential gateways (with a port for a 3G modem) and femtocells in the U.K., French, and Spanish markets. In terms of value-added services, they have found good success with delivering an online backup service, which is one of the key value-added services that Parks Associates identified in our Customer Support in the Digital Home: Europe study in major Western European markets. Finally, they have embraced at least some basic home control applications with remote home monitoring through the mobile phone. This is an area that we're watching closely, as we expect that energy, home control, and health applications as value-added services will be important for operators to investigate in the next few years.
• Operators are mainly very pleased with the capabilities that DLNA provides to them, particularly in applications such as media servers and multi-device entertainment servers.
• Several service providers spoke of their concern about the high number of video formats that will need to be supported.
• A speaker from A1 Telekom Austria also spoke of the importance of its online backup service as a value-added service (as did a speaker from Telefónica). A1 Telekom Austria offers 1 GB of storage for free, but also will upsell tiers. The company developed their own UI and Media Manager software so different devices (TV, PC, mobile, etc.) could access and share content. The sharing of content is a critical element as well. You can push things like photos to your parents by simply entering in their telephone number into the interface on the TV or the PC, so sharing digital photos with non-tech savvy people becomes much easier.

I'm off to Budapest to speak at the CTAM EuroSummit'10 tomorrow. It will be interesting to hear the perspectives of the cable operators in Europe regarding the connected home, and what similarities and differences exist with technology, strategy, and business models.

Motorola introduces keyboard for interactive TV

Maybe Google TV will get everyone thinking about having keyboards in the living room. Motorola certainly thinks this. At IBC,Motorola announced the NYXboard, which combines the traditional remote control form with a full keyboard to create a more intuitive navigational experience for sophisticated interactive TV services as well as traditional linear TV. Able to control both the set-top and television set, the NYXboard has sensors to recognise which side of the remote is being used in order to activate the buttons accordingly. The keyboard function answers the demands of navigating content in the Internet Era of TV, such as searching through larger and more complex on-demand libraries or accessing web content on the TV. NYXboard will be available by the end of 2010

Humax selects ANT Galio Platform to deliver Sky Player

ANT, a provider of software and services for the delivery of digital TV, announced that Humax, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of digital set-top boxes, has selected ANT to deliver a Sky Player implementation for use with its Freeview HD products. ANT’s implementation of the Sky Player TV specification has been developed in collaboration with BSkyB and benefits from the full capabilities of the ANT Galio Platform.

Humax offers two products for the UK’s Freeview HD service: the HD-FOX T2 set-top box and HDR-FOX T2 digital TV recorder. The boxes provide subscription-free access to HD channels from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and S4C Wales, plus up to 50 standard definition digital TV channels, and also offer a range of exciting new multimedia and home networking capabilities. Through the addition of the extensively deployed ANT Galio Platform, users of the Humax Freeview HD boxes with an appropriate Sky subscription will be able to access the Sky Player service, which provides consumers with more ways to access the wide variety of live and on-demand Sky programming through a highly intuitive user interface. By working with connected TV vendors BSkyB is able to further its strategy of bringing more content to consumers via an increasing number of devices.

ANT and Humax have worked closely with the BSkyB technical team to deliver the Sky Player user interface which is designed specifically to deliver the best possible TV experience. ANT has leveraged its considerable experience in developing high performance and portable embedded TV applications to implement the Sky Player specification.

ioko is a partner with Samsung for its connected TV apps

ioko announced it has teamed up with Samsung to further accelerate the development of direct-to-TV applications for Samsung TVs. ioko, which developed LOVEFiLM’s secure Real Time Messaging Protocol encrypted (RTMPe) based player, a world first in direct-to-TV subscription video on demand (VOD) , is now certified to develop applications for Samsung’s range of Internet@TV sets.

Verimatrix Announces Support of Microsoft PlayReady DRM for VCAS 3.0 MultiRights Solution

Verimatrix announced it has licensed Microsoft PlayReady Server technology in order to provide integrated MultiRights™ support for devices that support Microsoft PlayReady digital rights management (DRM). As a component of the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) 3, the company’s MultiRights™ framework enables transparent rights management across a range of networks and devices for streamlined multi-network and multi-screen video services.

Microsoft PlayReady is the latest DRM technology that Verimatrix is supporting through its MultiRights strategy. Under a common unified VCAS 3 security solution, Verimatrix’s digital TV operators can extend their multi-screen services to a wide range of platforms and devices, including those that support Microsoft Silverlight. PlayReady technology is currently protecting content for several top service providers including Netflix, BSkyB’s Sky Player, Yahoo! Japan and Canal+ among others. Furthermore, the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) selected PlayReady as one of the DRM technologies it will support.

Multi-screen and Hybrid Announcements from Netgem at IBC

Netgem has made a number of announcements regarding hybrid set-top boxes and multi-screen solutions at IBC.

• It announced a device that enables consumers to watch a mix of broadcast and internet TV services within a unified experience. The N5000 series Netbox works with any internet source, regardless of connection type. It comes pre-loaded with various web applications including versions of YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. The UI can also be personalised by the operator or service provider and added-value services, such as VOD, catch-up TV or web TV channels can be integrated.
The N5000 includes a HD tuner, allowing end users to switch from internet services to TV services using the same remote control. Users can also choose to connect a detachable hard disk to the device, to allow them to permanently store video content recorded from the tuner.
• It has an update to its Netgem TV middleware to support new adaptive TV technologies. Extending the reach of Pay TV Operators, these new features enable the creation of innovative, multi-screen services which can be delivered securely and consistently.
• Toshiba and Netgem announced the launch of a multifunction adapter for the French market, which provides access to Toshiba Places. The multifunction adapter enables users to connect their digital TVs to a world of online interactive services, which have been fully optimised for the TV experience. It allows consumers to access a range of entertainment services, including video on demand, as well as share their multimedia content with relatives and connect to services and information from the Internet. This is the first deployment of Toshiba Places, which is enabled through Netgem’s device and
  middleware expertise. This multifunction adapter has been designed to connect any flat screen TV to the Toshiba Places portal. It initiates a new era for television through its interactive access to multimedia content.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Conax Introduces a New Conditional Access Solution

Conax has launched a new conditional access solution - Conax Contego - that replaces the CAS5 system that launched in 2003. It is designed to support hybrid services and multi-device access.
The scalable platform offers advanced anti-piracy mechanisms, smart card and card-less security options, DVB, ISDB-T and OpenCable compliancy along with DRM control. It can support hybrid set-top boxes, CI Plus and CableCARD as well as multi-client, multi-room and home networking services.

Belgacom is using Nokia Siemens Ubiquity Solution for Multi-screen Video

Belgian IPTV operator Belgacom is to make its service available on multiple devices after signing deal to implement Nokia Siemens Networks’ Ubiquity Multiscreen TV Platform.

Nokia has launched a new software client designed to deliver content to ‘any device with a screen’. The Multiscreen TV client integrates over-the-top TV and broadcast TV with the web and social network access, providing a user interface for services delivered via its Ubiquity Multiscreen TV Platform. The new software client is based on Nokia's open source, cross-platform application and user interface framework, and is designed to enable a consistent user experience across all devices.
Belgacom is undertaking a phased deployment of the solution. In the initial phase, Nokia has supplied encoders and streamers to enable Belgacom subscribers to watch Jupiler League football matches on their PCs and smart devices. It has also provided integration services to incorporate these products into the IPTV solution. Nokia said that from next year, the telco's TV customers will be able to access TV content on any device of their choice at any time.

YouTube gets into live streaming

Last week, YouTube launched an experimental trial with four media partners. The new live streaming platform will be previewed in a two-day trial beginning today but is expected to later grow considerably across the Google-owned website.

Four YouTube partners will participate: the celebrity-focused Young Hollywood; the online television outlet Next New Networks; the how-to guide Howcast; and Rocketboom, the Internet culture vlog.

Verimatrix and Harmonic Team on Multi-screen Video

On September 13, Verimatrix and Harmonic announced a solution that leverages the HTTP Live Streaming adaptive bitrate standard to securely deliver video services to the iPhone®, iPad, PC and a range of other devices. The solution is an integration of Harmonic’s MediaPrism Convergence Suite with the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) for Internet TV to create a unified headend that delivers protected standard (SD) and high definition (HD) content over unmanaged networks to any Internet-connected consumer playback device. MediaPrism is a complete carrier-grade solution for multi-screen video delivery that includes industry-leading live and video-on-demand (VOD) transcoding, live-to-VOD ingest and HTTP video delivery.

Featured as a core technology of the Apple iPhone, iPad and new Apple TV devices, but now broadly adopted as an open, state-of-the-art adaptive bitrate streaming delivery standard for a wide range of device types, HTTP Live Streaming delivers smooth audio and video streams using standard HTTP protocols, which are transparently supported on existing web server and CDN delivery infrastructure. The technology supports automatic adaptation to available network types and automatically switches to the optimal bitrate for a smooth quality playback experience. Both live and VOD content can be delivered using the same protocols with easy incorporation of targeted advertising segments. The combination of MediaPrism and VCAS for Internet TV enables pay-TV operators to create a range of new revenue streams involving multi-screen delivery.

Envivio, Edgeware and Verimatrix team up on multi-screen solution

Envivio, Edgeware and Verimatrix have teamed up together to provide an integrated ecosystem featuring video processing, distribution and content security for HTTP Live Streaming video services to multiple screens.

The combined solution incorporates the Envivio 4Caster C42 video processing and encoding unit, Verimatrix VCAS 3 conditional access system, and Edgeware's WTV servers. A global systems integrator has reportedly already selected the solution to combine with its linear IPTV, time-shift TV and VOD architecture, in order to enable operators to offer TV Everywhere services.

Nokia Siemens raises the ante on multiscreen video

Nokia Siemens Networks has launched a new software client for 'any device with a screen' that allows people to watch TV via any network, integrating over-the-top TV and broadcast TV with Web and social network access.

The new software client provides a user interface for services delivered via the company's Ubiquity Multiscreen TV platform (launched last March), irrespective of location or device. The Ubiquity Multiscreen TV platform enables operators to provide live, recorded or on-demand TV to mobiles phones, Internet-connected computers and television screens. The new software client is based on Nokia's open source Qt cross-platform application and user interface framework, and is designed to enable a consistent user experience across all devices.

Samsung's Media Hub - Online Store for Galaxy S Smartphones

At a press event in Manhattan on September 16, Samsung announced that Media Hub will go live imminently and also revealed partner information.

As for what you'll be able to download to your phone, Samsung has worked with a number of entertainment studios, including Paramount, NBC Universal, Warner Bros., and MTV Networks, to provide the content and ensure that it's optimized for viewing on a phone. At launch, the catalog will contain more than 1,000 movies and TV shows, and Samsung will continue to add to the library over time.

Samsung said pricing will be competitive, and any content that you purchase can be shared on up to five Media Hub-enabled devices.

Ruwido Radio TV - a Unique Approach to In-home Mobile Video

Remote control specialist Ruwido has developed a new mobile device that enables viewers to watch content from the main TV set anywhere in the home.

The portable device, called TV Radio, uses WiFi to display the content being shown on a TV set, enabling users to watch TV anywhere within range. Showing the device exclusively to DTVE Daily at the IBC trade show, Ruwido’s innovation project manager Thomas Fischer said that the device had been designed to make watching TV anywhere within the home as easy as possible.

Verizon expands its TV Everywhere offering to include Cinemax

Verizon FiOS TV customers are getting another piece of the TV Everywhere pie, with the company and HBO today announcing the launch of MAXGO.com, Internet access to Cinemax online video. The website gives FiOS subscribers unlimited access to Cinemax offerings from any Internet-connected computer at no additional charge.

Boxee Box to Ship in November

D-Link and Boxee are getting ready to ship the Boxee Box in November, and Amazon.com is taking pre-orders. It is also preparing to ship in Europe. The box will be available in a number of European countries including Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

PlayJam expands UK DTT coverage through Tesco

PlayJam is a company that we covered in a recent report titled Gaming ARPU: Games & the Service Provider, and we concluded that there is a significant opportunity for games-on-TV as a value-added service through pay-TV operators and connected TV players. With DTT set-top boxes becoming hybrid, however, there are also opportunities in this space.

PlayJam has expanded the availability of its network across UK digital-terrestrial platform Freeview through set-tops sold by retail chain Tesco, the company has announced. Tesco Freeview boxes delivering PlayJam via a dedicated channel have been available since June, but a connected PlayJam service will be available via hybrid IP-connected Freeview boxes from the autumn.

Synaptics and Philips Partner on Touch-based Remote Control

On September 13,Synaptics announced that its capacitive TouchPad solution is featured in the Philips Dual remote control, that was introduced at IBC 2010 in Amsterdam.

To develop the remote remote, Philips Home Control combined a variety of leading-edge innovations including ZigBee® RF4CE technology (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics), a QWERTY keyboard, and Synaptics TouchPad solution. The 2-inch diagonal TouchPad recognizes gestures such as pointer navigation, flick, and tap for simplified navigation of digital entertainment. Users can push down on the touchpad surface to easily make selections on their home entertainment system.

TiVo Joins MoCA

The company that pioneered the concept of whole-home DVR has hung its hat with the Multimedia over Coax Alliance.

Intel is getting its connected CE groove on

Intel had a busy week at the Intel Developer Forum. The company showed off two smart TV-enabling products powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100 and Google TV that will come out this Fall. The Sony Internet TV and the Logitech Revue add-in box seamlessly combine access to the Internet with the TV viewing experience through the combination of Intel processors and the Google TV Android platform. The Boxee Box from D-Link was offered for pre-orders last Monday, Telecom Italia and several other companies are also expected to launch Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100-based devices soon.

In addition, Technicolor announced that it was collaborating with Intelon its latest system on a chip, the Intel® Atom™ processor CE4200, formerly code-named Groveland. The strategic collaboration will fuel Technicolor's plan to drive into the market a new generation of integrated broadcast and IP set-top boxes, enabling service providers to create exciting new multi-screen, 3D, games and online video user experiences in the home

Cisco and BT Collaborate on Content Delivery to Connected Devices

As we look at the rapid evolution of "TV Everywhere" services beyond simply authenticating cable channel lineups on PCs, the role of connected CE as premium video clients is a key trend. You can see the pieces coming together, as publishers join forces with content and ad management companies, content delivery network providers, digital rights management and adaptive streaming purveyors, and companies that specialize in consumer electronics clients.

Now, things are starting to get even more integrated, particularly as we look at the giants of network infrastructure - Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, etc. Cisco, in particular, has been making news recently, first with the acquisition of ExtendMedia, which brings expertise of how to deliver multi-platform video over IP. Now, a collaboration with BT, in which BT has chosen Cisco's Content Delivery System as the 'backbone' for its, open online video delivery network - Content Connect - designed to improve the experience of watching and listening to digital content on the web.

The Cisco Content Delivery System (CDS) using medianet technologies enables BT Wholesale to establish broadband as a TV platform. Content Connect will deliver digital content to any computer, TV or mobile device on behalf of UK internet service providers giving broadcasters access to a large end user base – irrespective of service provider or technology.

I'd say stay tuned. I would think that we would see some additional acquisitions and announcements coming from these infrastructure leaders.

Verimatrix and RCDb partner on premium content to connected Blu-ray players

The connected Blu-ray player may be setting itself up nicely as a set-top box. First, there was RCDb's announcement with Clearleap regarding premium content accessibility. Now, Verimatrix with RCDb has introduced first licensable solution for securing premium video content for over-the-top (OTT) distribution to Internet connected Blu-ray players.

The joint solution highlights how broadcasters, programmers and network operators can leverage the rapidly expanding base of Internet-connected Blu-ray players to cost effectively extend their revenue footprint through branded video services.

RCDb’s Blu-ray disc client and server platform enables a complete operator-branded BD-Live capable service that supports a sophisticated mix of IP delivered TV content, including on-demand movies. Verimatrix has extended its MultiRights™ architecture for encryption, secure key management and device authentication to protect streaming content to Blu-ray players. No custom player integration is required, as the integrated application is delivered in the form of a standard Blu-ray disc and the secure content delivery leverages the studio-endorsed AACS content protection built into every device.

Apple's AirPlay - Networked Audio Products Get Another Boost

Apple's AirPlay is going to boost the market for networked audio devices, just as BridgeCo and DLNA's efforts should in the next few years.

New Online Video Service and the Philips Net TV

UK technology company BiBC is launching an internet TV service. The over-the-top service will be deployed via TV manufacturer Philips’ new range of connected TVs. IT will allow consumers to watch content from ITV, Cartoon Network and others for £2.99 (€3.57) a month.

CanalPlay launches on the Xbox 360

Canal Plus has launched a range of on-demand movies and TV shows from its CanalPlay video-on-demand service on the Microsoft Xbox platform.

The Canal Plus application is available for download free of charge from the XBox Live site. Users will be able to view movies including The Ghost Writer and Clash of the Titans sand series for up to 48 hours, with movies priced at €3.99 and series episodes at €2.99.

Google TV products coming soon?

The rumor mills are working overtime. Here's CNET's Digital Home Blog:

Citing unnamed sources, the technology blog reported that Logitech is planning to release its Revue set-top box on September 29. Engadget said the Revue will retail for $299.

Rumors surrounding Google TV have been cropping up quite a bit lately. Earlier this week, a reportedly leaked Best Buy document claimed Google TV would be launching on October 17. That followed a comment made by Google earlier this year, claiming its service--which allows people to search for content on the Web and on cable boxes--would be available in October.

However, that doesn't mean that Engadget's latest report of a September 29 release for the Logitech Revue is inaccurate. Last week, Intel CEO Paul Otellini told The Wall Street Journal that Google TV devices would "start shipping this month."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20016670-17.html?tag=mncol;title#ixzz0zotDCChX

Meet ivi TV - Live TV over the Internet and ... legal?

Okay, I'm really not sure how they're going to get away with this, but meet ivi TV, providing Internet access to broadcast stations in Seattle and New York for a $4.99 per month fee. Fierce IPTV has a good overview of what ivi TV is doing:

• It offers more than three dozen broadcast channels, including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and Telemundo to Macs, Windows and Linux computers.
• It says it will feed to mobile devices, including the iPad soon.
• ivi claims it already has more content than Hulu, and will be adding more channels over time, and it will maintain an a la carte option as well.
• The platform is available via a downloadable app for $4.99 a month after a free 30-day trial.
• Want DVR functionality? It's yours for an extra 99 cents a month.

At the moment, the company has no contracts with any broadcasters, but ivi claims it doesn't need to, since it's an online cable system and, as long as it pays fees to the U.S. Copyright Office--which get disbursed to the broadcasters--it's covered. However, company officials indicate that says it's not inconceivable that the ivi will face some legal challenges.