Philips Liveable Cities Award

IQare has been shortlisted for Philips Livable Cities Award! From more than 450 ideas received from 29 countries across the world, a shortlist of eight innovative ideas has been selected for the Philips Livable Cities Award - and now you can help decide the winning entry.

IQare is an innovative online set of tools, designed to offer organizations, large and small, a cost effective way to develop new service and delivery options.

The aim is to give users a simple to use touch screen 'home hub' that provides them with an easy way of keeping in touch, informed and remain independent and safe.

By using the iQare system, companies can release or redeploy existing resources. Key areas that are constantly under review now that budgets and resources are under real pressure.

Eve Hatton’s short listed idea, ‘iQare’, works by simplifying how elderly people in Edinburgh, UK, access the latest digital tools. Thus making it easier to remain independent, stay in touch with friends and family, and access service providers and retailers.

Visit www.philips.com/yourvote now and cast your vote!

Parks Associates supports Future TV Advertising Forum, London

Parks Associates is supporting Future TV Advertising Forum from December 2-3 in London.

The Future TV Advertising conference will bring together broadcast and advertising to analyze and debate the evolution of TV advertising. Television is inexorably losing ground to online that is gradually offering greater accountability. The conference will address how the advertising community can work with broadcast so that this threat, embodied by new technologies and user behavior, becomes an opportunity. The event will provide a great opportunity to hear and network with key stakeholders in TV advertising: Brands, Media Holding Companies, leading European Cable, Satellite, IPTV, Pay-TV providers and Content Owners.

More more information, visit http://www.futuretvads.com/.

Sony Qriocity Online VoD Service Officially Launches in Europe

From Broadband TV News, Sony Europe has announced the European launch of Video On Demand powered by Qriocity in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
The pay-per-view movie streaming service works with Sony 2010 network-enabled Bravia TVs, Blu-ray disc players, or Blu-ray disc home theater systems

Contracts are in place with major studios including Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Starz Digital Media, The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal International Television Distribution, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, as well as films from local studios.

The play list includes new releases as well as a wide variety of favourites, classic movies and local language movies, many of which are available in both SD and HD. New content will be added regularly and consumers can register for the service and check news of the latest additions to the movie library on the Qriocity Website.

After renting a film, consumers have up to 14 days to start watching their movie, and once playback is started, they have 48 hours to watch the film as many times as they like. Rental prices for SD content start from £2.49 (€2.99) for library content and £3.49 for new releases, while HD content start respectively from £3.49 and £4.49.

European Research Update: EU Developments in Digital Living

Parks Associates attended multiple conferences in the latter half of 2010, and we were encouraged by the industry developments throughout the continent. Here is a summary of some of our recent observations, which culminated with the recent CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, which Parks Associates hosted on November 15-16, 2010. Visit www.connectionseurope.com for more information on this and future Europe events.

European Service Providers Embracing the Connected Home

The operators in attendance at the Connected Home World Summit in London were from many different European markets - from Greenland, Estonia, Italy, Germany, France, and Russia to countries in between. We came away with the following takeaways from the panels and keynotes:

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 conservative approach in deploying 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, in delivering a high-powered gateway that takes on much of the functionality of the über-box.

To read more about the EU Developments in Digital Living, subscribe to Parks Associates' European Research Update Newsletter.

Click here to subscribe to other Parks Associates complimentary newsletters.

New networked digital media player for the German-speaking markets - WebTube HD Box

As networked digital media players go, much attention has been placed on the availabily of U.S.-oriented products:

• Apple TV
• Boxee Box (D-Link)
• Kodak Theatre HD Player
• NETGEAR Roku Player
• Roku Digital Video Player
• SageTV HD Theater 300
• Seagate FreeAgent Theater+™ HD Media Player
• Sony Media Player
• Syabas PopBox™
• TiVo Premiere
• Verismo Networks VuNow
• Western Digital WD TV Live Plus/WD TV Live Hub
• WhereverTV Receiver

In Europe, products such as the Metrological Mediaconnect TV and the TVBLOB BLOBbox have defined the market. Now, there is the Estro WebTube HD Box.

As reported by Broadband TV News:

The new device will bring Web content to regular TV sets via an HDMI cable in supposedly HD quality. Interestingly, the box runs on the Android software platform, but does not claim to be suitable for Google TV. Using special apps, there is easy access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google maps and others.

Parks Associates CEO to moderate two sessions at Broadband World Forum 2010

Tricia Parks, CEO, Parks Associates is participating on the panel, "Managing Household Energy" on Tuesday, October 26th from 3:30 PM at the Broadband World Forum in France. Tricia Parks is also hosting a breakfast briefing, "Getting Consumers to Care about Home Controls" on Wednesday, October 27 at 8:00 AM.

Broadband World Forum Europe focuses on convergence, interoperability, and the transformation of carrier networks and is hosted in Paris, France Oct 26-28, 2010. Tricia Parks’ energy presentation will focus on actions consumers in the U.S. are taking to manage their energy usage as well as on their attitudes towards emerging services to help that effort and the entities offering those services. During the breakfast briefing, she will be highlighting new applications driving home controls systems.

UPC's Horizon Gateway Revealed: Europe's Cablecos are Pushing RGs

Yesterday's news highlighted what NDS was expecting to show at SCTE next week in terms of a residential gateway platform. Today, there is an article highlighting the UPC Horizon Connected Home Gateway, which is expected to deploy across UPC's European network beginning in 2011.

The Horizon gateway will provide access for both broadband and pay-TV services, enable whole-home DVR, and allow any content stored on the home network (PCs and other storage devices) to be viewed on the main TV.

New White Paper, "European Mobile Market: Beyond Price-based Strategies"

Parks Associates has released a new white paper, "European Mobile Market: Beyond Price-based Strategies."

This new white paper examines challenges for mobile carriers in Europe and strategies to sustain ARPU and expand their base of postpaid users.

• Regulations, Competition, and Churn

• Evolving Beyond Price-based Strategies

• Examples of New Strategies: Vodafone, Telefonica, T-Mobile, & Orange

• The Road Ahead - Evolution of Carrier Strategies

To download this white paper, complete this online form.

Other recent white papers include Google TV- Searching for Success and Consumer Attitudes and the Benefits of Smart Grid Technologies.

State of the Worldwide Digital Television Market

The global market for television services continues to grow despite persistent economic challenges throughout the world. Most of this growth is occurring in digital technologies, with digital terrestrial and cable services supplanting their analog counterparts while IPTV providers fight to increase their piece of the television services pie.

Increased awareness of what is possible on the TV has driven consumer interest in these services, and competition has caused many providers around the globe to evaluate and introduce advanced TV features that leverage digital technologies. Companies in developed nations, including North America and Europe, are rolling out on-demand, interactive, and time/place-shifting offerings. Several providers in emerging markets, such as China and India, are working on digitalization of their services, and they are exploring the new features made possible by this technological shift.

To read more about the State of the Worldwide Digital Television Market, subscribe to Parks Associates' European Research Update Newsletter.

Click here to subscribe to other Parks Associates complimentary newsletters.

Number of smartphones worldwide exceeded 180 million units in 2009

New research from Parks Associates, host of the upcoming executive summit CONNECTIONS™ Europe, indicates that the number of smartphones shipped in 2009 topped 180 million units worldwide, with Nokia, Research in Motion, and Apple sharing 60% of the market. Annual sales will reach almost 400 million by 2014, and as the number of users approaches one billion, consumer demand will grow for mobile broadband services that can share content, particularly high-quality video, across connected devices and the home network.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe, April 27 at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam, will feature consumer research and analysis on these new service opportunities in the mobile sector in the session “Mobile Video: The Cloud, The App Store & the Connected Home.”

Session speakers:

-- Klaus Milczewsky, Senior Mgr, Deutsche Telekom AG
-- Peter Percosan, CTO, Cable Europe Labs
-- Andy Tiller, Marketing Vice Chair, Femto Forum

In a recent Parks Associates survey on mobile convergence, over one-third of U.S. smartphone users expressed an interest in streaming multimedia content stored on home CE to their mobile device. Service providers will have to adapt their mobile and video strategies to meet the demands of multiple platforms, and the panelists will discuss these challenges, plus the impact of new devices such as the iPad and the HP Slate.

For information or to register for CONNECTIONS™ Europe, visit www.connectionseurope.com.

CONNECTIONS Europe features Technicolor keynote & executives from ADB, HbbTV, IBM, NDS, Omniphone, OpenTV and more

The speakers for CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit: Monetizing Connectivity and User Experiences, announced today by Parks Associates, offer unique executive insight into business strategies for digital content, value-added services, connected CE, and advanced video devices and services. International research firm Parks Associates will host the Summit on April 27, 2010, at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam.

Benoit Joly, Vice-President, Home Network & Applications, Technicolor, will present the opening keynote. Other speakers:

-- Jonathan Beavon, Director, Segment Marketing, NDS

-- Paul Bristow, VP Strategy, Middleware & Consumer Experience, ADB (Advanced Digital Broadcast)
-- Ronald Brockmann, Managing Director, Europe, ActiveVideo Networks
-- Rob van den Dam, Global Telecom Sector leader IBV, IBM
-- Klaus Illgner-Fehns, Managing Director, HbbTV
-- Trond Neergaard, Founder and Managing Partner, Cloudberry Associates
-- Steve Oetegenn, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Verimatrix
-- Rolf Uwe Placzek, CEO, Acetrax
-- Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
-- Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates
-- Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto
-- Olivier Wellmann, VP, Product Management, OpenTV
-- Speaker TBA, Omnifone

For information or to register, visit http://www.connectionseurope.com.

Business Models for On-Demand Lifestyles

In the traditional value chain for media, consumers have paid monthly or a la carte to aggregators or distributors. The advent of digital media gave rise to a new relationship, where the consumer and the content owner were connected directly, often bypassing those traditional content gatekeepers.

But even the content owners can lose out on this arrangement since it is still an open question on how to monetize over-the-top (OTT) media. In Europe in particular, consumers are downloading video in large numbers but primarily because the content is free. When they have to pay, they go to more traditional video venues, such as the cinema.

To read more, subscribe to the Parks Points.

Parks Associates to focus on opportunities in digital media & connected CE at CONNECTIONS™ Europe

Parks Associates announced the agenda for CONNECTIONS™ Europe: Monetizing Connectivity and User Experiences, which the international research firm will host on April 27, 2010, in Amsterdam.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe is the leading executive summit featuring European and international consumer research, top executives, and innovative companies in the digital living markets. The summit will examine business models and challenges related to digital media, including the potential of 3D video in the home, the role of value-added services in building ARPU, monetization of over-the-top content, and the challenge of pushing content to multiple connected CE, including smartphones and other mobile devices.

The preliminary agenda for CONNECTIONS™ Europe features the following sessions:
-- Bringing the Content
-- Extending the Video Experience to Multiple Screens
-- Controlling the Experience
-- Value-added Services & the Video Ecosystem
-- Mobile Video: The Cloud, the App Store & the Connected Home

CONNECTIONS™ Europe will feature Parks Associates’ expert consumer and industry research, with the company’s analysts presenting data from consumer research projects including All Eyes on Video, Consumer Decision Process, Residential Energy Management, and Digital Media Evolution.

Early sponsors for CONNECTIONS™ Europe, also members of Parks Associates’ Premier Program, include ActiveVideo Networks and PacketVideo. Visit www.parkspremier.com for more information on the Premier Program.

Visit www.connectionseurope.com for more information about CONNECTIONS™ Europe. The deadline for speaker submissions is March 1, 2010.

Parks Associates supports Cable Congress 2010

Parks Associates is a media partner at Cable Congress 2010 to be held March 3-5 in Brussels, Belgium.

Cable Congress 2010 features high-level keynotes and panel discussions featuring top executives from Europe and the world's leading cable, technology and media companies.

For more information about this event, click here.

Parks Associates announces CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit Series for 2010

International research firm Parks Associates will host two CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summits in 2010. The first CONNECTIONS™ Europe of 2010 will be April 27 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This executive summit will focus on connected consumer electronics and digital media, including analysis of new monetization models and the impact of technologies such as 3D TV and smartphones.

The second CONNECTIONS™ Europe of 2010 will take place in November in Paris, France. Both events will feature Parks Associates’ expert consumer and industry research, with the company’s analysts presenting data from consumer research projects including All Eyes on Video, Consumer Decision Process, Residential Energy Management, and Digital Media Evolution.

Parks Associates projects that by year-end 2013, revenues in major Western European markets from video-on-demand (VOD) – including traditional pay-TV services and online video services – will approach 12 billion Euros.

Early sponsors for CONNECTIONS™ Europe, also members of Parks Associates’ Premier Program, include ActiveVideo Networks and PacketVideo. Visit www.parkspremier.com for more information on the Premier Program.

Parks Associates will start accepting speaker submissions for the April 2010 Summit on January 18, 2010.

Parks Associates announces new Premier Program to connect with digital living executives at its 2010 Industry Events

Parks Associates announced the Premier Sponsorship Program and the 2010 event schedule, which includes CONNECTIONS™, the inaugural Smart Energy Summit, CONNECTIONS™ Summits in Europe and at CES, and monthly research Webcasts. The Premier Sponsorship Program offers opportunities for companies to participate at multiple events and receive customized benefits and additional recognition throughout the year.

Our conferences focus on core areas of growth and opportunity in energy management, entertainment platforms and services, home controls, mobile services, and advertising. Our events feature networking with key executives and the latest findings from our consumer and industry research. We developed the Premier Program so our sponsors have multiple opportunities to connect with our audiences and achieve maximum exposure as leaders in the digital living space.

Companies join the Premier Sponsorship Program by sponsoring different events throughout the year:

CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase, June 8-10, Santa Clara, is the premier executive event focused on market developments and growth factors for advanced digital lifestyle solutions.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, March 2010, Amsterdam, focuses on international and European consumer research, with sessions examining new digital platforms, consumer buying habits, and new business models and opportunities for TV operators, content developers, advertisers, and CE companies.

CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, January 7, Las Vegas, is the perfect start for CES, with sessions on trends, emerging business models and technologies, and growth opportunities for companies developing products and services for the digital home.

Smart Energy Summit, January 25-27, Austin, Tex., offers a unique combination of market research and real-world expertise in examining residential energy management and smart grid technologies.

Parks Associates’ monthly research Webcasts, hosted by the company’s leading analysts, feature the last data and insight on key digital living categories, including set-tops and connected CE, smartphones and mobile convergence, 3D TV and advanced video services, and future advertising strategies.

Current Premier Sponsor includes RedMere.

For more information about the Premier Sponsorship Program, visit www.parkspremier.com.

Parks Associates supports IPTV World Forum, Eastern Europe

Parks Associates is supporting the IPTV World Forum Eastern Europe in Prague, Czech Republic from October 20th to 21st.

This 2009 event in Prague will continue the IPTV World Forum Series pattern, giving visitors valuable insight into the plans, deployment and expansion strategies, technology choices, business models, marketing approaches and future considerations of many of the region's key players. The operator speakers are helping to make IPTV a reality in Eastern Europe, and they will be joined by a carefully selected group of commentators and experts in various fields of technology, business and content to provide a balanced show that covers the topics that are relevant to this region today.

For more information about this event, click here.

Parks Associates supports Social TV Forum, London

Parks Associates is a media partner for the Social TV Forum to be held September 28-29 in London.

This conference will examine the current state of social TV, the challenges in developing and implementing social TV experiences, and the future outlook of social TV. Understand the key trends during social TV - hear an up to date analysis on the current state of the market and how it continues to grow and attract new audiences. Learn about the integration of social networking into the TV and video value chain.

For more information about this event, click here.

CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES to focus on connected products and services and business strategies for 3D TV, advertising, and energy management

Parks Associates today released the preliminary agenda for CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, which focuses on new business strategies for connected CE, service providers, 3D video, Smart Grid technologies, and other connected home solutions.

The international research firm will host this event on January 7, 2010, in the Las Vegas Convention Center, on the first day of 2010 International CES. Parks Associates’ expert analysts will moderate the Summit sessions, presenting consumer research on buying habits, purchase intentions, and interest in a variety of connected home solutions. The sessions also feature executives in the digital living markets, who will discuss the challenges of today’s business climate and the areas of service and innovation that fit best with the changing needs of households throughout the world.

Summit Sessions:
• Consumer Electronics Purchases: Are Consumers Back in the Buying Mood?
• The Connected TV – Displays and Beyond
• Service Provider Strategies for the Connected Home
• The Mobile Aspect of Unified Infotainment: Opportunities and Challenges
• Advances in Television Advertising
• Bringing the Smart Grid to the Smart Home
• 3D: Adding New Dimensions to Entertainment

For more information, visit www.connectionssummit.com.

Parks Associates is also hosting CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on November 4, 2009.

Broadband Forum to announce midyear IPTV and broadband Stats

The Broadband Forum, a global consortium of approximately 200 member companies dedicated to the development of global broadband network specifications, will be unveiling the Q209 global broadband figures and IPTV statistics at this month’s Broadband World Forum Europe event in Paris.

The research will be made public by Robin Mersh, Broadband Forum’s Chief Operating Officer on September 8, 2009. He will also provide a brief update on BBFs latest work, and new developments around the areas of broadband network energy efficiency, fiber integration and new quality measure.

Parks Associates is an analyst sponsor of the Broadband World Forum Europe event. In addition, Kurt Scherf is speaking in the session Bringing the Network into the Home: From Connected Home to Real Digital Home, Tuesday, 8 September, 14:00 – 15:30.