Sezmi and Oregan Networks Offer Solutions for Interactive TV in Developing Markets

It's interesting that two different releases crossed my desk this morning, both related to interactive television services in developing markets (Malaysia and Latin America), but with different approaches.

Oregan Networks and Telefónica announced a collaboration whereby Oregan's Web hardware an software solutions will be used to bring online video and other Web content to Telefónica's customers via a set-top box. Although 64% of Telefónica's subscriber base is in Latin America, IPTV and other pay-TV services are notably limited in their deployments in this region. According to a recent Parks Associates study, however, television services in the Latin America market will grow by double digits over the next five years, outpacing service growth in Asia and other emerging markets.

Sezmi, a provider of a hybrid digital television offering in the U.S., has extended its reach into Malaysia with an agreement with YTL Communications, the Internet arm of YTL Corporation, Malaysia’s leading utilities and infrastructure company. The service will provide for wireless delivery of all consumer entertainment and communications services to homes and mobile devices in Malaysia by the end of 2011.

The wireless “quadruple play” service will offer voice, data and television services to the home and mobile devices over a hybrid broadcast and 4G wireless network. This hybrid television component of the offering is based on Sezmi’s television solution, which has already been deployed in the U.S. market.

Oregan Networks Unveils Onyx Browser for Connected TVs

Oregan Networks announced the Oregan Media Browser 4.0, which they've dubbed Onyx. It's aimed at the DTV and set-top box markets and provides "simplified accessibility to multiple sources of trusted Internet and personal content on TVs through a single resident TV application that requires minimal set up and can be easily 'called up' in the form of a widget and dismissed without leaving regular broadcast channels or switching TV inputs."

Interesting times in which we live. I talked to Steve Tomlin, Chumby's CEO, this afternoon. He gave me an update on the widget development that they're doing, which includes work and demonstrations with major silicon vendors such as Broadcom, Freescale, Marvell, and Samsung.

I also touched base with Panasonic and got the update on the VIERA Cast applications that they are bringing to both DTVs and to Blu-ray players. The addition of Amazon.com Video On Demand content is a significant value to that particular solution.

On Tuesday, I caught up with Mike Harris at AnySource Media, a company that has developed a platform to bring in Web content to a connected TV. It's very different from other approaches, in that the "normalization" of content is done in the cloud and not on the TV itself, giving TV manufacturers greater ability to create rich content libraries and not subject users to just a few offerings. There is also an ad component to what AnySource is doing, and I think this story is going to play out in a significant way as the connected CE platforms develop. For CE manufacturers to differentiate and potentially get access to growing ad revenues, they're going to need to be able to use assets like navigational pages and on-screen guides for ad real estate. I think that's also the beauty behind the Macrovision Neon CE guide. Obviously, the main goal of the guides will be to help consumers discover and organize all kinds of digital media assets, but it will be interesting to see how the ad revenues work in this realm.

ActiveVideo Networks - From IPTV to Connected CE

CED Magazine covers ActiveVideo Networks' moves to "Web infuse" not only TV services, but also consumer electronics products. I am hearing a lot more activity occuring in the space of encoding, hardware, software, and silicon solutions that are aimed at bridging premium Web services to the TV. I had written about a couple of initiatives while back - Oregan Networks and Intel's Widget Channel approach. ActiveVideo Networks is also addressing this space, and will demonstrate examples at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.