ITV

Category: IPTV

  • Cisco to help Portuguese telecom service provider for convergence of IPTV

    Cisco to help Portuguese telecom service provider for convergence of IPTV

    NEW DELHI: Cisco is to join Portuguese telecom service provider NOS for convergence of Internet Protocol (IP) video services and broadband.

     

    Cisco will provide IP-delivered video services of NOS that offers mobile and 4G networks, covering more than 90 per cent of the Portuguese population, and free internet at more than 600,000 hotspots in Portugal and 12 million across the world.

     

    Cisco in a statement said its technology will enable the Portuguese mobile service provider to offer video and broadband (DOCSIS) services over a single access infrastructure. The strategy will be enabling optimised network usage and reduced operational expenses. Cisco does not share specific details on reduction in Opex.

     

    By combining delivery of video and broadband services with the Cisco Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), NOS can manage its infrastructure to address varying demands on its digital video and IP traffic. Moreover, Cisco said its Evolved Services Platform will support NOS to provide software orchestration that manages the capacity migration from video into DOCSIS on the Cisco CCAP platform.

     

    Cisco said its CCAP will provide operational simplicity, service velocity and scalability for NOS cable business.

     

    The deployment includes the Cisco Universal Broadband Router uBR10K, 3G60, RF Gateway 10 and DS384 line cards, Cisco said.

     

    CTO of NOS Miguel Veiga Martins said: “By converging IP delivered video services and broadband access network, we can invest the right capacity in the right places at the right time. Cisco’s CCAP solution has proven to provide us with the operational efficiency that we need to ensure that we can continue to offer innovative experiences to our subscribers.” 

     

  • Cisco expands reach in Indian digital homes

    Cisco expands reach in Indian digital homes

    KOLKATA: US technology major, Cisco has expanded its reach to more than 40 million digital homes across India with its video guard conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) solutions.

     

    Using the industry estimated average of five people per household, Cisco is now enabling a rich and advanced TV experience for more than 200 million viewers in India, an important milestone that  reinforces the company’s leadership at a time when the pay-TV industry is on the cusp of a major transformation, view the analysts.

     

    Cisco’s CA and DRM technology ensures critical protection of premium content with a zero piracy track record. A strong team of engineers working at the research and development center in Bangalore is dedicated to the technology needs of leading satellite and cable service providers in India and worldwide.

     

    Cisco is a pay-TV technology partner for more than 150 pay-TV operators as well as media and entertainment companies worldwide, including leading direct-to-home and cable operator customers in India, such as Airtel Digital TV, Asianet, DEN, GTPL, Hathway and Tata Sky.

     

    “In the changing landscape of pay-TV services in India, this milestone highlights our continued growth with several leading MSOs in the country,” said Cisco Service Provider Video Software Solutions vice president sales Asia Pacific Sue Taylor.

     

    Cisco India and SAARC president Dinesh Malkani said, “Achieving the milestone of 40 million homes in India reinforces our commitment to the government’s mandate to digitise the cable industry and also speaks of our ability to provide best in class solutions and technology. We work closely with our customers to enable them to provide an unparalleled experience to their subscribers as well as help monetise their investments.”

  • More youth ‘cutting the cord’ in US, says new study

    More youth ‘cutting the cord’ in US, says new study

    NEW DELHI: Young viewers in the United States are streaming more and say they are less loyal to their pay TV service, according to a new survey conducted for new TV network Pivot.

     

    The 2014 survey found that young – 18 to 34 years old – viewers with pay TV service are spending as much time watching traditional TV – 39 per cent of their viewing – as they did in 2013. But the amount of time spent streaming is up to 43 per cent of their time from 37 per cent last year.

     

    More of those 18 to 34 years age group who subscribe to pay TV and stream video – 35 per cent – say they are looking to leave pay TV for a broadband-only lifestyle, up from 27 per cent last year.

     

    The actual number of young viewers who have cut the cord and use broadband only to access video was flat at 13 per cent. But the number of these “independent broadbanders” who say they are happy streaming and do not plan to return to pay TV increased to 9 per cent from 8 per cent last year.

     

    The survey was conducted for Pivot by research company MarketCast which surveyed 2,515 adults in the 18 to 49 years bracket, in April.

  • VoIP services market revenues to rise to $88 billion by 2018: Infonetics

    VoIP services market revenues to rise to $88 billion by 2018: Infonetics

    NEW DELHI: The global business and residential VoIP services market rose eight per cent in 2013 to $68 billion and are expected to yield a revenue of $88 billion by 2018.

     

    According to Infonetics Research, SIP trunking increased 50 per cent in 2013 from the prior year, driven predominantly by activity in North America.

     

    Infonetics Research says EMEA is expected to be a strong contributor for SIP trunking business in 2014.

     

    “Business VoIP services have moved well beyond early stages to mainstream, strengthened by the growing adoption of SIP trunking and cloud services worldwide. Hosted unified communications are seeing strong interest up market as mid-market and larger enterprises evaluate and move more applications to the cloud, and this is positively impacting the market,” said Infonetics Research principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS Diane Myers.

     

    Sales of hosted PBX and unified communication (UC) services increased 13 per cent in 2013, and seats grew 35 per cent due to continued demand for enterprise cloud-based services, the report said.

     

    Global residential VoIP subscribers increased eight per cent to 212 million in 2013.

     

    Infonetics Research says managed services are benefitting from the continued adoption of IP PBXs: Roughly 10 per cent–20 per cent of new IP PBX lines sold are part of a managed service or outsourced contract.

  • Digital TV Research forecasts North America to add five million Pay-TV subs by 2020

    Digital TV Research forecasts North America to add five million Pay-TV subs by 2020

    MUMBAI: Digital TV penetration reached 94.2 per cent at the end of 2013, and will increase to 100 per cent by 2017 is the forecast that has been made by Digital TV Research. Of the 17 million digital homes to be added between 2013 and 2020, 5.5 million will come from cable, 5.9 million from IPTV, 4.6 million from DTT and 0.9 million from satellite TV added the research.

     

    Despite a small decline in 2013, the number of pay-TV subscribers in North America is expected to witness a spike, with Digital TV in North America forecasted to make five million additions by 2020.

     

    However, pay-TV penetration is expected to drop from 87 per cent in 2010 to 83.8 per cent by 2020, as pay-TV penetration has peaked in Canada and US subscribers fell slightly in 2013; most of the pay-TV subscriber losses over the last few years have been analogue cable subs. With 18.39 million analogue cable subscribers still prevalent at the end of 2010, the number is expected to fall to 3.75 million by the end of this year.

     

    According to the study, satellite TV is expected to overtake cable to become the largest pay-TV platform revenue generator in 2015. However, satellite TV revenues will increase by only $1.2 billion between 2013 and 2020, to $42.8 billion. Cable revenues will fall by nearly $13 billion in the same period (dropping by $2.5 billion this year alone) the study added.

  • Canadians will double up on pay-TV

    Canadians will double up on pay-TV

    MUMBAI: More than 2.5 million Canadian households will have multiple TV subscriptions, paying for TV through a traditional distributor and at least one other OTT (over-the-top) TV service, up over 150% from 2012 levels. By the end of 2014, the number of households that will pay for a second basket of TV content will be more than 100 times greater than the number of households that have cut the cord in 2013, and cancelled their subscription TV, according to Deloitte’s 2014 Technology Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions report.

    For more than a decade, Deloitte’s TMT Predictions have provided advance insights into the implications of what’s to come in technology, media and telecommunications. Deloitte’s TMT Predictions are based on global research including in-depth interviews with clients, industry analysts, global industry leaders and more than 8,000 Deloitte member-firm TMT practitioners.

    “As more and more content owners, aggregators and platforms such as cable, telecom and satellite providers make their content available online through subscription, the number of Canadian households with multiple subscriptions will rise,” said Duncan Stewart, Deloitte’s Director of Research for TMT. “So far, at least, the cord-stackers are running far ahead of the cord-cutters. Households will want the best quality and an abundance of content which will have an impact on bandwidth and put upward pressure on monthly download allowances.”

    Organizations that offer apps, content and services will have a greater opportunity to win a share of the consumer’s wallet as Canadians double up, or even triple up, on TV subscriptions. With global combined sales of PCs, smartphones, tablets, TVs and computer gaming equipment plateauing in 2014, technology spending may shift from hardware to the software, content and services categories.

    Seniors close the smartphone generation gap

    Based on current data and projections, Deloitte predicts that market adoption for PCs, tablets, TVs, computer gaming equipment and smartphones may be saturated and global sales for the combined revenues of these top selling devices will level off, but the opportunity for smartphone adoption will be amongst seniors 65 years and older. Currently less than 30% of seniors own a smartphone in the developed world, and the number will rise 50% in 2014. Deloitte also predicts the smartphone generation gap will continue closing and will possibly be non-existent by 2018. But some things may not change: 30% of those over 65 who own a smartphone have never downloaded an app.

    “The change in the physical form of the smartphone is key to why seniors will embrace the device more and more,” said Richard Lee, a TMT Consulting Partner. “Smartphone screen sizes have increased from smaller than 3.5-inches to at least 4-inches. The larger screen size provides improved functionality and experience for everyone, especially seniors.”

    The appeal of larger screens will also mean growth in the adoption of phablets. Devices boasting screen sizes between 5.0 and 6.9-inches diagonally will represent a quarter of smartphone sales worldwide, but Canadian sales will likely be lower: 15-20% of smartphones, or just over a million phablets out of a 6 million annual smartphone market.

    Reduced patient wait times and decreased education and training costs: Deloitte also predicts that technology will reduce patient wait times and decrease the cost of health care by shifting the focus from prevention to early intervention. There will be 75 million eVisits in 2014 in North America, potentially saving over $3 billion compared to in-person doctor visits, and will benefit patients and doctors both for receiving basic diagnoses, and reducing wait times as well as providing better care for remote communities through services like tele-stroke.

    There is long-term potential for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to disrupt the education market as cash-strapped governments and students face costs associated with education, but not until key challenges are overcome. Enrollment in MOOCs in 2014 is expected to increase by 100%, but a surprising 93% or more of MOOC students fail to complete courses they registered for.

    “MOOCs are an increasingly attractive method of learning and a suitable education and training model.” said Stewart. “There’s a lot of discussion about their potential for university and college education, but the more exciting near term market is MOOCs for enterprise education and on-the-job training.”

    The 10 most important technology, media and telecommunications predictions for Canada:

       1)  Phablet are not a Phad – The lines will blur as phones and tablets converge. Phablets – part phone, part tablet – are smartphones with a screen size of 5.0-6.9 inches. They’re not doomed because of their size: global sales will be 100% higher than in 2013, with 25% of 2014 smartphone sales, or 300 million units, worth $125 billion.

       2)  Wearables: the eyes have it – Global sales for all categories of wearable computers in 2014 will exceed $3 billion. Some wearable devices will be better positioned for success than others, with smart glasses likely to sell 4 million units at a price point of about $500, for a $2 billion market.

       3) Doubling up on pay TV – By the end of 2014, as many as 50 million homes worldwide will pay for TV through a traditional distributor and have at least one other OTT (over-the-top) TV service.

       4) Narrowing the gap: seniors embrace the smartphone – In 2014, the fastest growing demographic for smartphone adoption globally will be individuals who are 65 and older, with 50% increases year-over-year, and resulting in more than 40% of seniors owning a smartphone.

        5)eVisits – In 2014, the global health market will be driven by eVisits, which are an alternative to face-to-face appointments that offer cost savings to public and private health systems, opportunities for improved patient experiences and access to care; as well as reduced wait times. 100 million eVisits in 2014, with 75 million in North America, saving as much as $3 billion.

        6)MOOCs (short term/long term) – Enrollment in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) will be up 100% compared to 2012 to over 10 million courses, but they will not disrupt the tertiary education market in 2014, with fewer than 5% completing their courses. But the enterprise market looks like it will be an early adopter, both in Canada and globally.

        7)Death of the voice call – but only for some – The proliferation of smartphones, data plans and full-featured messaging apps is expected to create a category of voice seldoms. In 2014, the 20% of Canadian cellular customers who log the fewest minutes of voice calls will spend less than two minutes per day talking on their phones. Instead, many are letting their fingers do the talking through various text messaging applications.

        8)Those who like TV like it a lot – By the end of 2014, the 20% of English-speaking Canadians who watch the fewest minutes of traditional TV will watch just over 30 minutes per day, down from nearly 60 minutes in 2004. At the same time, the one fifth of English Canadians who watch the most traditional TV are predicted to watch even more: 8.2 hours per day, about the same as in 2004, but up 10% from 2009 levels. This decline amongst the first group and the increase amongst the group who watch the most TV will have virtually no effect on the average English Canadian TV viewing of 3.8 hours per day. Demographic commonalities are found in TV viewing behaviours by age, language and ethnicity and even by income and education, which means that advertisers will have the opportunity to better target the audience they want to reach.

        9)The Converged Living Room: a plateau approaches – Global combined sales of smartphones, tablets, PCs, TV sets and gaming consoles have enjoyed remarkable growth since 2003, almost 12% per year, but Deloitte predicts a plateau in growth is imminent. Sales will grow at a slowing rate with a ceiling of about $800 billion a year.

      10)  TV sports rights: extra premium – The global value of premium sports video rights will increase by 14% in 2014, compared to growth of 5% from 2009-2013. This surge will be led by North American sports leagues, including the recent Canadian NHL announcement, and European soccer.

    Deloitte’s TMT predictions will be showcased in a 12-stop Canadian road show with events starting on January 14. Sign up to attend an event here. Visit to learn more about Deloitte’s TMT Predictions 2014.

  • STB duties waived, duty on convergence products cut to 5%

    NEW DELHI: In the 2008-09 budget, the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has no major giveaway to the media and entertainment sector except in the areas of convergence and digitalisation.

     

    The budget has waived duties on the set-top boxes, giving a boost to the cable TV, direct-to-home (DTH) and IPTV operators. Chidambaram has also reduced duty on convergence products from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.

    Presenting the budget, Chidambaram said specific parts of STBs and specified raw materials for use in IT and electronic hardware industry have been fully exempted from customs duty.

    The minister also announced that to establish parity between devices used in the information/communication sector and the entertainment sector, he was reducing the customs duty on convergence products by half.

    While the announcement partly meets the demand by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation relating to STBs, it has failed to meet the long-standing demands of the film industry articulated through various organisations including Ficci and representations to the Information and Broadcasting ministry.

    Noting that India‘s music, literature, dance, art, cuisine and especially films are attracting huge interest around the world, Chidambaram announced a provision of Rs 750 million to the Indian Council of Cultural Relations to design and implement a programme to project these in a sophisticated and subtle manner. He described this as the ‘soft power‘ of India.

    In a move that may help the printing and newspaper industry, Chidambaram announced reduction of the excise duty from 12 to 8 per cent on “paper, paper board and articles made therefrom manufactured out of non-conventional raw materials by units not having an attached bamboo/wood pulp making plant.” There would be a further reduction on clearances up to 3,500 tonnes from 8 per cent to nil. Furthermore, the excise duty on certain varieties of writing, printing and packing paper will be reduced from 12 per cent to 8 per cent.
  • IPTV revenues to touch $512 million in 2007: Frost & Sullivan

    IPTV revenues to touch $512 million in 2007: Frost & Sullivan

    MUMBAI: Dwindling wireline revenues, consumer demand for greater control over viewing preferences, and the explosion of broadband in various high growth markets across Asia-Pacific represent the impetus for the development of IPTV in the region.

    While service providers across Asia-Pacific have invested heavily in the network infrastructure required to offer such services, the key success factor for IPTV lies in the gamut of content that service providers are able to provide consumers.

    New analysis from global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific IPTV Market, reveals that revenues in this market – covering 12 major Asia-Pacific countries ex-Japan – is estimated to increase from $353.4 million in 2006 to $512.4 million next year. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 37.5 per cent (2006-2013), the region’s IPTV market is forecasted to be worth $3.3 billion by end-2013.

    Frost & Sullivan senior research analyst Aravind Venkatesh says, “IPTV is the next notable wave in the consumer telecom space and service providers are planning to leverage this new technology to offer high quality interactive services to customers. While revenues from fixed-line services continue to decline, IPTV is likely to reduce churn, increase ARPU (average revenue per user) levels, and generate revenue streams in the long term.”

    IPTV is presently available in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, and is expected to be introduced in India and the Philippines in 2007. Countries like China, India and Australia are expected to be high growth markets by 2009.

    China, in particular, holds immense potential as it has the largest broadband subscriber base in Asia-Pacific. Residential subscribers constitute approximately 70 per cent of China’s 47.8 million broadband subscriber base. China together with Hong Kong, which is said to be one of the most sophisticated IPTV markets in the world, is expected to account for nearly 60 percent of the region’s IPTV revenues by end-2013.

    While initial response from end users has been positive, service providers face the challenge of procuring quality and regional content, most of which is exclusively offered by cable and satellite operators. The lack of quality content is a common problem for service providers across the region. Although partnerships with content providers and broadcasting companies aid in securing access rights, cable TV providers or IPTV market leaders already have exclusive access to the content.

    Venkatesh adds, “The lack of sufficient bandwidth and highly skewed broadband distribution are major inhibitors for the growth of IPTV in Asia-Pacific. While Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Japan are mature markets for broadband, developing markets like China, India and Malaysia have dismally low broadband penetration.”

    The lack of bandwidth in developing markets requires the implementation of high compression codecs and watermarking technologies to achieve the expected quality of service (QoS) levels. This may however be only a short-term solution. Service providers should scale their networks rapidly to offer bandwidth-hungry applications to consumers.

  • IPTV touches 2.95 mn subscribers: Point Topic study

    IPTV touches 2.95 mn subscribers: Point Topic study

    MUMBAI: Research firm Point Topic has come out with a report on the growth of IPTV.

    The report states that Global IPTV subscribers reached 2.95 million as of 30 June 2006, up two-fold from 1.47 million a year earlier.

    Hong Kong’s PCCW is the largest IPTV operator worldwide with 444,000 paying IPTV subscribers, followed by France Telecom with over 300,000 and Spain’s Telefonica with 267,000 paying IPTV subscribers.

    Europe is the most important region for IPTV, displaying the strongest growth in subscriber numbers during that time-frame.

    The Asia-Pacific region had 987,000 IPTV subscribers at end-June, versus 612,000 a year earlier; Europe had 1.51 million, up from 521,000; and the Americas had 409,000, up from 267,000.

    Point-Topic’s research shows that the picture of IPTV development worldwide remains a complex one. The success of an operator in executing an IPTV strategy depends on many things. The most important are

    – the local competitive environment, in the form of cable and direct-to-home (DTH) satellite operators

    – the local regulatory environment. In some cases, the regulator will not permit telcos to enter the TV market, in other cases telcos are allowed to carry TV over fibre but not copper, and in other cases there are no restrictions

    – the type and condition of the network. Operators with a largely fibre network, such as FastWeb and PCCW, were able to deploy IPTV early. Operators with unsuitable copper networks, especially in the US, are building fibre to enable services such as IPTV.

  • Alcatel-Lucent supports SingTel’s IPTV technical trial

    Alcatel-Lucent supports SingTel’s IPTV technical trial

    MUMBAI: Alcatel-Lucent has announced that it has been selected by Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), Southeast Asia’s largest telecom operator, for its Internet protocol television (IPTV) trial, which began in October 2006.

    Based on a combination of Alcatel-Lucent’s services integration solution and Microsoft TV® IPTV Edition software platform, the project will include broadcast TV and video on demand (VoD), with content featuring high definition (HD)-quality picture resolution.

    Alcatel-Lucent will provide SingTel with an end-to-end IPTV solution and will use the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform to offer an enhanced user experience, enabling user-friendly features like instant channel change, multiple picture-in-picture and personal video recorder (PVR) functionality (such as one-touch recording and pausing live TV). Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a complete services integration solution that brings together the network infrastructure, software platforms and integration skill sets required to deliver a superior user experience.

    Alcatel-Lucent is working closely with SingTel to develop an array of useful applications, including audio support in different languages, music-on-demand, karaoke-on-demand, customer self-service (allowing users to subscribe to new services and make account modifications) and bill viewing.

    Alcatel-Lucent’s solution also includes HP ProLiant servers and video headend systems from Harmonic. SingTel is using Harmonic’s HD and SD real-time MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) DiviCom Electra video encoders, CLEARcut™ offline storage encoding solution and NMX Digital Service Manager™.

    SingTel director of IPTV and content Low Ka Hoe says, “We are very excited about the launch of our IPTV technical trial. SingTel is confident that Alcatel-Lucent’s telecom expertise and experience in deploying end-to-end IPTV networks and integrating the Harmonic and Microsoft solution, will go far in ensuring the success of this trial.”

    Alcatel-Lucent Asia Pacific head Frederic Rose says, “Offering an advanced IPTV solution ensures that SingTel will continue to lead the way as one of Asia-Pacific’s most innovative operators. Alcatel-Lucent and SingTel are also working together on other value-added applications that will allow consumers to enjoy a better TV experience.”

    In June 2006, SingTel selected Alcatel-Lucent for the first ever Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) trial in the Asia Pacific region and the first residential Metro Ethernet trial in Singapore.

    Alcatel-Lucent provides purpose-built technology solutions and services integration that allow carriers to reduce the cost and complexity associated with large scale deployments. Alcatel-Lucent is involved in more than 40 major triple play deployments and more than 40 network transformation projects worldwide.