ITV

Tag: France Telecom

  • Satellite TV to overtake cable TV revenue by 2016: Study

    Satellite TV to overtake cable TV revenue by 2016: Study

    MUMBAI: By 2016 satellite TV revenue will overtake cable TV revenue for the first time.

    Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its November 2012 Pay TV Services and Subscribers report, which forecasts and analyzes the telco Internet protocol television (IPTV), cable video, and satellite video services markets.

    The global pay-TV market (cable, satellite, and telco IPTV) totaled $137 billion in the first half of 2012 (1H12), a 9.4 per cent increase over the same time last year. Global pay-TV service revenue is forecast by Infonetics to grow at a seven per cent CAGR from 2011 to 2016, spurred by emerging markets India, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Russia and China.

    Latin America, the smallest but fastest-growing pay-TV market, is on track to jump by 23 per cent this year to top $23 billion. The number of global pay-TV subscribers will reach 719 million in 2012, up by six per cent from 2011.
    While cable subscribers continue to make up the lion’s share (60 per cent in the first half of the year) of pay-TV subscribers, growth is strongest in the telco IPTV segment, up by 19 per cent in the first half of this year over the second half of last year.

    Verizon and AT&T are neck-and-neck for revenue share in the fast-growing telco IPTV market, followed by France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom in Europe and NTT and CTC in Asia Infonetics Research directing analyst for broadband access, pay TV Jeff Heynen said, “Ongoing challenging economic conditions in the key revenue-generating markets of North America and Western Europe have resulted in slowing subscriber and revenue growth in the cable TV market”.

    Subscribers are far less loyal than they used to be. The cable TV industry is characterised more by churn than cord cutting, as subscribers take advantage of introductory pricing on satellite and IPTV subscriptions that’s 30-50 per cent below their cable bills. “DirecTV, Verizon, AT&T, and Virgin Media have all set their sights on existing cable subscribers, and they’re seeing their subscriber bases increase as cable TV subscriptions shrink,” Heynen said.

  • France Telecom, Motorola demonstrate a seamless mobility innovation

    France Telecom, Motorola demonstrate a seamless mobility innovation

    MUMBAI: A few days ago France Telecom and Motorola publicly demonstrated an innovative Network Controlled Seamless Mobility. This is one of the results of the companies’ seamless mobility strategic partnership signed in January 2005.

    This collaboration aims at developing and deploying integrated services using a wide range of devices, applications, and wireless access networks and technologies for the enterprise and consumer space.

    Network Controlled Seamless Mobility permits simultaneously to the operator to have a solution that enhances its services quality, optimizes the use of network capacity and achieves a greater end-user experience.

    The result of the development shows that seamless mobility can be experienced with a wide range of applications while the handover is controlled by the operator network with IP protocols. In this solution, the handover decision is managed with centralized information regarding radio link conditions, access networks load, application quality of service (QoS) needs, user preferences, and operator policies.

    The demonstration showcased video streaming from a remote application server to the A910 Motorola handset where a seamless handover between Edge and WiFi occurs at the optimized instant for the network operator and user.

    France Telecom says that its collaboration with Motorola is a success. The technical teams demonstrated complementarities in the study of algorithms designed to be implemented in next generation networks. The obtained results will serve the promotion of new standards.

    For Motorola, this collaboration result is a new step towards the realisation of its vision for Seamless Mobility through current and next generation networks and applications based on extensive R&D investments and understanding of both service provider and end-user needs. The jointly developed technologies have been intensively tested in order to anticipate and set up the next generation of standards.

  • IPTV survey reveals limited initial revenue expectations

    IPTV survey reveals limited initial revenue expectations

    MUMBAI: Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a global survey of 302 technology and media firm executives. All of them are involved in or close to the IPTV business—network operators, equipment vendors, consumer electronics firms, broadcasters/studios and content providers.

    Key Findings:

    There is long-term optimism in IPTV: 34 per cent of the executives we surveyed believe IPTV will generate “significant revenue” by 2009 and another 57 per cent are at least “somewhat confident” that this will be the case.

    But, few companies expect a substantial IPTV impact on their bottom line. Rather, most see the larger impact being on top-line growth. Network operators also hope IPTV will drive the take-up of broadband access connections and help reduce customer churn.

    Content is critical to network operators’ business model. They are currently acquiring it however they can, and the largest proportion of respondents say distribution without rights of ownership will be the primary means of sourcing IPTV content over the next year, according to an official release.

    Video-on-demand is expected to be the chief money-maker among different IPTV services, both today and over the longer term. There is little consensus on other likely revenue sources. Respondents did not see advertising as a potential money-earner.

    The chief hurdles to IPTV consumer adoption: a dearth of compelling content and lingering quality-of-service problems. Not a single respondent from this group is very confident that IPTV will spur significant revenue growth within a year of launch and no more than half are fairly or very confident of generating substantial revenue by 2009.

    Despite respondents’ pessimism that IPTV will spur growth in the near-term, major players are in various stages of testing IPTV. These include Verizon, AT&T, Telecom Italia, France Telecom and China Netcom, the release adds.