ITV

Tag: IPTV

  • GlobeVISION forges IPTV distribution agreement with Korea’s CGN TV

    GlobeVISION forges IPTV distribution agreement with Korea’s CGN TV

    MUMBAI: The Los Angeles-headquartered digital media service provider GlobeVISION, Inc. has inked an agreement with CGN TV, Korea’s largest Christian programming broadcaster, to carry content from the network on GlobeVISION’s PIE Service, an on-demand Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service for Asian-Americans and Asian-Canadians.

    The deal will bring CGN TV’s Christian-valued programs directly to Asian-Americans and Asian-Canadians throughout North America when GlobeVISION’s PIE Service launches on 1 July.

    The PIE service will launch with thousands of Korean titles ranging from moves to television series to news and sports. It will quickly expand to include programming from all over Asia including China and India, states an official release.

    CGN TV is the latest in a string of high-profile content providers to jump onto the GlobeVISION bandwagon. Korea’s two largest private broadcasters (MBC and SBS), largest cable media group (CJ Media) and top movie studio (CJ Entertainment) have signed deals positioning GlobeVISION and the powerhouse distribution channel for Korean content in North America, adds the release.

    “We are pleased to be able to add these values-based programming options to GlobeVISION’s already announced lineup of news, culture, sports and entertainment,” said Edward Bach, founder and CEO/president of GlobeVISION. “GlobeVISION recognizes how important family and faith-based programming is, especially considering what a hot topic it has been in the U.S. lately.”

    The deal also forms a strategic marketing and promotion partnership to boost awareness of CGN TV’s subscription satellite service. CGN TV’s 24 hour satellite service currently beams Christian-themed programming, including culture, worship and educational programs into 123 countries.

  • Countdown begins for CommunicAsia2006 and EnterpriseIT2006

    Countdown begins for CommunicAsia2006 and EnterpriseIT2006

    MUMBAI: CommunicAsia and Enterprise IT, the region’s foremost technology shows, will be returning once again to the Singapore Expo from the 20 to 23 June.

    CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT and BroadcastAsia are key components of the five-day Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX) which is held annually in Singapore in the month of June.

    Reflecting the buoyant market and the latest trends, some of the key technologies addressed on the show floor include mobile entertainment, IPTV, 3G, VoIP, NGN, WiMAX, information security and embedded technologies, states an official release.

    Visitors from India can expect to see the latest innovations from the most influential world vendors and operators, including Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, NTT Docomo, Lucent, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG among many others. The event will also feature 21 international group pavilions including Thailand, US, Korea, the European Union and China among others, in addition to the ESC-led Indian pavilion.

    India continues to have the fastest growing ICT market in the world, with a predicted combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19 percent from 2004 through 2008, according to research house Gartner. Gartner estimates that ICT spending in India will surpass US$54.8 billion by 2008, a rise from US$29.5 billion in 2004. Reflecting the surge in ICT demand in India, a total of 555 Indian visitors attended CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT in 2005, posting a 25 per cent increase over 2004.

    The focus of the high-powered CommunicAsia Summit this year turns towards mobile applications, broadband and next generation networks as the industry’s three key growth areas Some of the top-notch speakers include Andrew Sukawaty, CEO and chairman of Inmarsat, Joseph Anton Aliagas, CEO of Arena Mobile Music, Skuli Mogensen, CEO & founder of OZ, Craig Wilson, IBM’s Asia Pacific director for Digital Media and Telecommunications, Craig Farrill, CEO of Kodiak Networks and Thorsten Heinz, Siemens CTO.

    Making its presence felt on the international market through CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT are home-grown companies including Acceltree Software, Kaveri Telecom Products, Matrix Telecom and MRO-TEK, as well as companies under the Indian national pavilion led by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). These include BSMC Power Systems, Elitecore Technologies, Euclid Infotech, Lepton Software Export & Research, Svarn Telecom and Toshniwal Enterprises Controls. Indian telco giant Shyam Telecom will also be exhibiting at the event, the release adds.

    Victor Wong, project director of CommunicAsia and EnterpriseIT said, “CommunicAsia, alongside EnterpriseIT, is the most established ICT show in Asia and the ideal platform to launch and showcase new technologies and services to the world that will transform the way we live. Not only is CommunicAsia a highly relevant event to the needs of Indian visitors to the event, it is an important platform for India to showcase its ICT capabilities to the world and to forge international business links.”

    According to International Data Corp (IDC), new technologies entering the telecommunications marketplace are redefining the industry. The telecom services market in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) is projected to exceed US$170 billion, posting a growth of seven percent compared to last year. This growth is likely to come from VoIP, broadband and 3G services.

  • Motorola and Sentivision to provide set-tops for major Japanese IPTV rollout

    Motorola and Sentivision to provide set-tops for major Japanese IPTV rollout

    MUMBAI: Motorola, Inc. has announced that Sentivision, a provider of media technologies and products for digital entertainment, has selected the Motorola VIP series IPTV set-top platform for providing video service to Japanese subscribers.

    Sentivision becomes the first service provider outside of North America to deploy the Motorola VIP set-top, further establishing Motorola as a leading global provider of Telco TV solutions.

    As a standards-based, open-architecture platform, the Motorola VIP series set-tops can be integrated with middleware from any provider. This means that service providers like Sentivision can offer a suite of advanced applications to their users that best serve the needs of the local market. For this service deployment, Sentivision will port its advanced middleware suite to the Motorola set-top platform.

    Motorola provides a robust IPTV platform that brings high-definition TV (HDTV), video-on-demand (VOD), digital video recording (DVR), multi-room streaming, and other connected home applications into subscribers’ homes.

    “Our middleware integration was made simple by using Motorola’s leading digital IP video platform. The open nature of the platform and the expertise brought together by combining Sentivision and Motorola is sure to result in a robust video offering to customers,” said Sentivision CEO Yochi Akase.

    “Motorola IPTV solution combined with Sentivision middleware will bring some of the most advanced video services available into the homes of Japanese customers. We are proud to add Sentivision to our IPTV ecosystem. Together, we can create a unique video entertainment service delivered through one of the most advanced digital set-top platforms available,” said Motorola corporate vice president and Connected Home Solutions general manager Doug Means.

    The Motorola VIP1200 series of IP-based set-tops gives service providers an advanced and flexible platform for delivering next-generation video content and services. Designed to meet operators’ evolving business needs and consumers’ desire for television choice, these set-tops leverage Motorola’s decades of experience in video delivery and the company’s proven expertise in emerging standards and new network architectures. The Motorola VIP1200 series supports industry-leading video codecs, digital rights management (DRM) solutions, and software from multiple middleware vendors.

    The VIP1200J series includes the following set-top models with connectors and options specifically for the Japanese market:

    VIP1200Japan, Single TV High Definition IP set-top
    VIP1216Japan, Single TV High Definition IP set-top with integrated hard disk drive (HDD) for digital video recording (DVR)

  • UTStarcom, China Netcom ink largest IPTV deal

    UTStarcom, China Netcom ink largest IPTV deal

    MUMBAI: UTStarcom, Inc., a leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and services, has signed a contract with China Netcom for the deployment of its RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution in northeast China. This deal represents the single largest IPTV capacity deployment in China to date.

    “We believe that UTStarcom’s IPTV technology and service epitomizes the evolution of network and service convergence. We believe the Harbin case indicates that a typical business model and value chain for IPTV in China is emerging and that there are large market opportunities and consumer demand throughout many regions. With this contract, UTStarcom continues to prove its position at the forefront of real-world IPTV deployments with the largest number of subscribers,” said UTStarcom China chief executive officer Ying Wu.

    The contract is based on a commercial trial that was launched in May 2005. The initial deployment had a capacity of 100,000 concurrent media streams, covering the major metropolitan areas of the city.

    Currently, the service offers channels of live broadcast television with “time-shifting” capabilities, 48-hour TV-on-demand, and approximate 5,600 hours of video-on-demand. At the same time, there are value-added services, such as on-line weather report, information browsing, and searching services available in the service package as well. The service has accumulated approximately 53,000 subscribers to date.

    UTStarcom has also announced commercial contracts in Shanghai and Fuzhou and Quanzhou in the Fujian Province, with an initial combined capacity of over 50,000 media streams.

  • Content providers criticize proposed EU broadcasting rules

    Content providers criticize proposed EU broadcasting rules

    MUMBAI: ITV, BT Group, Vodafone, Yahoo, Intel and Cisco are leading an alliance among the media and technology companies that have teamed to criticize proposed European Union broadcasting rules that they believe will restrict the growth of new media formats.

    The European Commission is proposing that rules for traditional media be extended to new media, like content provided over broadband or mobile phones. Such regulations would include limits on hate speech, advertising and children-appropriate content.

    The alliance takes up the issue of proposed legislation that calls for mobile content and IPTV programming to abide by the same rules as that on traditional broadcasters. The consortium maintains that these rules-including restrictions on advertising-would inhibit investment in multiplatform content.

    “Citizen media such as blogs, videocasts and the like are one of the most exciting developments enabled by new technology,” the companies said in a statement. “This phenomenon has the potential to create new businesses … but this proposed regulation severely risks stunting its growth.”
    The EU didn’t respond to the group, but has repeatedly insisted that they don’t intend to regulate the internet. It would need the support of the European Parliament and 25 member governments in order to be approved.

  • Former Disney honcho Eisner turns his attention to IPTV

    Former Disney honcho Eisner turns his attention to IPTV

    MUMBAI: Former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner and media conglomerate Time Warner have invested in a startup that aims to build a delivery platform for IPTV.

    Media reports indicate that Eisner’s venture capital group Tornante Company together with Spark Capital and Time Warner will be investing a total of $12.5 billion in the company. How much Eisner is exactly pumping into the venture is another unknown.

    The San Diego based Veoh Networks is building a system for delivering broadcast-quality entertainment and informational content via the Internet, using distribution technology, the firm says will allow for unlimited capacity. Veoh envisions marketing its platform to everyone from independent video producers and hobbyists to large studios.

    In a statement Eisner said, “Cable and satellite fundamentally changed the way television was distributed by creating the capacity for greater choice in programming. Veoh revolutionises television again by leveraging the Internet to expand broadcast capacity to the point that every single user, whether an individual or a media company, can create their own `channel` and every `channel` can be supported by its own business model.

    “In the past, distributing television programming required an enormous broadcast infrastructure. Veoh enables anyone with an Internet connection to distribute and receive programming in the highest quality.”

    Eisner will be a member of the board of directors of Veoh Networks.Under Veoh’s model, TV networks and individuals will be able to programme their own channels on the service. At the moment, it shows programming already in the public domain and content sent by users.

    Veoh founder and CEO Dmitry Shapiro says, “Having Michael involved in the company gives us incredible credibility, experience and knowledge, not to mention the contacts”.

  • MipTV reports a marginal rise in attendance

    MipTV reports a marginal rise in attendance

    MUMBAI: The recently concluded television event in Cannes, France MipTV featuring Milia had an attendance of 12,249 participants, compared to 12,163 in 2005.

    Company participation rose to 4,201 from 4,138 last year, while the number of acquisition executives in Cannes was 3,565, a five per cent increase on the 2005 level of 3,393.

    Reed Midem’s television division director Paul Johnson says, “MipTV featuring MILIA 2006 saw a significant rise in the number of companies and executives coming from the digital sector, particularly IPTV, mobile and interactive television specialists. Our figures show that we welcomed some 1,800 companies from the Internet and mobile sectors.

    “Our conference programme and a series of new initiatives such as Content 360 and the International Interactive Emmy Awards, reflect the changes taking place in the industry. MipTV featuring MILIA is not just a television market, it’s a content market.”

    The event had 45 sessions and over 170 speakers. For the first time ever, the conference programme welcomed seven keynote speakers, including AOL chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller, reality television producer Mark Burnett, BBC new media head Ashley Highfield, FremantleMedia’s Gary Carter, Takeshi Natsuno of NTT DoCoMo and Erik Huggers of Microsoft.

    Miller at the event announced that AOL had brought programming originally produced for its Internet video channels and was selling the shows to traditional broadcasters.

    A highlight of MipTV was the inaugural International Interactive Emmy Awards, organised by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Reed Midem. This is the first time that an Emmy Awards ceremony has taken place outside the US. A gala dinner, hosted by Desperate Housewives star Roger Bart.

    Among the other new initiatives launched in 2006, Content 360 set out to commission innovative content and interactive applications for mobile and broadband. Organised in partnership with the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting Commission and the National Film Board of Canada, Content 360 rewarded six company projects and provided €80,000 of development funding to be divided between the winners.

    For the first time in MipTV’s history, the annual Lifetime Achievement Award was attributed not to an industry individual but to a whole company, in the form of Japanese production powerhouse TOEI. TOEI Company chairman Tan Takaiwa and TOEI Animation chairman Tsutomu Tomari accepted the tribute on behalf of the entire TOEI group.

    Now in its ninth year, the two-day Mipdoc documentary and factual programme screenings, which precede MipTV, saw a 14 per cent rise in participation with 438 companies from 57 countries attending. Production and sales companies sent 1,192 programmes to the digital screening library, of which 769 were appearing at a market for the first time.

  • Goldstone Technologies signs MoU with SPL for IPTV services

    Goldstone Technologies signs MoU with SPL for IPTV services

    MUMBAI: Goldstone Technologies Ltd will be launching the Next Generation IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) services in alliance with SPL Innotech Pte Ltd (SPL).

    SPL is a Singapore based company and is the sole company providing complete end-to-end solution for IPTV consisting of head-end equipment, Middleware, Billing, deliver protocols and set top boxes.

    Goldstone Technologies and SPL Innotech Pte Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 9 April to provide end-to-end IPTV solutions worldwide with the server stationed at Singapore.

    SPL through this MoU agreed to provide complete end-to-end IPTV solutions to Goldstone Technologies apart from granting an exclusive right to market the IPTV products in India.

    Goldstone Technologies through this technology caters IPTV solutions to a whopping 18.5 million NRI population spread across the globe including 3.5 million Telugu inhabitants.

    The company will be taking up the projects providing end-to-end IPTV and to market exclusively IPTV products in India.

    Goldstone Technologies also announced that it will issue 19,00,000 equity shares to Goldstone Exports Ltd and 54,00,000 equity warrants convertible into equity shares of Rs 10 each to M/s Summit Communications Pvt Ltd (27,00,000) and M/s Horizon Television Pvt Ltd (27,00,000) on preferential basis subject to the approval of shareholders for the purpose of redemption of optionally convertible redeemable preference shares (OCRPS) and the repayment of IDBI loan.

  • NeuLion to demonstrate IPTV platform at NAB 2006

    NeuLion to demonstrate IPTV platform at NAB 2006

    MUMBAI: NeuLion will demonstrating its IPTV platform at NAB 2006 in Las Vegas from 22-27 April.

    The platform connects the Internet to the TV, delivering high-quality streaming content that the consumer can watch on wither the TV or PC. NeuLion says that it is is leading the evolution of video distribution with its patented iPTV Platform and will be demonstrating at NAB 2006 how it delivers high quality video to the home or business using existing high-speed Public Internet connections.

    NeuLion executive VP and co-founder Chris Wagner says, “iPTV is the hottest technology and is the future of home entertainment and business applications. NAB is the ideal venue to showcase the transformation that this technology will bring to the media industry.”

    The company adds that the market opportunities for IP based video services are exploding with new revenue opportunities. The convergence of broadband and broadcast delivery will inevitably disrupt existing telecommunications and television industries as they collide and collapse conventional boundaries.

    Today’s distribution/broadcasting of multimedia content is predominantly based on transmission over satellites, cable and terrestrial transmission systems. With these existing systems the interactivity is difficult to provide. By accelerating the introduction of fast data networks to end-users, a fourth method of direct access to users becomes possible, i.e. broadcasting via public broadband IP networks.

    NeuLion works with content partners to develop end-to-end solutions for multimedia IPTV services. The NeuLion IPTV platform encodes, delivers, stores and manages an unlimited range of multimedia content, and the Operational Support System (OSS) maintains all billing and customer support services.

  • IPTV to face tough climate: research firms

    IPTV to face tough climate: research firms

    MUMBAI: This is a piece of news that should put a word of caution on telecom firms like Reliance Infocomm and Bharti who are keen on IPTV. While the telcos are keen on leveraging the new media platform to augment revenues, two research reports indicate that they face severe challenges ahead.

    One report from research firm Gartner says IPTV services will struggle for years against the established pay-TV and free-to-air (FTA) platforms. Subscribers for television services over the internet, which hit 1.7 million last year, is expected to grow at a 58.8 percent aggregate rate until 2010, when the service is expected to attract 16.7 million subscribers.

    But despite this robust growth prediction, Gartner says IPTV will struggle over the next five years to become a mainstream revenue opportunity for carriers.

    The other report from Multimedia Research Group (MRG) states that uncertainties in large carriers in the US and Asia holds the forecasts for these regions down. Europe should be the strongest IPTV market through 2009, with Asia catching up by the end of the forecast period. IP TV set-top boxes will dominate the capital spending for IPTV services and account for two-thirds of spending.

    Europe is surging ahead with a large number of strong IPTV deployments that include France Telecom, Free, Neuf in France, Telefonica in Spain, FastWeb in Italy, and a number of strong competitive offerings in Scandinavia.

    Gartner meanwhile notes that while the short- to medium-term profits from IPTV will be modest at best, carriers cannot afford to delay the deployment of the IPTV platform. Those who delay too long will risk undermining their ability to be long-term key players in the consumer ‘infotainment’ communications business.

    There will be 3.3 million subscribers to IPTV services in Western Europe by the end of this year and 16.7 million within four years, according to the report.

    The UK currently has one of the smallest numbers of IPTV subscribers in Western Europe with only 75,000 subscribers predicted in 2006.

    Although this is set to increase fairly rapidly to reach 1.9 million by 2010 with the introduction of services such as BT Vision Gartner predicts that the UK will remain a weaker prospect for IPTV. This is mainly due to the existing pay TV landscape and dominance of Sky TV.

    In contrast Gartner predicts that by the end of 2006, almost half of Western Europe’s IPTV subscribers will be based in France – a total of 1.7 million generating revenues of €141m.