ITV

Tag: SBC Communications

  • SBC Communications signs Motorola & Scientific-Atlanta for IPTV

    MUMBAI: In the US, voice, data, networking, e-business solutions provider SBC Communications Inc. has awarded contracts to both Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola to deliver next-generation Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) set-top boxes that will enable customers to access TV programming, video-on-demand, interactive applications and other advanced features that are part of the U-verse family of services.

    Both vendors will develop and supply IPTV set-top boxes that will help SBC companies offer consumers more TV choice and a much-needed alternative to cable companies. The contracts, awarded by SBC Services Inc., give equal market opportunity to both vendors and continue through the end of 2008. Project Lightspeed is the SBC initiative to expand its fiber-optics network deeper into neighborhoods to deliver SBC U-verse TV, voice and high-speed Internet access services, states an official release.

    “This is a major technology milestone for IPTV,” SBC IP Operations and Services senior EVP Lea Ann Champion said. “A number of different technology components have come together to ensure the set-top boxes can efficiently support the features and functionality we plan to deliver to our customers.”

    The planned IPTV set-top boxes are tunerless, which allows multiple video streams to be sent to one set-top box. Additionally, because the boxes will operate next-generation compression technology – either MPEG4 or VC1 – the Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are expected to store content approximately twice as efficiently as DVRs provided by other video distributors’ DVRs, the release adds.

    “We remain on track to give consumers more video entertainment choices through SBC U-verse TV,” said Champion. “The planned set-top boxes will offer many outstanding capabilities and we can add even more features in the future by upgrading the software in the boxes remotely.”

    The set-top boxes will operate the new Microsoft® TV IPTV Edition software. SBC provided a common set of specifications to both vendors to build the set-top boxes.

    “Motorola’s IP set-top platform, built on our decades of experience as the global leader in digital set-top technologies, will establish SBC U-verse TV as an industry-leading IP video service,” Motorola Connected Home Solutions president Dan Moloney said. “Our vision of seamless mobility begins with bringing high-quality, IP video into the connected home, and our role in the launch of SBC’s entertainment service represents yet another step forward in making that vision a reality.”

    “The dynamics of interactive video systems and integrated services over an IP network will require set-tops with groundbreaking, innovative technology to deliver a wide range of advanced capabilities,” Scientific-Atlanta chairman, president & CEO Jim McDonald. “The combination of Scientific-Atlanta’s expertise in digital set-tops and the unique insight we have acquired in helping SBC establish the infrastructure for its one-of-a-kind video network will help our IP set-tops to provide SBC U-verse TV viewers with a seamless video entertainment experience.”

    In March 2005, SBC awarded a contract to Scientific-Atlanta to provide IP video network equipment that would enable SBC to acquire, process, encode, and distribute digital media content to subscribers. SBC is currently testing this video network equipment as part of an SBC technical trial. Instead of using a traditional broadcast video system, in which all content is continuously sent to every customer’s home, SBC companies will use a switched IP-video distribution system. In the switched IP-video network, only the content the customer requests is provided to the customer, freeing up bandwidth to be used for other applications.

    The SBC U-verse suite of services allows for increased programming choices and many new services that integrate video, broadband, voice and wireless products.

  • Murdoch seals $6.6 billion deal for Hughes Electronics

    Murdoch seals $6.6 billion deal for Hughes Electronics

    MUMBAI: The timing was certainly apt. As American-led forces marched into Baghdad, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corp, which has made no bones about it’s unambiguous and undivided support for US president George Bush’s invasion of Iraq, made its own victory announcement.

    Murdoch’s three-year hunt for Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV unit is almost over bar the shouting (whether there will be opposition from regulators remains to be seen though). News Corp yesterday confirmed it plans to acquire 34 per cent of the leading US satellite broadcaster for about $6.6 billion in cash and stock. If as expected the deal is closed, Murdoch’s dream for global satellite TV supremacy will be well and truely realised.

    As per the deal thrashed out between News Corp, General Motors and Hughes Electronics, Murdoch’s media conglomerate will acquire GMs 19.9 per cent stake in Hughes and a further 14.1 per cent of Hughes from public shareholders and GMs pension and other benefit plans. At closing, News Corp.s 34 per cent ownership interest will be transferred to Fox Entertainment Group (FEG), an 80.6 per cent-owned News Corp subsidiary, in exchange for a $4.5 billion promissory note and approximately 74.2 million shares in Fox at $27.99 per share, increasing News Corp.s equity interest in FEG to approximately 82 per cent.

    If the deal goes through, it will trigger a clause in a previous agreement News Corp has with John Malone’s Liberty Media to make him a partner. Fallen by the wayside are potential suitors Cablevision Systems and SBC Communications.

    Following completion of the acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, a tax ruling, and GM stockholder approval, Murdoch will become chairman of Hughes, while News Corp.s former co-COO, Chase Carey, will be president and CEO of Hughes. Hughes corporate senior executive V-P Eddy Hartenstein will be vice-chairman and report to Carey.

    The businesses contained in Hughes include leading satellite broadcaster DirecTV, which has more than 11 million subscribers in the United States; an 81% equity holding in satellite operator PanAmSat; and Hughes Network Systems, the world’s leading provider of broadband satellite network solutions.

    A company release quoted Murdoch as saying yesterday: “Today we announce a genuinely exciting and transforming deal for News Corp., the Fox Entertainment Group and Hughes Electronics. The benefits will be felt almost immediately in the competition it will offer cable, the richer services it will provide to American viewers, and the value it will create for the shareholders of Fox, News Corp. and Hughes.

    “With Fox taking a significant interest in Hughes, we are forging what we believe will be the premier diversified entertainment company in America today, with leading assets in film, television broadcasting and production, cable programming, and now pay-TV distribution. The alignment of Foxs valuable content assets and DirecTVs distribution platform will provide significant benefits to consumers and greatly enhance the future businesses of both companies.”

    If and when approvals from antitrust regulators for the DirecTV buyout come through, Murdoch’s vision of controlling a global network of pay-TV businesses that span the US, Britain, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia will have been realised.