IPTV in Europe

By Steve Hawley

At the outset of 2007, Europe may be considered as the world’s largest and most varied IP video market, giving operators in this region collective bragging rights for industry leadership.

Swisscom intends to acquire Fastweb

March 20, 2007 - Swisscom has submitted a proposal to Fastweb Board of Directors to launch an all-cash friendly public tender offer on 100% of Fastweb. Prior to submitting its proposal, Swisscom, with the consent of the Board of Directors of Fastweb, has performed a confirmatory due diligence exercise on Fastweb.

IPTV World Series Awards winners announced

March, 2007 - The winners of the debut IPTV World Series Awards have been announced by the independent panel of judges, selected from some of the industry’s leading publications.

Fibre To The Home IPTV service launched in Switzerland

March, 2007 – Amino has enabled what claims to be Switzerland’s first Fibre To The Home (FTTH) IPTV service as the operator, Sierre Energie, launched its IPTV service in February.

The South American IPTV Market in Early 2007

By: Gary Schultz, President/Principal Analyst, Multimedia Research Group

Broadband Penetration: The South American Telco TV (or IPTV) markets are tightly interwoven with the broadband build out in that region. Broadband distribution has reached 5% on average in South America, with greatest penetration in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Peru. Currently, the annual penetration of broadband roughly doubles each year, with the majority of that business going to the telcos.

Nortel and NDS join forces to create new IPTV capabilities

March, 2007 – The European market will see a new set of IPTV services as Nortel and NDS announce collaboration.

Makeni chooses Rhozet technology for online media delivery

March, 2007 – Makeni, the strategic media encoding partner of The Press Association, has selected Rhozet Carbon Coder as the engine driving transcoding and delivery of video content.

Widevine secures IPTV content for Portugal

March 5, 2007 – Widevine has been selected to secure premium Hollywood programming for Portugal’s first IPTV service, Clix SmartTV, offered by telecommunications provider Sonaecom.

Ericsson presents cash offer to acquire TANDBERG Television

February, 2007 – Ericsson have announced they are to pose a voluntary public cash offer to acquire Tandberg Television.

The IPTV World Series Awards 2007: a showcase for IPTV talent

Shortlisted companies for the IPTV World Series Awards - Click here

The IPTV market is the source of great innovation in terms of Pay TV business models, consumer services, content and go-to-market strategies. It is fuelling technologies that revolutionise television and rapidly move into other digital Pay TV markets - the most obvious being the use of two-way, switched IP networks. And as broadband providers launch and build their video services over the next few years, there will be a constant stream of new challenges, opportunities and solutions.

This maturing market deserves an annual awards event to call its own and now it has one: The IPTV World Series Awards 2007. Our debut awards, hosted at the IPTV World Forum in London in March, will provide a much-needed showcase for the most important technologies and the finest talent in today’s IPTV industry.

The IPTV World Series Awards 2007 is dedicated to IPTV. It will be judged by a panel of independent experts taken from the IPTV sector and is open to any organisation that is active in this marketplace including IPTV service providers and technology vendors. These awards are free to enter.

The awards categories for 2007 are:

IPTV World Forum Pre-Show Supplement

click to view supplement -  IPTV World Forum 2007

IPTV Revenues Will Only be Significant if Providers Focus on Service Issues, Says Motive

February 6, 2007 - New research from Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) shows that the majority of technology, media and telecoms executives are now confident that IPTV will generate significant revenues within three years, with quality of service issues (currently the main obstacle to consumer adoption) set to recede over this period.

IPTV Becomes a Reality as Worldwide Subscribers Reach 3.6 Million

February 5, 2007 - The latest worldwide IPTV research from Canalys shows that IPTV subscribers hit 3.6 million in 2006, generating almost €1 billion in annualised revenues.

Industria to Work with Inuk Networks in Preparation for National IPTV Service Rollout

February 5, 2007 - IPTV solutions and software specialist Industria announced today that Inuk Networks will deploy Industria’s Zignal IPTV solution as an integral element of the Inuk Freewire TV platform.

UTStarcom Partners With AKSH Optifibre to Deliver IPTV Service in India with MTNL

February 2, 2007 - UTStarcom, provider of IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and services, has announced a three-year contract through its partnership with AKSH Optifibre Ltd. to deploy its RollingStream(TM) end-to-end IPTV solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India.