IPTV North America

CR likes telco TV over cable

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:50:42 -0500

In the for-what-it's-worth category, Consumer Reports magazine has endorsed the TV services of AT&T and Verizon Communications over those of the companies' cable TV competitors. Telco TV services have received strong endorsements in similar surveys and reports, and telcos had a pretty good in 2008 winning subscribers over to their new TV platforms.

However, it became apparent late last month that those same telcos will not be too quick to compete on price. It's quite likely that some consumers took advantage of telco TV launch promotions to get away from frequent cable TV price hikes, but according to an Engadget report just before Christmas, it sounds like AT&T will be raising some U-verse TV feature prices for some customers beginning next month.

For more:
- Kansas City.com covers the CR honors
- Engadget has the price report

2008 Year in Review: Market metrics present and future

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:26:01 -0500

Ongoing subscriber growth gave the world's IPTV service providers plenty to cheer about in 2008, so it's no surprise that several of FierceIPTV's most-viewed stories in 2008 revolved around market research and predictions related to subscriber numbers and revenue for the sector. In March, Strategy Analytics said U.S. IPTV revenue hit $694 million in 2007, but was expected to soar to $14 billion by 2012. ABI Research that some month said a worldwide subscriber tally of 13 million in 2007 would jump to 90 million subscribers by 2013. Most of the growth up to this year was coming from Western Europe, and while that certainly continues to be true, the U.S. market, China and other Asian markets, and a few Latin America countries are starting to get in on the act.

Of course, a wide variety of numbers from a wide variety of sources came out throughout the year, some more impressive and hopeful than others, and many market research firms continue to revise their predictions on a quarterly basis. Can the global IPTV market keep up with the optimistic expectations we all had earlier this year? The U.S. market's emergence in 2008 and specifically the huge subscriber growth from IPTV giant AT&T and top U.S. telco TV player Verizon Communications have been very encouraging. Just last week, AT&T hit its goal of signing up 1 million U-verse TV customers by the end of this year. However, 2008 is ending on a note of caution. The economic crisis has given us reason to expect slower adoption, or at least slower build-outs. We should know much more in earlier 2009 as service providers report their fourth quarter subscriber numbers and year-end financial results.

SES Americom to end IP-Prime in 2009

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:58:16 -0500

In what will surely be seen as a surprising development, SES Americom has announced that it will shut down its IP-Prime transport and programming service supporting small U.S. telcos rolling out IPTV services. IP-Prime will end by July 31, 2009.

The company cited "slow adoption" of IPTV by small and medium telcos in North America, as well as the "difficult market outlook" for the service, according to IPTV news and a company press release. That negative outlook comes just days after an SES executive, speaking at an investor conference, painted the company's outlook as fairly positive, in part because it had many service providers locked into long-term contracts, and also because TV services have been broadly viewed as recession-proof.

The company said it has IPTV signal delivery agreements with 70 small telcos so far, and about 37 of them have conducted commercial roll-outs, but Rob Bednarek, President and CEO of SES Americom-New Skies, states that "with a subscriber base of less than ten thousand at the end of November and after more than 2 years of service, the consumer uptake is insufficient to justify continuing operations."

Continuing until July 31, SES Americom said, will allow telco customers to transfer their services elsewhere. Presumably there also is a chance the IP-Prime program could be sold to another party, though SES Americom did not specifically say this in its press release.

In addition to the positive comments last week, it was only last month that SES Americom touted its list of customer agreements at the TelcoTV 2008 conference. However, another trend increasingly apparent during and since TelcoTV is the possibility that more small telcos will skip IPTV launches to focus on leveraging their broadband networks with content download partners like Vudu and others.

For more:
- IPTV News has this post

AT&T IPTV nears 1 million subscribers

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:30:18 -0500

Cable TV and telco executives already have been making news at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference this week, and here's more: AT&T Operations president and CEO John Stankey said the telco giant is set to pass through the threshold of 1 million IPTV customers sometime next week. AT&T had long talked of its goal to hit the 1 million mark by the end of this year, and it seems that the recession and ongoing concerns about consumer spending have not kept it from doing so. Stankey said U-verse TV now passes more than 17 million "living units."

Stankey also said AT&T will continue to add new capabilities to its U-verse IPTV offering, including more high-definition channels and greater HD streaming capacity, according to Light Reading. The LR report also said Stankey alluded to adding "more Internet-like capabilities," though it is not clear exactly what this means. Fellow telco TV player Verizon Communications has been pressing toward more integration on online video and TV content, and AT&T may be doing the same, though the company also may be talking about content searching capabilities or other aspects of the service. Sounds interesting in any case.

For more:
- Light Reading has this post

FairPoint plans IPTV pilot in Portsmouth

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:47:11 -0500

FairPoint Communications is set to conduct an IPTV trial next month in Portsmouth, N.H., which is expected to last about 90 days. About 100 households participating in the pilot program will keep their current TV service and compare it to the FairPoint offering, providing feedback to FairPoint during the trial.

Trial participants will be chosen at random and will receive free HDTVs and DVRs, in addition to having their homes wired for the new service. Despite the initial controversy related to FairPoint's takeover of former Verizon Communications properties in New England and lingering delays related to the network cutover, many communities in the region reportedly have expressed interest in FairPoint offering a competitive TV service option.

If the service eventually goes commercial, FairPoint would require a franchise agreement from the Portsmouth municipal government, which already has a cable franchise agreement in place with Comcast.

For more:
- Seacoastonline has this report

TelcoTV 2008: GTel eyes 2009 launch

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:22:27 -0500

The name GTel Teleconnections popped up in the booths of three technology vendors at the TelcoTV 2008 conference in Anaheim, Calif., this week. The 103-year-old service provider is based in Germantown, N.Y., and serves about 2,500 customers in the surrounding Columbia County area. GTel (formerly Germantown Telephone, among other monikers) is building out IPTV capabilities now and is planning to launch service in the second quarter of 2009.

France-based Thomson, Thomson's U.S. partner Falcon IP/Complete, and Falcon partner Verimatrix were the firms touting a connection to GTel Teleconnections. The carrier is using the turnkey IPTV platform from Falcon, which includes Thomson's video head ends, video service platforms and consumer premises equipment. GTel also will use the Video Content Authority System from Verimatrix. The VCAS for IPTV 2.3 system supports wholesale IPTV architectures, end-to-end content encryption and flexible subscriber management.

GTel is looking to offer more than 200 HD and SD channels and other IPTV features.

ITC uses Entone gateway

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:59:16 -0500

Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative, based in Clear Lake, S.D., is deploying vendor Entone's Hydra video gateway to support its IPTV and triple play services. The rural telco, which has been around for 50 years, provides local telephone, digital television and broadband services to about 15,000 subscribers in South Dakota and Minnesota.

"The installation costs represent a major focal point in the business case for delivering IPTV services," said Jerry Heiberger, General Manager of ITC, in an Entone press release. "Entone's Hydra IP video gateway has enabled us to significantly increase the productivity of our installation teams and reduced the cost per home for deploying our triple play services, while providing our users a true connected home experience."

The Hydra gateway can enable multiple video streams over a single DSL or Ethernet connection using existing in-home coax cabling, without requiring a set-top box. It also supports whole home networking technologies such as HomePNA, HomePlug, and 802.11n.

For more:
- Here's the Entone press release

Infonetics: Q2 hurt IPTV, SDV spending

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:15:36 -0500

Infonetics Research announced new numbers for the IPTV and switched digital video market that are not going to make service providers or vendors engaged in the North America market feel very good. Infonetics said the IPTV and SDV equipment market "declined sharply" in the second quarter of this year, largely due to declines in IPTV and SDV subscriber additions by service providers in North America and other regions during that particular quarter.

Still, service providers specifically in Asia, Europe, and Latin America continue to invest in video-related gear at a healthy pace. Other findings from Infonetics included the fact that North America's share of the overall IPTV and SDV equipment markets was down from 47 percent to 38 percent between the first quarter and the second quarter. Also, the IPTV set-top box market was down 10 percent, but the IP video encoder market was up 8 percent

Also notable: Infonetics said IPTV service activation times "are ranging from days to weeks, sending through the roof the cost to pass homes and turn up subscribers, prompting IPTV operators to push harder for well-defined interoperability standards."

For more:
- Here's the Infonetics Research press release

IPTV's critical quarter

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:24:47 -0400

The U.S. IPTV industry is just weeks away from one of its key events: TelcoTV 2008, Nov. 11-13, in Anaheim, Calif. What sort of mood will we be in as we meet up in sunny Southern California? By then, we'll have a good understanding of how telco TV service providers performed in the third quarter, and what they expect for the fourth quarter and the rest of the year. The final quarter of 2008 could be a critical one for telco players, as they look to reverse a trend toward slower adoption of new TV services at a time when consumer spending is more uncertain than at any other time in years.

This week, we'll get our first indication of how the third quarter turned out, as AT&T tomorrow will reveal its third quarter earnings, including subscriber numbers for its U-verse IPTV service. AT&T has been aiming for 1 million IPTV customers by the end of this year, and after tomorrow, we'll know whether or not that goal remains realistic.

The TelcoTV conference, as always, will be a venue not only for discussion of subscriber trends, but also new services and new technology twists. FierceIPTV will be on-site providing daily show coverage. Also, we'll be publishing our TelcoTV show preview on Nov. 6, so be sure to tell us before then about your plans for the big event.

Meanwhile, the fourth quarter also is a big one for FierceIPTV, as we kick off a new round of special reports taking a look at new technology and service trends. First up is today's glimpse at video transcoding, a technology area that is central to the ability of telcos and other service provider to deliver video to a variety of device types and in a variety of formats.

Next month, we'll take a closer look at IPTV policy management. Then, in December, FierceIPTV will offer its year-end review, and a look ahead at the hot trends, technologies and events to expect for 2009. To that end, start letting us know now about your expectations for the IPTV sector in 2009. Will consumer spending tightness put the sector in a bind? Will telcos have more TV success against cable TV players? How will the integration of IPTV services with online video content play out? Does more consolidation lie ahead? Post a comment today and let us know what you think.

-Dan

SureWest EBIFs its Everest network

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:15:54 -0400

SureWest Communications, the Roseville, Calif., telco that jumped out early with IPTV over a fiber-to-the-home network, is now jumping out early again by deploying a new CableLabs interactive TV specification on its Everest Broadband network in Kansas City. The Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF) creates a uniform technical environment in which various kinds of interactive TV and targeted advertising applications can run on so-called "thin client" set-top boxes. Verizon also has reportedly used EBIF in the past, and it sound like it could become more popular with the rise of truly interactive TV services.

For more:
- read this story at Light Reading's Cable Digital News

Canby can add HD channels via IP-Prime

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:19:56 -0400

Oregon-based independent teclo Canby Telcom has added more than two dozen high-definition channels to its IPTV line-up. Canby got help from the satellite-based IP-Prime transport solution offered by SES Americom, in tandem with the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC).

Canby's new MPEG-4 HD channels include Discovery, Disney, Showtime, Fox News, ESPN, A&E, the Food Network and a handful of local broadcast services, bringing the telco's total HD channel count to 36. The NRTC member was among the first small telcos in the U.S. to launch IPTV in 2005.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Hill Country telco targets TV

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:06:50 -0400

Hill Country Telephone Cooperative, which is based in Ingram, Tex., and has about 14,000 customer for telephone, Internet and other services, plans to reach all of its customers with a test of Infinite Video's high-definition video, video-on-demand and other services over its existing network.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

NCTC should accept telcos

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:25:08 -0400

The National Cable Television Cooperative is expected to begin accepting new service provider members in January 2009, after putting a moratorium on new members three years ago. The NCTC reportedly closed its doors to new members because of the possibility that telcos just starting out in the TV business would want to join to gain access to the programming deals the NCTC negotiated with the content industry on behalf of its members. Because those telcos represented a competitive threat to the traditional NCTC membership, the agency instead decided to take some time to review its membership policies.

The moratorium on new members will be lifted in a few months, but the NCTC is not saying yet what its policy will be for accepting new members who are telco IPTV providers. Some of the small telcos who would have benefited from NCTC membership in the past have since been able to benefit from IP Prime, the content program devised by the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and SES Americom. So, perhaps not as many telcos would be interested in the NCTC now.

However, if the NCTC's goal is to get the best possible content deals for its member companies, they should not only open membership to telcos, but should actively woo them. The greater scale that could be achieved by the NCTC would allow them to get better deals, while also making the association a more relevant agency at a time when cable TV firms and telcos are very much in the same businesses. The result will be that small service providers of all kinds will be able to provide the content their customers want without having to pay too much for that opportunity. The competitive jealousies and squabbles that might arise from the situation are best left for the market to resolve, rather than a closed door.

-Dan

For more:
- see this story at Telephony

Related articles:
IP Prime went live about one year ago

Kentucky telco calls on Dr. DSL

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:53:09 -0400

West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative, based in Mayfield, Ky., has tapped vendor Aware to supply the telco with its Dr. DSL Line Diagnostics Platform to support its IPTV service and other broadband services. The product is a line testing solution that is server-based and provides centralized monitoring and analysis.

Craig Sullivan, plant superintendent for West Kentucky, said in a press release that the testing solution, "works seamlessly with our installed Occam BLC equipment, enabling us to ensure the service levels and troubleshoot the subscriber lines of our new bandwidth-intense broadband and IPTV service offerings." The solution is aimed at helping ensure service quality, but also at cutting costs associated with troubleshooting and repairs.

West Kentucky RTC has about 18,000 customers, and last year gained some measure of fame for being among the original beta customers for the National Rural Telecommunication Cooperative (NRTC)-sponsored IP Prime initiative to bring IPTV to more rural customers.

For more:
- see this press release

Telus chooses CopperGate for HPNA 3.1

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:36:50 -0400

Canadian telco Telus tapped chipset vendor CopperGate to support the telco's rollout of HomePNA 3.1 as its technology standard for in-home wiring for its Telus TV service, the companies announced today. The solution, which works over both coaxial cables and copper telephone wires, will be integrated into set-top boxes and residential gateways.

HPNA 3.1 is the latest iteration of the HPNA standard, which holds a piece of the fragmented home networking market, along with Multimedia over Coax and other solutions. The 3.1 spec supports guaranteed levels of service, among other features. Telus joins AT&T and other telcos that have deployed the technology.

Latin America IPTV to reach $12.6 billion by 2013

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:28:17 -0400

Asia and Europe are getting a lot of credit for IPTV leadership, and the U.S. market is considered the upstart on the global landscape, but what about Latin America? Signals Telecom Consulting of Argentina (and also Miami) has come out with a new market study projecting that Latin America IPTV markets will be valued at $12.6 billion by 2013. Pay TV penetration likely will reach around 34 percent of households by that year, and IPTV is expected to account for about 19 percent of pay TV subscribers. Mexico, Argentina and Brazil are expected to be among the regional leaders.

For more:
- read this post at IPTV News

Related articles
Synergy Research Group recently reported a spike in the IPTV equipment market. Synergy report
TMNG predicted 60 million IPTV subscribers worldwide by 2010. TMNG report

MTS Allstream readies for expansion

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:16:14 -0400

At the IPTV World Forum North America last month in Chicago, Kelvin Shepherd, president of consumer markets at Canadian IPTV pioneer MTS Allstream, said the carrier was planning to expand outside of its home market of Winnipeg, where it has collected more than 80,000 IPTV customers. The telco is now a step closer to making that happen after gaining regulatory approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to offer service in nearby Portage la Prairie. MTS also has its sights set on Brandon, Manitoba.

MTS Allstream is the largest IPTV service provider in Canada, and Shepherd said at the Chicago event last month, that after almost six years in business, the next phase of IPTV maturity for the telco would be characterized by expansion to counter the reality of increasing competition. Much of it is expected to come from the over-the-top video providers that actually run over telco networks.

For more:
- see this report at Digital Home Canada

Related articles:
MTS Allstream visited Chicago last month. MTS Allstream report
Bell Canada and Ixia have been looking at IPTV quality. Bell Canada report

Integra5 lands Videotron, targets TV chat

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:09:07 -0400

Integra5, the vendor largely responsible for making TV-based caller ID an increasingly popular IPTV application, announced that Canadian cable TV firm Videotron Telecom has deployed Integra5's converged services platform to support TV caller ID. A number of other telcos and cable TV companies have implemented the service over the last few years.

The vendor also announced its newest converged TV application this week, a TV-based chat application called Media Friends that allows users to manage buddy lists and send on-screen chat messages to friends. The company aims to have customers testing Media Friends by the end of this year and hopes to bring the app to market early next year. Will it be one of the hot IPTV applications of 2009?

For more:
- read this story about the Videotron deal at Light Reading's Cable Digital News
- see this story about Media Friends at Multichannel News

Related articles:
Integra5 has started looking beyond TV caller ID. Integra5 report

Panhandle goes with Entone for HD IPTV

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:26:22 -0400

Oklahoma's Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc (PTCI), already an experienced IPTV carrier, is deploying new high-definition IPTV services with the help of Entone Communications. The vendor is supplying PTCI with its Hydra IP video gateway and Amulet HD IPTV receiver.

The telco, based in Guymon, Okla., serves parts of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. It wants to offer more advanced services, such as whole-home network applications, HDTV, on-screen caller ID and interactivity, without having to spend excessively to re-wire customer homes. PTCI has been in the IPTV business for at least six years and was among the first U.S. telcos to launch IPTV.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
PTCI was one of our Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators last year. PTCI report
Entone and Minerva Networks teamed up for a whole-home DVR solution. Entone report

MTS Allstream faces IPTV maturity

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:44:35 -0400

U.S. telcos are starting to accelerate their IPTV strategies and generate excitement, but North America's real proving ground for IPTV is Canada, where MTS Allstream and SaskTel each have been in the TV market for more than five years. That became evident as Kelvin Shephard, president of consumer markets at MTS Allstream, talked about the company's IPTV progress last week at the IPTV World Forum North America in Chicago.

The Manitoba telco now has 33 percent market share for IPTV, and more than 78,000 customers in the area of Winnipeg, Manitoba. A telco like AT&T may have far more IPTV customers, but it can't yet claim that kind of market share in any of its individual markets. "It's more than we expected we would have at this point," Shephard said. "But it's still growing."

As its IPTV service matures, MTS Allstream is encountering a competitive reality that remains on the horizon for other telcos. It has been able to withstand aggressive promotions and discounts from local cable TV competitors, but Shephard acknowledged the company is starting to see more competition from over-the-top Web video content providers. "Non-traditional competitors are emerging, and we are enabling these folks to be able to do these things over our own network," he said. "That's something we have to think about and something we are working on understanding."

Among other challenges, Shephard said programmers continue to expect a lot in terms of security, encryption and reliability, and are not shy about applying their considerable leverage to get what they want. "We need to work with them and help them create more opportunities for viewer loyalty and targeted marketing." In-home wiring also continues to present challenges to driving down IPTV installation times.

Recent accomplishments include the launch of a Local Expression local content channel. Meanwhile, the near future will see the company expand beyond its comfort zone of Winnipeg, while strengthening its channel line-up, migrating to the Microsoft Mediaroom platform, and providing high-definition and whole-home DVR capabilities.

-Dan