International News

KPN adds 56,000 IPTV customers in Q1

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:20 -0400

Dutch telco KPN Telecom reported that it signed up 56,000 new IPTV customers during its first quarter, a boost that now gives the company about 553,000 IPTV subscribers. The main IPTV competition in the Netherlands for KPN is Tele2. The additional IPTV helped fuel a 22% rise in KPN's overall revenue for the quarter. The company has been rumored in the past to be a potential acquisition target for firms such as AT&T and Spain's Telefonica, but KPN official said the telco currently is not engaged in any takeover talks.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
- KPN launched its IPTV service two years ago this month. KPN report
- Nortel lends help to telecoms looking at IPTV Nortel report

IOL Netcom pick Verimatrix for PC TV play

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:59:10 -0400

IOL Netcom, a telco in India with more than 250,000 IPTV subscribers, is offering the ViewRight PC Player from Verimatrix to support a second-screen video service for personal computers. the telco is looking to give users access to 150 broadcast channels plus on-demand video.

IOL Netcom also will secure the service with the vendor's Video Content Authority System and VideoMark watermarking technology.

For more:
- check out this coverage at IPTV News

Orange still eyes U.K. IPTV launch

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:59:10 -0400

France Telecom's Orange will launch IPTV service in the U.K. sometime this year, according to comments from the company's CEO at last week's Mip TV trade show. Though Orange already has launched IPTV in at least four other countries, the latest statement is causing snickers among IPTV watchers because Orange long ago said it would offer IPTV in the U.K. last year. It blames regulators for the delay.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV Watch

Korean telecoms plan $15.8 billion outlay for IPTV in 2008

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:59:20 -0400

Korea's three biggest telecoms say they'll to spend upward of $15.8 billion on IPTV this year, nearly 68 percent of which will be used to expand and improve broadband networks, the Korea Times reports. KT, the country's largest telephone and broadband player, will pay the biggest portion, about $12.42 billion.

Officials said the nascent industry should see revenues this year of about $5.43 billion from some 2 million customers; officials say they expect the industry to top 3.3 million users by 2012.

For more:
- Read the Korea Times story

Related articles:
U.S. IPTV market to grow to $14 billion by 2012
Global IPTV to see 52 percent annual growth through 2012

Nortel lends help to telecoms looking at IPTV

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:59:10 -0400

Nortel earlier this month showcased a handful of video solutions at the IPTV World Forum in London that give telecoms an opportunity to get back in the IPTV game with services like click-to-call that links IPTV with a mobile phone, personal computer or home phone, and also tunes in TV shows and movies on any device.

"Today, enhanced programming, HD and video-on-demand are competitive advantages that can drive revenue, but tomorrow, they're going to need more to impress their subscribers and maintain their loyalty," said Sameer Sheth, Nortel's general manager for Video Solutions. "Our open solutions environment is not proprietary so our customers can quickly and cost-effectively adapt for the new services of tomorrow."

For more:
- Read Nortel's release
- And this TCMnet article

Related articles:
Nortel IPTV solution includes content Report
Nortel to trim staff after Q4 loss Report
Nortel wants Tellabs Report

Big differences in IPTV forecasts

Tom Burton — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:30 -0500

Three research groups have predicted widely different take-up rates for IPTV. Most bullish is India-based RNCOS that says a surge in the Asian-Pacific zone will see IPTV subscribers reach 103 million in 2011. This contrasts with a report by Informa, Telecoms and Media late last year that forecast 38.4 million IPTV subscribers by 2011. At the same time, Research and Markets has predicted the global IPTV market will grow five times over the next four years to 80 million. This is more consistent with a report by the MRG group in November that predicted 72.6 million subscribers by 2011.

Research and Markets says the take-up rate is being driven by telco's marketing strategies where as RNCOS says the availability of good broadband infrastructure is the key impediment. It predicts a rapid take up in Asia once the infrastructure is in place because of the lack of cable television competition. None of the reports have factored in the impact, if any, of the recent surge in Internet video and the expected strong growth in Internet television over the next five years. The Diffusion group has predicted this market will be 160 million strong by 2012.

For more:
- Research and Market's Article predicts 80 million IPTV market
- Read RNCOS IPTV report

Related articles:
Asian markets expected to drive IPTV Report
Competition and convergence driving IPTV Report

U.S. technology underpins international launches

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 06:59:10 -0500

Two big international deployments come as the year closes, with Brazil Telecom and Italy's Wind launching their IPTV networks.

Brasil Telecom's Videon IPTV has used UTStarcom to provide the end to end solution, giving the California based company its first major Latin America contract. The video on demand service has been launched in Brasilia with plans to expand the service to additional cities in the country's South and Midwest regions in the coming months.

Wind's service has a subscriber base of 2 million and has opted for a solution developed by Alcatel-Lucent using Microsoft's Mediaroom. Alcatel-Lucent's IPTV service includes an IP/MPLS network infrastructure based on its 7750 service router.

For more:
- UTStarcom Release
- Winds launches IPTV with Alcatel-Lucent Report

Related articles:
- Italy gets third IPTV player Report
- MRG's 2007 global IPTV market leaders report Report

Dreampark secures Slovenian deal

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:59:20 -0500

Slovenian TUS TELEKOM, has selected Dreampark's Dreamgallery as the middleware for their Eastern European IPTV solution, confirming Dreampark's strength in the European middleware sector.

Dreampark is one of the leading IPTV middleware providers on the European market and its signature box the Dreamgallery is the most deployed IPTV middleware in Europe. Dreamgallery was developed early in the early IPTV deployment phase and is used by some of the world's first commercial IPTV deployments, including Canal Digital, Comvie, Dansk Bredbånd, FastTV, iVisjon, Smile Content and ViaSat.

"After an extensive period of testing and comparison with different IPTV middleware solutions, we selected Dreamgallery for our IPTV deployment," said Marc Witteveen, IPTV Project Manager at TUS TELEKOM. "We needed a middleware solution that would provide with the speed, flexibility and user-friendliness that we need to deploy quad play services throughout Slovenia and Dreamgallery really stood out in the competition."

For More:
- Dreampark press release

Related Articles:
- IPTV Middleware Subscribers Chart Report
- Biggest indie teleco makes IPTV move Report

Spanish giant plays with IPTV

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:59:10 -0500

Spanish owned UK Mobile operator, Telefonica O2, is to begin playing in the IPTV space and is looking for modest investments in early start up video 2.0 businesses and mobile advertising. O2 UK launched a broadband service earlier in 2007, but had not announced its IPTV strategy.

Telefonica's director of innovation, Russ Shaw, will make investments on behalf of O2 Europe, Telefonica Spain and Telefonica Latin America and the expectation is Telefonica will sit on the boards of companies it takes a stake in. Shaw has already secured deals with two companies, one of which is London-based. Three more deals are expected imminently.

Telefonica is one of the world's big Telcos and the giant this week promoted Matthew Key, the man who won them the prestigious Apple iPhone contract in the UK, to chief executive of Telefonica O2 Europe. Mr Key, currently chief executive of O2 UK, will succeed veteran mobile network executive Peter Erskine,, who steps down age 57 to a non-executive role in January.

For More:
- Telefone O2 goes shopping for IPTV Report

Related Articles:
- Telefonica pays top dollar for UK mobile business Report
- Investors warm to FiOS Report

U.K. disappoints on IPTV front

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 06:59:20 -0500

Over in the mother country it seems everyone is struggling to get their IPTV numbers. As recently as May Virgin promised to be on air next year in its ambitious triple play to cover the spots in the U.K. where cable wasn't. This week it has all been put off till at least 2009 with broadband now the "hero" product for Richard Branson's latest attempt to upset the competitive landscape.

As the incumbent, BT announced it had 60,000 customers for its video product--a long way short of its promised hundreds of thousand by the end of 2007 and nowhere near the two- to three-million customers BT hope to have in the medium term.

Another mooted player, France Telecom's Orange network has also gone very shy about its very public plan to have a TV service in the U.K. by Christmas. And at Tiscali's Homechoice, customer numbers have fallen 10,000 to a modest 30,000 over the last year.

More reports:
- Virgin scales back TV ambitions Report
- BT misses its targets Report
- Missing, presumed tardy: Orange IPTV Report

Related articles:
- Now showing: French VoIP revolution Report
- European IPTV market to double by 2009 Report