Friday, April 3, 2009

Belgacom Considering New IPTV Middleware

Light Reading published an article saying that Belgacom is considering replacing its Nokia Siemens middleware. Light Reading thinks that Microsoft is the leading contender. The other major vendors supporting Microsoft are Arris/C-Cor for video on demand, Amino for set-top boxes, and Verimatrix for content security.

The Nokia Siemens middleware came from its acquisition of Myrio. Myrio's middleware was originally designed for the small U.S. independent telcos.

This is an interesting situation. It does not appear that Nokia Siemens has made the investment in the Myrio middleware to allow it to scale to meet Belgacom's needs and to support the next generation of interactive applications.

Microsoft's Mediaroom is an obvious candidate. I expect that Alcatel-Lucent will use its strong relationship with Belgacom to push the MyView middleware that it acquired from Telefonica. Thomson's middleware that is used by France Telecom should be another strong candidate.

It will be bad news for Arris/C-Cor, Amino, and Verimatrix if Belgacom its replaces Nokia Siemens middleware.

5 comments:

Ashu Joshi said...

Interesting to note that Ericsson is not part of the vendors pursuing this opportunity. My guess with the large installed base of the Myrio solution, any new vendor and Belgacom are going to have a challenge rising to this opportunity!

Bob Larribeau said...

I expect that Ericsson is chasing this opportunity, however Ericsson does not have any big installations today.

I agree, changing middleware will be a large complex project that may take a long time to complete.

Bob Larribeau

Anonymous said...

The article that Light Reading ran is false information. Expect to see a press release in response to the article by Mr. Ray Le Maistre.

Bob Larribeau said...

I will make a post when I see the Nokia Siemens press release.

Bob Larribeau

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I think they'll be no press release because this info is true. The new STB provider is confidential but have been chosen. I can just tell you you did not mention it. At the moment Mirosoft is taking a big part of the new smal IPTV players, as another new middleware, made by a French startup seems to be in good move to become the number one in next coming 3 years.