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.

Arris to Acquire C-Cor

Arris will acquire C-Cor for a price of approximately $730 million. Arris offers cable modem and cable telephony systems. C-Cor is a leading video on demand system provider to cable and TelcoTV service providers. The merger is anticipated to close in January 2008.

This looks like a strong combination. C-Cor's video on demand business is additive to Arris. Our recent report Opportunities in TelcoTV identifies that C-Cor is likely to be the number two IPTV video systems company over the period from 2006 to 2012.