ORCA and BCC to Wholesale IPTV in in Russia

Orca Interactive has partnered with BCC, a system integrator to deliver a wholesale IPTV service across Russia. North-West Telecom, Sibir Telecom, and Southern Telecommunications are incumbent carriers that will market this service to smaller local companies.

I spoke to Orca about this announcement. Orca said that BCC will deliver broadcast content over fiber to the local carriers that sign up to this service. Orca said that broadband penetration is growing across Russia but is still at a relatively low level. This wholesale approach will lower the cost of introducing an IPTV service by providing a shared headend service. This will improve the business case for IPTV in Russia, where the rate of growth is likely to be low compared to Western Europe and North America.

Orca is smart to emphasize less developed markets such as Russia. Less developed countries such as Russia, the Middle East, and Latin America are likely to present the best new IPTV opportunities.

Corbina in Russia Goes with Microsoft

VimpelCom in Russia has signed an agreement to use Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV software for its Corbina TV IPTV service. The service will also use Motorola set-top boxes with or without a 160 GB hard disk. The service will support both SD and HD programming and will be launched in the middle of 2008. It will have 100 broadcast channels and 1,000 films, cartoons, and series available on demand. Corbina provides fiber based services to almost every apartment building in Moscow and many other cities in Russia.

This is another strong win for Microsoft. The Russian market is becoming a strong telecom market and it looks like IPTV will do well there.

Ukraine IPTV Heating Up

The Ukrainian state telecom operator Ukrtelecom plans to launch an IPTV service together with the Independent Ukrainian TV Corporation. It will begin testing the service in December this year with a full launch expected in March or April 2008.

The service will be called U.tv and will offer about 100 Ukrainian and foreign channels and a video on demand service. Set-top boxes--some of which will be PVR enabled--will be provided on a rental basis and the group says it will price packages at a similar level to analogue TV services via cable. Ukrtelecom also plans to launch more new services, including a VoIP service called Ogo! Agent.

There are five other companies licensed for IPTV in the Ukraine: Comstar Ukraine (Stream TV) and Golden Telecom Ukraine, both daughter companies of Russian operators, as well as Ukrainian operators Cosmonova, Norma Plus, and No Plus.

Comstar and Golden Telecom have both already completed IPTV tests with Comstar planning start the its second stage of testing this month. It currently offers 40 channels and will increase the package to 60 channels. Golden Telecom says it will finish its field tests by the end of 2007 and launch a service early in 2008.

A number of factors are currently hindering development of the Ukrainian IPTV market. Operators currently require two licences (one from the telecommunication authority and another one from the broadcast regulator). Also the cost of set-top boxes at $250-$450 each makes the business case difficult at current monthly subscription rates.

TelcoTV is a global phenomenon. There is a lot of activity in the Russian Federation. I would appreciate comments from any readers who have first hand knowledge.

Corbina Offering IPTV in Moscow

Corbina is a subsidiary of Golden Telecom, which is a facilities based telecom service provider in the Russian Federation that provides service using a Fiber to the Building (FTTB) strategy. The two companies had 383 thousand broadband subscribers at the end of September 2007. The companys' networks are expected to cover 11.6 million households in 24 cities by the end of 2007.

In 2Q07 Golden Telecom began testing IPTV services based on Corbina Telecom's infrastructure. Its IPTV services include more than 100 channels and such services as video on demand, time shift TV, and Personal Video Recorder ("PVR").

The IPTV services are currently available to Corbina's Moscow broadband subscribers. In the next 6 months, the services will be available in more than 20 regions including St.-Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Nizhniy Novgorod and the Moscow Region.

The company estimates that approximately 25-30% of FTTB customers will subscribe to IPTV services by 2009.

The Russian Federation appears to be emerging as a strong IPTV market. This fiber based infrastructure appears to be well suited to the service.

Korea Telecom to Introduce IPTV in Russia

Korea Telecom will start a trial of an IPTV services in the area of Vladivstock, Russia in August 2007. It plans a full launch in 2008. Korea Telecom will introduce the service through NTC, which it has 80 percent ownership.

The service will be called Mega TV. Its content will include 30 Russian channels and live programming. It will also offer video on demand content including movies, TV programs, and sports.

Russia is becoming an interesting IPTV market. It looks like Korea Telecom will have its service going in Russia before its home market!

IPTV Taking Off in Russia

Sistema's Comstar Direct ended Q1 2007 with 397,700 broadband Internet subscribers and 100,500 IPTV subscribers. While the broadband figure was 39% higher than the Q1 2006, the IPTV service increased 604%.

Comstar Direct added seven new channels to its Stream IPTV service – RUTV, Vesti, Viasat Sport, Bridge TV, Dom Kino, 2×2 and TeleNanny – since the beginning of 2007.

Sistema in Russia is now one of a small but growing set of service providers with more than 100 thousand IPTV subscribers. It is now among the leading IPTV service providers.