A book called IPTV Crash Course has been published. You can find a review at
http://www.viodi.tv/2007/04/07/iptv_crash_course/
I have not seen this book and cannot endorse it, but there are few books available on the subject. It may be worth a look if you are coming up to speed on the subject.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Regulatory Uncertainty Continues in Korea
The telcos in Korea will now be allowed to build IPTV services, but these services have been categorized as "broadcast services". The Korean Telecommunications Associations (KCTA) welcomed the ruling, but telecom companies said that the ruling would actually prevent them from entering the market.
You can see the source of this post at http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=020000&biid=2007040730798
The regulatory status of IPTV has been muddled for some time. It appears that this ruling will not help the situation. Maybe I need to go and reduce my IPTV forecast for Korea?
You can see the source of this post at http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=020000&biid=2007040730798
The regulatory status of IPTV has been muddled for some time. It appears that this ruling will not help the situation. Maybe I need to go and reduce my IPTV forecast for Korea?
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Telia Offers Free IPTV in Sweden
Telia, the incumbent telco in Sweden, now offers the basic channel package and the set-top box for its Digital-tv IPTV service for starting in February. This basic channel package includes 26 channels. Premium packages with 10 to 14 additional channels each are available for 169 kr (US$24) to 239 kr (US$34). Video on demand is also available.
We have heard that this offer has been quite successful and that Telia has been adding 10 thousand new IPTV subscribers per week since it introduced this service. This would bring its subscriber base somewhere around 150 thousand IPTV subscribers.
It is hard to turn down something that is free!
We have heard that this offer has been quite successful and that Telia has been adding 10 thousand new IPTV subscribers per week since it introduced this service. This would bring its subscriber base somewhere around 150 thousand IPTV subscribers.
It is hard to turn down something that is free!
ATT Promoting IPTV
ATT is offering free HD for one year to new subscribers to its IPTV U-verse service, where it is available, as well as to its satellited DirecTV and ATT Dish TV services. AT&T offers more than 25 channels of HD programming through its ATT U-verse IPTV service and up to 31 HD channels through ATT satellite services, DirecTV Service and AT&T DISH Network.
This is ATT's first move to promote its U-verse service. This offer will have a much larger effect on its satellite services since U-verse is only available in a few places.
This is ATT's first move to promote its U-verse service. This offer will have a much larger effect on its satellite services since U-verse is only available in a few places.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Virgin Media Responding to BT Vision
Virgin Media, the UK cable provider, announced that it will provide a free set-top Freeview digital terrestrial set-top box to its customers in areas where it does not provide cable service. Customers that subscribe to its 8 Mbps broadband service and Talk Anytime phone bundle at 19.99 UK pounds per month will get the set-top box for free. Customers in these non-cable areas taking only a broadband will pay 40 UK pounds for the set-top box. The company plans to offer more advanced TV services in 2008.
This is a clear response to BT Vision IPTV service. Virgin is trying to retain its broadband customers from moving to BT Vision in the face of BT's offer of a free Freeview set-top box. Virgin is also using this offer to move people to its voice/data bundle.
BT Vision will start providing a rich set of on demand services starting before spring ends. This will make it difficult for Virgin to compete until its own on demand services come up to speed. On the other hand, BT cannot afford a slow rollout. Virgin (and others) will be breathing down its neck.
This is a clear response to BT Vision IPTV service. Virgin is trying to retain its broadband customers from moving to BT Vision in the face of BT's offer of a free Freeview set-top box. Virgin is also using this offer to move people to its voice/data bundle.
BT Vision will start providing a rich set of on demand services starting before spring ends. This will make it difficult for Virgin to compete until its own on demand services come up to speed. On the other hand, BT cannot afford a slow rollout. Virgin (and others) will be breathing down its neck.
Nokia Siemens Networks Starts Up
Nokia Siemens Network started operation yesterday, April 1. It is a combination of the telecommunications operations of its two owners, Nokia and Siemens. The company expects very slight market growth for both fixed and mobile infrastructure globally. Consequently it is updating its view of the outlook for these services.
This merger is likely to have a strong effect on Siemens IPTV efforts. Nokia has not had any significant participation in the IPTV market globally. It seems likely that the company will increase its focus on Tier 1 carriers globally.
This merger is likely to have a strong effect on Siemens IPTV efforts. Nokia has not had any significant participation in the IPTV market globally. It seems likely that the company will increase its focus on Tier 1 carriers globally.
Open IPTV Forum Interview
Last Friday I held an interview with the Open IPTV Forum. I spoke with Yunchao Hu of Ericsson who is acting as chairman of the Steeering Group and Barry Gravenhorst of Sony who is the vice chairman of the Steering Group of the Open IPTV Forum. They described four key objectives for the organization:
They identified three reasons why the Forum was formed:
You can get more information at the Open IPTV Forum at www.openiptvforum.org
The Open IPTV Forum is attacking important problems. Today every IPTV middleware package and sometimes separate deployments of the same middleware package have different interfaces. This makes it difficult for the set-t0p box manufacturers and their silicon suppliers. These companies have to go out and develop new software for every middleware package they want to support at a minimum. This is impossible for consumer device companies. There is no way that Sony or any other manufacturer will put an IPTV set-top box into their TVs if different software has to be loaded into it for every IPTV network.
The other work items for the Forum are also good choices. Personalised and interactive services are very important differentiators for IPTV services. The Forum must address the functions required for interactive and other new forms of advertising as well.
The convergence of IPTV and IMS is another important issue. I wrote a report on this for MRG http://www.mrgco.com last year. Bringing telephone services to the TV is another important differentiator, one that the U.S. cable companies are working diligently on.
Integrating the open Internet with managed IPTV services is also important. We will release a new report on this subject the week after next. The Forum is planning to do it right by addressing how content will be brought from the Internet as well as how third party content providers can provide service in addition to the managed IPTV service.
ATIS in the U.S. and the ITU have similar objectives to the Open IPTV Forum. All of this work will need to be harmonized and brought to market. It may be too late. Most of the large telcos have already committed to IPTV architectures. They will have to somehow evolve to Open IPTV Forum standards over time if this work is to be meaningful. It is just not clear how this will occur.
- It will specify a common and open end to end solution for supplying a variety of TV and Internet multimedia services to consumer devices in the home network.
- It will consider establishing a certification and logo program.
- It will include all the key players - customer equipment, content providers, network operators, service providers, network vendors, home device vendors
- It will strive to bring standards to the market more quickly than traditional standards organizations.
- A common IPTV Terminal Function (ITF) that supports services from both an open Internet and a managed network environment.
- Interactive and personalized services and the integration with communications services.
- Convergence of IPTV and multimedia services across different access technologies.
- Easy integration of 3rd party content offerings.
- DLNA
- IMS
- DVB-IPI
- Internet portals
- Web browsers
- Multimedia middleware
They identified three reasons why the Forum was formed:
- No other standards body is covering all aspects of an end to end IPTV solution in a timely manner.
- To address the combination of managed networks and the open Internet for service delivery.
- To address the blending of IPTV and communications services.
You can get more information at the Open IPTV Forum at www.openiptvforum.org
The Open IPTV Forum is attacking important problems. Today every IPTV middleware package and sometimes separate deployments of the same middleware package have different interfaces. This makes it difficult for the set-t0p box manufacturers and their silicon suppliers. These companies have to go out and develop new software for every middleware package they want to support at a minimum. This is impossible for consumer device companies. There is no way that Sony or any other manufacturer will put an IPTV set-top box into their TVs if different software has to be loaded into it for every IPTV network.
The other work items for the Forum are also good choices. Personalised and interactive services are very important differentiators for IPTV services. The Forum must address the functions required for interactive and other new forms of advertising as well.
The convergence of IPTV and IMS is another important issue. I wrote a report on this for MRG http://www.mrgco.com last year. Bringing telephone services to the TV is another important differentiator, one that the U.S. cable companies are working diligently on.
Integrating the open Internet with managed IPTV services is also important. We will release a new report on this subject the week after next. The Forum is planning to do it right by addressing how content will be brought from the Internet as well as how third party content providers can provide service in addition to the managed IPTV service.
ATIS in the U.S. and the ITU have similar objectives to the Open IPTV Forum. All of this work will need to be harmonized and brought to market. It may be too late. Most of the large telcos have already committed to IPTV architectures. They will have to somehow evolve to Open IPTV Forum standards over time if this work is to be meaningful. It is just not clear how this will occur.
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