The Chilean unit of Spains Telefónica has launched IPTV services in Santiago, its first in Latin America. Telefónica Chile has invested US $20 millionn into network upgrades and equipment purchases to facilitate the IPTV rollout.
The service is limited to the wealthier neighborhoods in the northeastern corner of Santiago.
The neighborhoods chosen for the rollout are the only areas where the network has sufficient bandwidth to handle 6Mbt channels needed to deliver the service. There are plans to expand the service to other parts of the city in 2008.
By the end of 2007, Telefónica expects to have some 3,000-5,000 IPTV subscribers. However, in the near term the service is only a complement to Telefónica's existing digital TV and satellite services.
The IPTV service offers video on demand, with some 240 hours of content available. Every month around 20% of that content will be updated.
At the end of May its competitor, VTR had a 71% share of the pay TV market, down from 77% at end-2006, according to Telefónica. The incumbent has had digital and satellite TV services for one year and at the end of May had a 14% market share with 156,547 clients, a 66% increase compared to the end of 2006.
This is a small beginning in IPTV for Telefónica in Chile. Don't expect dramatic growth. The broadband network there is not ready to support IPTV on a broad basis. This is also Telefónica's third pay TV service and will have to compete for resources within the company.
Friday, June 15, 2007
ATIS Releases IPTV Architecture Document
ATIS has released its its IPTV High Level Architecture document, which is a high level architectural framework for end-to-end systems’ implementation and interoperability. It will serve as reference architecture for the IPTV functional specifications to be defined in separate documents.
This document is available from the document center on the ATIS website for $108 for non members.
This work is important but rather after the fact. Most major carriers have already committed to IPTV architectures. They will have to evolve the pre standard implementations to standards over time.
This document is available from the document center on the ATIS website for $108 for non members.
This work is important but rather after the fact. Most major carriers have already committed to IPTV architectures. They will have to evolve the pre standard implementations to standards over time.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Portugal Telecom starts IPTV
Portugal Telecom launched an 88 channel IPTV service. It also has more than 80% of the cable and satellite TV business in Portugal, under the TV Cabo brand. This IPTV service includes video on demand and HD service
It owns a subsidiary that accounts for more than 90% of the landline telephony and nearly 80% of the broadband in Portugal. This subsidiary is also a leading film distributor and owns 148 movie theaters. This subsidiary will be spun off as a separate company in September.
Portugal Telecom has invested over 10 million euros in the service, and will initially launch IPTV in three target markets -- Lisbon, Oporto and Castelo Branco -- but intends to roll out the service to the entire country, with more than 100 channels, in the coming months.
Other domestic operators such as Sonae.com, Cabovisao and Ar Telecom, have also launched IPTV services, but have not built up a significant subscriber base to date.
Cable in Portugal is in about 30 percent of the homes and satellite is in less than 10 percent of homes. About 3/4 of the cable subscribers are still using analog cable, which makes them vulnerable to IPTV.
In these market conditions, Portugal Telecom should do well, as long as it performs well and it markets the service well.
It owns a subsidiary that accounts for more than 90% of the landline telephony and nearly 80% of the broadband in Portugal. This subsidiary is also a leading film distributor and owns 148 movie theaters. This subsidiary will be spun off as a separate company in September.
Portugal Telecom has invested over 10 million euros in the service, and will initially launch IPTV in three target markets -- Lisbon, Oporto and Castelo Branco -- but intends to roll out the service to the entire country, with more than 100 channels, in the coming months.
Other domestic operators such as Sonae.com, Cabovisao and Ar Telecom, have also launched IPTV services, but have not built up a significant subscriber base to date.
Cable in Portugal is in about 30 percent of the homes and satellite is in less than 10 percent of homes. About 3/4 of the cable subscribers are still using analog cable, which makes them vulnerable to IPTV.
In these market conditions, Portugal Telecom should do well, as long as it performs well and it markets the service well.
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Telcos Pushing for Statewide Video Franchises
Light Reading has published and article that gives a good summary of the push by ATT and Verizon to get the individual states in the U.S. to institute state wide video franchises that will eliminate the requirement to acquire franchises on a community by community basis. Fifteen of the fifty U.S. states have state wide video franchises today. Massachusetts and Georgia are currently considering statewide franchises.
ATT and Verizon were not successful in getting the U.S. FCC to declare a national franchise. Their backup is to get more statewide franchises. ATT has 12 of its 22 states with statewide franchises, including its two largest states, Texas and California.
Verizon also has a number of states with statewide franchises including New Jersey and Virginia but not New York or Massachusetts.
This will continue to be a slog for these companies
ATT and Verizon were not successful in getting the U.S. FCC to declare a national franchise. Their backup is to get more statewide franchises. ATT has 12 of its 22 states with statewide franchises, including its two largest states, Texas and California.
Verizon also has a number of states with statewide franchises including New Jersey and Virginia but not New York or Massachusetts.
This will continue to be a slog for these companies
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Downloading Videos is Incremental
An article on LightReading gave comments from a Starz! executive about the impact of Vongo, its Internet download service, on its subscription movie channel. From 70 to 76 percent of Vongo customers don't get Starz or another premium network such as HBO or Showtime as part of their cable or satellite TV service. In addition, 20 to 25 percent of Vongo's subscribers do not subscribe to a cable or satellite multichannel video service, opting instead to get their fill of video via broadband and from DVD rental services such as Netflix.
The Vongo service is predominantly used by men with an average age of 38, and to consumers with homes teeming with multiple computers and other electronic devices. From 30 to 36 percent of Vongo's subscribers base is viewing Vongo content on their TV screens. The quality on the TV screen is somewhere between the DVD and VHS. Vongo encodes video at about 1.3 Mbit/s using Windows Media.
Starz would like to see Vongo offered with cable and TelcoTV services. It stated that there are negotiations going on in that regard.
These results are interesting from a couple of respects. First, the average age is well beyond the 20's that most people expect will be the predominant users of these services. This means that there a lot of people in their 40s or even 50s using Vongo.
The other interesting fact is the number of people watching Vongo content on their TVs. These people are connecting Windows PCs or Xboxes to their TV to accomplish this. This means to me that this is a pretty technically savvy group of people.
Our report The Battle for Broadband TV covers these issues and predicts that services are likely to hook up with TelcoTV service providers. You can download a free white paper to see what we think about this.
The Vongo service is predominantly used by men with an average age of 38, and to consumers with homes teeming with multiple computers and other electronic devices. From 30 to 36 percent of Vongo's subscribers base is viewing Vongo content on their TV screens. The quality on the TV screen is somewhere between the DVD and VHS. Vongo encodes video at about 1.3 Mbit/s using Windows Media.
Starz would like to see Vongo offered with cable and TelcoTV services. It stated that there are negotiations going on in that regard.
These results are interesting from a couple of respects. First, the average age is well beyond the 20's that most people expect will be the predominant users of these services. This means that there a lot of people in their 40s or even 50s using Vongo.
The other interesting fact is the number of people watching Vongo content on their TVs. These people are connecting Windows PCs or Xboxes to their TV to accomplish this. This means to me that this is a pretty technically savvy group of people.
Our report The Battle for Broadband TV covers these issues and predicts that services are likely to hook up with TelcoTV service providers. You can download a free white paper to see what we think about this.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Ultra HD - An Overwhelming Prospect
Ateme, a French MPEG-4 encoding company, is participating in a demonstration of Ultra HD, with NHK, the Japanese broadcaster. This Ultra HD demonstration will be at a resolution of 7680 x 4320, which is four times the resolution of HD of 1920 by 1080 in both directions. This demonstration will use prototype super-fast cameras that can capture data at a rate of 4,000 frames per second and capture 22.2 audio (as compared to today’s 5.1 surround sound).
Ateme expects that the Ultra HD standards will be complete in 2009. NHK estimates that satellite transmission tests will begin in 2011, and that by 2020, Ultra HD will be ready for broadcast to households.
Ateme is using 16 MPEG-4 AVC encoders in tandem for this demonstration in order to provide a very high level of quality, consequently the demonstration will require 128 Mbps to encode the Ultra HD stream. Ateme state that this bandwidth can be reduced first by allocating bandwidth more intelligently between the 16 encoders. Finally, bandwidth can be reduced with a single Ultra HD specific encoder that can encode an entire frame at one time.
It is not clear how much the bandwidth to provide Ultra HD encoding can be reduced, but if it follows the pattern between SD and HD, I would estimate about 75 Mbps will be required. Of course, it could be less if resolution or quality standards are reduced.
What this does mean is that Ultra HD will require a fiber to the home service and one that provides something around 500 Mbps per subscriber. This is in the ball park for GPON depending on splitter levels. Gigabit point-to-point Ethernet will also work. It is out of the question for VDSL, even with bonding.
Ultra HD will also be tough for the cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial broadcasters. They will have to provide very high amounts of bandwidth as well. Getting rid of analog channels will help the cable companies, but it will be a major strain for all of them.
The difficulties in delivering Ultra HD for all of these media calls into question NHK's estimate of a 2020 service introduction. It seems likely that only the youngest among us will regularly receive Ultra HD service.
Ateme expects that the Ultra HD standards will be complete in 2009. NHK estimates that satellite transmission tests will begin in 2011, and that by 2020, Ultra HD will be ready for broadcast to households.
Ateme is using 16 MPEG-4 AVC encoders in tandem for this demonstration in order to provide a very high level of quality, consequently the demonstration will require 128 Mbps to encode the Ultra HD stream. Ateme state that this bandwidth can be reduced first by allocating bandwidth more intelligently between the 16 encoders. Finally, bandwidth can be reduced with a single Ultra HD specific encoder that can encode an entire frame at one time.
It is not clear how much the bandwidth to provide Ultra HD encoding can be reduced, but if it follows the pattern between SD and HD, I would estimate about 75 Mbps will be required. Of course, it could be less if resolution or quality standards are reduced.
What this does mean is that Ultra HD will require a fiber to the home service and one that provides something around 500 Mbps per subscriber. This is in the ball park for GPON depending on splitter levels. Gigabit point-to-point Ethernet will also work. It is out of the question for VDSL, even with bonding.
Ultra HD will also be tough for the cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial broadcasters. They will have to provide very high amounts of bandwidth as well. Getting rid of analog channels will help the cable companies, but it will be a major strain for all of them.
The difficulties in delivering Ultra HD for all of these media calls into question NHK's estimate of a 2020 service introduction. It seems likely that only the youngest among us will regularly receive Ultra HD service.
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