The Broadcasting and Communications Commission in Korea stated that telecom firms there are to invest around $15.8 billion on IPTV services in 2008.
KT, the dominant telephone and broadband Internet service provider, alone plans to spend $13 billion, and LG Dacom and Hanarotelecom plan to spend $1.475 billion and $1.23 billion, respectively.
According to the report from the commission, the firms have said that they will spend $10.6 billion won on improving networks, $1.14 billion on platforms, $2.23 billion on set-top boxes and another $1.8 billion on purchasing content.
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute estimates IPTV will be a $5.4 billion market this year, meaning it will take a few years for the firms to start making any profits. Government agencies expect IPTV subscribers to reach 2 million this year and grow to 3.3 million by 2012.
According to the report from the commission, the firms have said that they will spend 1.06 trillion won on improving networks, 113.7 billion won on platforms, 223 billion won on set-top boxes and another 180 billion won on purchasing content. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute estimates IPTV will be a 540-billion won market this year, meaning it will take a few years for the firms to start making any profits. Government agencies expect IPTV subscribers to reach 2 million this year and grow to 3.3 million by 2012.
It looks like IPTV will have a big year in Korea in 2008. I am still a bit confused about which of these services are Internet over the top and which are typical walled garden Telco IPTV services. I would appreciate clarification from anybody on the scene.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Smart Telecom to Launch IPTV in Ireland
Competitive provider Smart Telecom will start a soft launch of its IPTV service in April. It will select customers on short loops in order to better manage service quality during this initial phase.
The new service will be capable of delivering more than 100 TV and radio channels to 550 thousand homes across Ireland, where it has 37 unbundled exchanges. The service will also include time shifting that can allow viewers to watch programs broadcast the previous.
Smart is making a €2.5m investment in an MPEG 4 IPTV headend and middleware solution from Thomson.
This is the second IPTV service from a competitive carrier in Ireland. It leaves Eircom with two IPTV competitors and as the only Western European incumbent with no announced plans for IPTV.
The new service will be capable of delivering more than 100 TV and radio channels to 550 thousand homes across Ireland, where it has 37 unbundled exchanges. The service will also include time shifting that can allow viewers to watch programs broadcast the previous.
Smart is making a €2.5m investment in an MPEG 4 IPTV headend and middleware solution from Thomson.
This is the second IPTV service from a competitive carrier in Ireland. It leaves Eircom with two IPTV competitors and as the only Western European incumbent with no announced plans for IPTV.
Chunghwa Telecom Ends 2007 with 394K IPTV Subscribers
Chunghwa Telecom, the incumbent in Taiwan, ended 2007 with 394 thousand subscribers to its MOD IPTV service. This is up from 249 thousand at the end of 2006.
Chunghwa has 4,500 hours of video on demand content available and updates 400 to 500 hours each week. It also offer more than 60 broadcast channels, which is up from 32 channels in 2006. It will also offer the 2008 Olympic games in HD as well as some baseball games.
Chunghwa is also making significant progress with its fiber deployments. Its fiber subscriptions increased from 185.3 thousand at the end of 2006, to 536.9 thousand at the end 2007 an increase of more than 350 thousand. It currently provides fiber services in 15,383 buildings, which is 90 percent market share among all fiber operators in Taiwan.
Chunghwa is raising the bandwidth of its DSL services as well in order to better serve its IPTV service. At the end of 2007, 28.5 percent of its broadband subscribers had speeds in excess of 8 Mbps., which is up from 20.6 percent at the end of 2006.
Chunghwa is continuing rapid but steady progress with its IPTV service. 2008 should be a good year for it as well.
Chunghwa has 4,500 hours of video on demand content available and updates 400 to 500 hours each week. It also offer more than 60 broadcast channels, which is up from 32 channels in 2006. It will also offer the 2008 Olympic games in HD as well as some baseball games.
Chunghwa is also making significant progress with its fiber deployments. Its fiber subscriptions increased from 185.3 thousand at the end of 2006, to 536.9 thousand at the end 2007 an increase of more than 350 thousand. It currently provides fiber services in 15,383 buildings, which is 90 percent market share among all fiber operators in Taiwan.
Chunghwa is raising the bandwidth of its DSL services as well in order to better serve its IPTV service. At the end of 2007, 28.5 percent of its broadband subscribers had speeds in excess of 8 Mbps., which is up from 20.6 percent at the end of 2006.
Chunghwa is continuing rapid but steady progress with its IPTV service. 2008 should be a good year for it as well.
Limitations of Internet TV
The Telegraph published and interesting article laying out some of the limitations of watching TV over the Internet and the trade offs between downloading and streaming. It points out that the download caps will limit many broadband users to about one our or so of viewing per day with many UK broadband ISPs. It also points out that the other broadband ISPs without download caps have fair use policies that may also limit the amount of downloading.
The article points out that streaming to the PC uses much less bandwidth and, therefor, permits much more viewing.
This is a real limitation that will limit watching content from the Internet on the TV to only one or two programs each day. With these limitations, the Internet will not provide a real alternative to Telco IPTV, cable, or broadcast TV services and only be a supplement.
The article points out that streaming to the PC uses much less bandwidth and, therefor, permits much more viewing.
This is a real limitation that will limit watching content from the Internet on the TV to only one or two programs each day. With these limitations, the Internet will not provide a real alternative to Telco IPTV, cable, or broadcast TV services and only be a supplement.
Friday, March 21, 2008
FCC Requires Open IPTV
In a recent ruling that gives waivers to smaller cable systems for rules that require open set-top boxes, there is a footnote that requires an open security system for U.S. Telco IPTV providers that permits interconnection by consumer electronic devices by July 1, 2008.
The U.S. IPTV providers stated to the FCC that their security systems were already open. The FCC has not yet decided that this is or is not the case.
This could be a real problem for the U.S. IPTV providers. Every IPTV content security system is proprietary and based on a single company's system. The IPTV industry has not developed an interoperable standard such as the Cable Lab's cable card that can be used across systems. It is clearly not feasible for consumer electronic companies to deploy all of the proprietary content security systems that the U.S. IPTV providers are using in their products. There has to be a single standard that they can implement.
The U.S. IPTV providers stated to the FCC that their security systems were already open. The FCC has not yet decided that this is or is not the case.
This could be a real problem for the U.S. IPTV providers. Every IPTV content security system is proprietary and based on a single company's system. The IPTV industry has not developed an interoperable standard such as the Cable Lab's cable card that can be used across systems. It is clearly not feasible for consumer electronic companies to deploy all of the proprietary content security systems that the U.S. IPTV providers are using in their products. There has to be a single standard that they can implement.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Taiwanese Cable Company Trials IPTV
Vastar Cable TV System in Taiwan has started a trial of Vee TV, its HD IPTV service. It delivers Vee TV service through its fiber network. The current trial broadcast consists of three HD digital channels as well as HD video on demand with content including NHK programs from Japan, nature shows and adult movies.
Vastar plans to set a minimum monthly fee of $NT89 ($US3) for 32 channels. It is deploying FTTC, FTTB, and FTTH. Vastar has completed FTTB in about 1,000 buildings. Its fiber infrastructure can serve 600,000-700,000 subscribers.
Cable companies globally are looking at fiber broadband architectures for delivering services. Telco fiber deployments are putting pressure on cable companies to upgrade to fiber. This pressure is the most intent in new construction where fiber services are a strong sales feature.
Vastar plans to set a minimum monthly fee of $NT89 ($US3) for 32 channels. It is deploying FTTC, FTTB, and FTTH. Vastar has completed FTTB in about 1,000 buildings. Its fiber infrastructure can serve 600,000-700,000 subscribers.
Cable companies globally are looking at fiber broadband architectures for delivering services. Telco fiber deployments are putting pressure on cable companies to upgrade to fiber. This pressure is the most intent in new construction where fiber services are a strong sales feature.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Microsoft Mediaroom Application Environment
Light Reading published an article describing a new version of the Microsoft IPTV software called Milwaukee. Microsoft calls Milwaukee the Multimedia Applications Environment (MAE). the MAE facilitates the development of new IPTV applications and the ability to pull in existing data feeds, including real-time updates, from websites to run concurrently on-screen with video streams; and the ability to build recommendation and personalization tools.
Microsoft gave demonstration of the streamed TV/Website data at the IPTV World Forum, using feeds and relevant background data from Nascar's Website, alongside and/or overlaid with video footage of a NASCAR race.
BT has expressed strong interest in using the capabilities of the NAE. The NAE is planned for a beta release in May 2008 and general release in August.
This is the kind of capability that Microsoft will need to takes its service provider customers to the next level of IPTV capability. It is certainly the kind of thing that they were banking on when they selected Mediaroom.
Microsoft gave demonstration of the streamed TV/Website data at the IPTV World Forum, using feeds and relevant background data from Nascar's Website, alongside and/or overlaid with video footage of a NASCAR race.
BT has expressed strong interest in using the capabilities of the NAE. The NAE is planned for a beta release in May 2008 and general release in August.
This is the kind of capability that Microsoft will need to takes its service provider customers to the next level of IPTV capability. It is certainly the kind of thing that they were banking on when they selected Mediaroom.
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