Digital TV and Broadband

Openet is warning video operators that their offerings have to add intelligence and evolve into platforms that deliver portable, on-demand, interactive, measurable and personalised content.

Video advertising technology company YuMe has seen the writing on the multiscreen wall, launching a new version of its video ad publishing platform with a 'Relevance Engine' to address portable devices as well as traditional computing screens.

Sony online video venture Crackle is rolling out a new free, ad-supported movie service to a connected TV or Blu-ray player near you. There’s just one catch — that TV or Blu-ray player will probably have to be made by Sony.

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has launched its new online music locker and streamer without any licenses from the labels whose material it will store and distribute, the labels’ umbrella group IFPI tells paidContent. Not a problem, replies Amazon—licenses aren’t necessary for its new Cloud Drive.

Findings from a study by custom research company TNS into today’s mobile consumer highlight that as ‘static’ functionality such as SMS and still imaging become commoditised, growth will be driven through further demand for social functionality and new demands for video calling, streaming and sharing services.

Video-on-demand (VOD) has established itself rapidly as a mainstay in pay-TV homes and will become an even faster growing entity for pay-TV providers as it integrated over the top (OTT) streams. In “On-demand Services Business Models: Video, Games & Over-the-Top – 2011 edition,” IMS Research estimates that at the end of 2010, 13.2% of the world’s digital pay-TV subscribers were requesting VOD content via their set-top box (STB).

Downturn-busting advertising spend and renewed confidence in the sector’s prospects have inspired more than half of broadcasters to invest more in technology. According to the survey of 150 senior IT and production technology executives at major public and private broadcasters in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific by Ovum, more than a fifth of broadcasters plan to increase their IT and production and distribution technology spend by more than 6% in 2011. A further 31% plan to grow this expenditure by between 1% and 5% over the course of the next twelve months.

Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) has stirred up a hornet's nest with the rollout of its popular app that streams live TV to Apple's iPad. With more than 300,000 downloads of the app, the company, which launched with 32 channels available to stream, is sticking by its guns that it's within its contractual rights to stream to the iPad, especially since users can only use the app with their own signal at home. Plus, users have to be subscribers to the MSO's high speed Internet service and its cable service.

VMIX, the carrier-class online video platform, is rolling out a solution for live and on-demand video rental for content owners and studios looking to play in social networking site Facebook's big backyard.

I was expecting Over-the-top to be a prevalent theme, but not to swamp the whole conference the way it did. From the few conference talks I attended, right from the OTT Forum breakfast to Netflix’s keynote on the last day OTT was in everyone’s slides. Then on the exhibition floor there wasn’t a booth that didn’t have the precious two letters somewhere on a wall or at last in the literature.

Display ad specialist Collective has bought video ad network WebTV Enterprise. The deal will give Collective, which partnered with Adobe and Omniture earlier this month to bolster its web analytics offering, access to WebTV’s 25 million-strong premium network, with revenues coming primarily from broadcast

Virgin Media has won an appeal ruling confirming it didn’t infringe European patents for interactive programme guides held by Rovi’s Gemstar-TV Guide International because the patents were deemed invalid.

Whenever I tried to open the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Cloud Drive or Cloud Player on the iPad2 after last night’s launch, I got a warning that it didn’t work in my browser. I tried Safari and Skyfire. No luck. Then this morning on a whim I tried again—and I’m listening to Carole King and James Taylor Live at the Troubador streaming from the iPad as I type. One song download at a time.

Last month's Bandwidth Report discussed wireless broadband penetration. This month we look at the spread of fixed broadband and Internet penetration, as well the performance cost of going wireless. Europe leads the world in fixed broadband and Internet penetration, just as it leads in mobile broadband peentration.

The UK’s Court of Appeal has upheld a decision that strips TV EPG maker Gemstar, now part of Rovi, of three patents.

The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal by Gemstar TV-Guide international in response to the patent case brought against Virgin Media.

Amazon has pulled a move which surprised many today, with the announcement of its own online music storage service.

European cable operators are meeting goals set under the Digital Agenda for the deployment of high-speed broadband, according to a new report written by Solon Management Consultancy on behalf of Cable Europe.

2010 was certainly an annus mirabilis for the digital TV market in Europe with 300 new channels launched in the EU during the year and more than 400 HD channels in operation.

Not all 3D glasses are the same, much to viewers’ chagrin. Panasonic is linking with active shutter glasses specialists Xpand3D to come up with a universal standard for 3D viewing. The idea is that the proposed standard would be good for cinemas, TV, computers and home TV projectors.

M7 Group, the operators of DTH platforms including the Dutch CanalDigitaal and Czech CS Link, has signed up to a multi-year agreement with Rovi on a series of EPG patents.

Apple is said to be working on TV, according to US blog Fudzilla: “Look for it to arrive with an official announcement around the holidays, according to the whispers we are hearing. Then again, it might amount to nothing and Apple may never bring the product to market.”

We’ve been tracking the new Virgin Media TiVo service for a full year since it was first announced, and while a lot has happened in twelve months, you can now nab one for installation underneath your telly, just as we have.

Telecoms network solutions provider Huawei has been given the Best Service Delivery Platform for IPTV award at the IP&TV World Forum 2011 in London, hosted by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Amino Technologies plc (“Amino”; stock code: AMO), the Cambridge-based leader in digital entertainment solutions for IPTV, hybrid/Over the Top (“OTT”) TV and in-home multimedia distribution, has secured a follow-on order to provide its hybrid/OTT technology to support Telecom Italia’s (Milan:TIT) deployment of its Cubovision all-in-one multimedia broadband service.

Freesat and EchoStar have teamed up on a set-top box that allows you to watch live TV and recorded programming on your mobile device as well as providing a traditional PVR service.

While Apple has been pretty much a runaway success across different devices such as the iPad and iPhone, their Apple TV didn’t really take off in a way they expected, even though the second generation Apple TV did work out some of the weaknesses in its predecessor.

Espial announces Hitachi is shipping their latest Connected TV models into the Japanese market powered by the Espial TV Browser. To assist with their goal of being one of the premium TV suppliers to the Japanese Market, Hitachi has incorporated the Espial TV Browser which is included in the following Connected TV models shipped to only Japanese market: Hitachi P42-XP07, P46-XP07, P50-XP07, L32-XP07, L37-XP07, and L42-XP07.

Well here’s a turn up for the books. BSkyB, one of the BBC fiercest critics and a former protester against YouView, suddenly wants in on the action alongside other interested media companies. I think I’d tell Murdoch Jr. where to go, personally.

Five million connected TV sets will be sold in Germany this year, according to the high tech association Bitkom. This will be almost a tenfold increase within two years. The first internet-enabled TV sets were available in 2009. “Thanks to the high market penetration of hybrid devices, internet and television will finally merge. The web connection is now a standard feature in modern TVs “said Bitkom president Prof. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer.