The IPTV Week In Review

By Michelle Pasquerello

Associate Editor

 

IPTV (News - Alert) is moving up in the technology industry and here at TMCnet, we’ve got the scoop on what’s happening in IPTV for this first week of May.

 

Associate Editor Patrick Barnard reported that Internet TV service provider Brightcove is offering a service that allows anyone with video content to distribute videos via the Internet. Patrick writes that “major programmers including Discovery, National Lampoon, and Oxygen are already distributing broadband channels using Brightcove’s “premium” services, which have been commercially available since the beginning of 2006. The premium services are designed to meet the needs of large media companies and major brand marketers with complex broadband programming requirements.”

 

This reporter found out that Entone Technologies took the top spot in Multimedia Research Group’s report on IPTV.

 

IPTV Market Leader Report ranked approximately 60 IPTV vendors regionally and globally from six separate IPTV product categories, including AccessSystems, Video Headends and Video On Demand. For the VOD market, Entone was ranked as number one company globally and in Asia due to its deployment at PCCW.

 

Entone’s StreamLiner network video recorder (NVR) was chosen based on achievements in using open hardware to achieve highest performance.

 

Laura Stotler reported that SmartVideo is utilizing Optibase’s IPTV streaming platforms, offering Verizon and Cingular (News - Alert) mobile subscribers full motion TV.

 

According to Laura’s article, “IPTV content offerings include news, weather, sports and children’s programming from ABC news, NBC Universal, Fox Sports, The Weather Channel and more. The company also broadcasts on-demand and download-and-play television content for Internet-connected video consumers throughout the world. SmartVideo proprietary technologies include a suite of television content management services for wireless telco carriers and content owners.”

 

SmartVideo is using the Optibase MGW 5100 TV streaming platform.

 

Patrick Barnard also reported on the latest research from Infonetics, citing that “IPTV subscribers worldwide will swell to 53 million by 2009.”

 

The report also stated that “equipment sales, service revenue, subscribers, and service provider capital expenditures all increased dramatically between 2004 and 2005, and are expected to explode by 2009.”

 

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To stay up on the latest in the IPTV space, be sure to visit TMCnet’s IPTV news page.