Website: Rapid TV News

Spain’s main audiovisual group, Prisa’s Sogecable, is planning the launch of a pay-DTT operator as a complementary service to its satellite pay-TV operator Digital+.

This future new pay-TV operator will be an individual service to that of Abertis Telecom’s Premium TDT offer, which currently only offers premium soccer channel Gol TV.

That channel’s owner, Mediapro, recently announced its own pay-DTT operator launch. So apparently there will be two pay-TV operators in Spain.

With Sogecable’s new project the producer wants to directly compete with Telefónica’s DSL pay-TV operator Imagenio, cable operator Ono and the country’s other IPTV offerings from Jazztel and Orange.

In order to initiate the new project Sogecable will include the two digital channels allocated to its national free-to-air network Cuatro, which it has agreed to sell to Mediaset’s national private free-to-air network
Telecinco in return for 18% of the capital of the new group.

According to this agreement Telecinco has given Sogecable the management of its pay-TV offering once the two groups are merged.

According to the newspaper Expansión, Prisa is working to have its pay-DTT channels ready for next September once new channels have been added to Gol TV.

But going with a different technology would mean commercial problems so Sogecable could be forced to adopt Abertis Telecom’s chosen technology for its new pay-DTT operator.

Abertis adopted Nagravision and Irdeto conditional accesses.

A total of 270,000 pay-DTT boxes have been sold so far in Spain, all under the TDT Premium standard led by Abertis.

But taking account of the expectations of the pay-DTT market, retailers bought nearly 1.5 million of these boxes. Now it is time to commercialize them.

With the same pay-DTT box the user will be able to get different offerings.

Sogecable’s new pay-DTT offering could cost around €15 monthly according to some company sources, which is the same price as Gol TV’s.

With an averge monthly price of €40, Prisa’s satellite pay-TV operator Digital+ is Prisa’s main income source.

Sogecable wants pay-TV on DTT

Espial®, a leader in TV On-Demand software and solutions, today announced the latest version of its TV Browser product for Connected TVs and Set-Top Boxes.
The Connected TV market is poised for high growth as consumers increasingly demand access to their favourite websites and web video content from their TV.
According to the [...]

The rest is here:
Espial Announces Browser for Connected TVs

IDC will
be showcasing its SFX ProIPTV at the TelcoTV conference taking place at the Orange
County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida from November 10 to 12. IDC will be showcasing
their new RoHS compliant SFX ProIPTV satellite receivers that will be supporting EchoStar’s
live video demonstrations at TelcoTV in booth 925. With room for up to 14 dual carrier
hot-swappable receiver blades per chassis, the SFX ProIPTV is ideal for telecom companies
and multi-dwelling units, (MDU’s), where space and power consumption are at a premium
- the 6RU configuration reduces cost and energy related operating expenses while also
providing a 75% reduction in space utilization. The unique design of the ProIPTV allows
users to purchase the modules and configuration that are best suited for their needs
while providing them with a system that can grow as the demands on the network increase.

Read the rest here:
IDC Showcasing New IPTV Products at TelcoTV

Zeugma
Systems, along with industry experts from IDC, Roku, and Skitter.TV, will participate
in a panel entitled “Delivering
on the Quality Promise: Internet Video on Your 50-inch HDTV (And Loving It)” at
TelcoTV in Orlando. The infinite expansion of internet video has left consumers expecting
an internet video viewing experience that is indistinguishable from locally attached
DVD players. With advances in video storefronts, content delivery, network technology,
and digital media players, this quality hurdle is being rapidly surmounted.

Matt Davis—Program Director, Consumer Multiplay Services, IDC

“As attested to by the success of the TelcoTV conference, telcos everywhere have been
driving to include video as a core element of their multiplay offerings. Thus far
most of these efforts have been focused on IPTV, a route fraught with cost and complexity.
Now telcos can, possibly for the first time, contemplate relying on much simpler and
less expensive over-the-top video as a component of their entertainment offerings.”

Bob Saunders—President, Skitter.TV

“The most successful entertainment service offerings will be those that combine linear
TV with internet TV with user-generated content in a sit-back viewing experience on
the TV as well as the computer and mobile devices. To provide such an offering with
the quality of service consumers expect, telcos must focus on three aspects of service
delivery: the quality of the video stream, the reliability of content delivery, and
a set-top box that is easy to install and use.”

Kevin Walsh—vice president of marketing, Zeugma Systems

“Arguably, the last hurdle to widespread replacement of linear video with purely over-the-top
video is quality. And while virtually all OTT video ecosystem players have made tremendous
strides toward improving video quality, the broadband network remains to be addressed.
Telcos are in the unique and advantageous position to address this final piece of
the OTT video puzzle by generating new services geared toward enhancing the video
experience.”

Jim Funk—Vice President of Business Development, Roku

“One of the most challenging aspects of delivering high-quality, long-form video content
to consumer high-definition televisions is reliable and inexpensive in-home content
conversion. With a wide variety of sources and formats, it becomes even more difficult
to present the user with a cohesive and easy to understand interface. Telcos anticipating
offering enhanced OTT video services need to pay especially close attention to the
consumer end of the value chain.”

This full hour session, part of TelcoTV’s New Media track, will explore the ecosystem
supporting the delivery of long-form (television episodes and feature-length movies)
video over the internet directly to subscriber televisions. Moderated by IDC analyst
Matt Davis, the panel participants will discuss both the challenges and recent technical
advances which have occurred in this ecosystem. The result is a video experience much
better suited for today’s consumer than older, rigid, linear video approaches employed
by cable and satellite operators.

Panel Details:

Title

Delivering on the Quality Promise: Internet Video on Your 50-inch HDTV (And Loving
It)

Track

New Media: Managing a Brave New World

Speakers

Matt Davis, Director, Consumer and SMB Multiplay Services, IDC; Kevin Walsh, vice
president of marketing at Zeugma Systems; Jim Funk, vice president of business development
at Roku; and Robert Saunders, founder and president at Skitter.TV

Date / time

Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 1:00pm — 2:00pm EST

Location

Orange County Convention Center, north concourse, level two, room N220 (A)

Here is the original post:
TelcoTV Panel Reveals Critical Elements to Deliver High Quality Internet Video

WHO: Verimatrix enhances
the value and security of pay-TV networks with advanced technologies designed to address
the content protection challenges of today, and those of tomorrow. The Verimatrix
3-Dimensional Content Security approach provides a framework to enhance operator competitiveness
and the consumer experience in the new world of pay-TV.

WHAT: Conference Track:

Steve Oetegenn, chief sales and marketing officer, will be contributing to a panel
session discussing how IPTV operators can gain a competitive edge with launching time-shifted
and catch-up services.

The panel, which includes partners from Harmonic and ADB, will address:

• Exploiting the USPs of IPTV: time-shift and catch-up as “killer applications”

• Enriching the user experience with a compelling catch-up service

• Assessing service possibilities for PVR and full NPVR, beyond just “start-over” TV

WHEN: Sunday 15 Nov., 2009 at 4:10 p.m.

Product Focus:

VCAS 3 – Verimatrix’s next-generation Video Content Authority System platform broadens
the domain of traditional conditional access. The core value proposition for VCAS
3 shifts beyond content protection alone towards the broader perspective of revenue
security. The initial release of VCAS 3 supports emerging video delivery formats and
new consumption models through a single content authority architecture.

Multi-device Adaptive Rate Streaming – As an important extension to the revenue envelope
of pay-TV deployments, Verimatrix will be promoting its ability to secure adaptive
rate streaming services to the PC, iPhone and other devices. In its latest whitepaper,
“Adaptive Rate Streaming: Pay-TV at an Inflection Point,” the company highlights advances
with this emerging technology are likely to alter the current framework of managed
network vs. OTT delivery.

WHEN: During exhibition hours; 15 – 16 Nov., 2009

WHERE: IPTV World Middle East & Africa, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Dubai, Booth #2

Continued here:
Verimatrix at IPTV World Forum Middle East & Africa 2009