Dell’Oro Group reports that the
IPTV subscriber base grew by 3.2 million in the fourth quarter to reach 23 million
subscribers at the end of last year, nearly double the number at the end of 2007.
While Europe, Middle East, and Africa remained the largest market for unit shipments
of IPTV set-top boxes, North America drove the market’s revenue growth in the fourth
quarter as AT&T and Verizon continued to aggressively promote their television services.

“While the IPTV set-top box market continues to grow despite price declines, the cable
and satellite set-top markets have begun to contract,” said Greg Collins, Vice President
at Dell’Oro Group. “For 2009, we are expecting that unit shipments for all segments
will increase with a higher percentage of units being high definition capable with
a slowing in the trend toward integrated DVRs due to increased use of set-top boxes
with multi-room DVR functionality,” he added.

During the quarter, Motorola and Cisco remained the top vendors in both the cable
and IPTV markets, with Cisco gaining share in cable and Motorola gaining in IPTV.
In the fourth quarter, Thomson maintained the top position in terms of satellite STB
unit shipments, followed by EchoStar and Pace.

Go here to see the original:
Surging IPTV Subscriber Base Drives STB Sales in the Q4 of 2008

NXP and Roku continue
their collaboration to meet consumer demand for high quality content delivered directly
to the TV over the Internet. The Roku digital video player, powered by the PNX8935
multi-format source decoder from NXP, now allows instant streaming access to over
40,000 movies, including many new releases, and commercial-free TV shows from Amazon
Video On Demand. The Roku Player’s simple interface and set up process enables hassle-free
entertainment for media access and allows users to instantly decode SD and HD content
to watch on their TV.

Specifically designed for low cost, high performance HD IPTV set-top box solutions,
the NXP PNX8935 supports the latest high definition video standards including MPEG-4
AVC (h.264) and VC-1. The PNX8935 is a multi-format source decoder that combines a
MIPS application processor with a dedicated audio processor and powerful multi-standard
video decoder.

Pricing and Availability

The Roku
Digital Video Player based
on the NXP PNX8935 is available to purchase.

View original post here:
NXP and Roku Enable Instant Enjoyment of Newly Released Movies

BT
Vision customers can now enjoy, on demand, Twentieth Century Fox’s new release
hit movies including The Happening, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who and Shine A Light.
In addition, the deal also brings to BT Vision a vast selection of Fox catalogue titles
spanning Alien Resurrection, The Beach and Die Hard to Fantastic Four, I,Robot and
Ice Age.

All Twentieth Century Fox movies on BT Vision will be available on a pay-per-view
basis without the need for an up-front or mandatory subscription, so customers only
pay for what they want to watch.

See the original post:
Fox Signs On-demand Movies Deal with BT Vision

Bright
House Networks expanded its VOD services with the launch of a new online destination
where consumers can download to own or rent thousands of titles from Hollywood studios
and across many cable and television networks. The online video store service, entitled Road
Runner Video Store.

The Road Runner Video Store combines great content with an easy to use interface to
give consumers options to enjoy their favorite digital content and the ability to
explore and discover new video services with ease. The search functionality allows
consumers to search by title, actor, studio, genre, and can easily filter according
to movies or TV.

Thousands of titles are available at launch with the Road Runner Video Store and new
content is being added continually. Additional features are under development, including
the addition of HD content, as well as DVD Click and Ship whereby consumers can purchase
DVD’s online and have the physical asset delivered directly to their home.

Retail pricing for a download-to-own new release movie is $17.99. Library titles run
from $9.99-13.99 for download to own, while movie rental prices are $3.99. TV series
are $1.99 per episode with full-season ordering available. Charges will appear on
customers’ credit cards.

In addition to the Road Runner Video Store, Bright House Networks recently launched
PowerBoost to all Road Runner Turbo customers. PowerBoost will jumpstart a large file
download to help reduce overall download time for Turbo customers to get even quicker
access to on-line multimedia such as the videos available on the Road
Runner Video Store.

Bright House Networks partnered with iN DEMAND Networks on the Road Runner Video Store
to maintain the daily operations of the service which includes the new destination
and many features to engage the broadband consumer in an innovative experience. The
service is also being maintained with assistance from thePlatform, utilizing their
back-end technologies for hosting and delivering new content and services from a variety
of providers.

All content is protected through Microsoft Windows Media Digital Rights Management.
Content is protected for U.S. domestic rights using geofiltering technology.

Credit:
Road Runner Video Store Brings VoD to the PC

Zeugma will
demonstrate the ability for broadband service providers to deliver movies and TV episodes
from Netflix to Roku digital video
players with guaranteed quality of service at TelcoTV (booth #841). The demonstration
will highlight the ability of the Zeugma Services Node and the Zeugma SmartVideo application
to dynamically identify Netflix internet video streams, perform connection admission
control, and incrementally allocate the appropriate amount of bandwidth exclusively
to that video stream. Together, these capabilities represent the basis of an opt-in
premium internet video service that, according to recent surveys by IDC, consumers
increasingly desire and are willing to pay for.

BSPs can add the Zeugma Services Node, a service delivery router, to any DSL- or FTTP-based
broadband network, thereby facilitating the delivery of enhanced internet services
such as gaming, VOIP, corporate VPNs, and, in this case, streaming video. In addition
to providing broadband aggregation and subscriber management functions, the ZSN incorporates
a fully federated compute grid and the Zeugma Open Application Sandbox. This construct
allows service providers to quickly prototype and deliver revenue-generating new services

The TelcoTV demonstration will employ two live video feeds from Netflix, one of which
will be protected using the SmartVideo application. Additional load from other services
on the broadband network will not cause any impairment to the SmartVideo-enhanced
stream. Zeugma will also demonstrate SmartMonitor, an application within the Zeugma
Smart Suite that produces quality of experience metrics, further illustrating the
benefits of the SmartVideo application and assisting with service provider troubleshooting,
auditing, and billing.

While providing added value to IPTV and walled-garden video on demand offerings, SmartVideo
also gives providers a less expensive but more expansive VOD alternative. Service
providers increasingly view walled-garden VOD offerings as expensive to assemble and
inherently limited in scope. Internet video is quickly supplanting walled-garden VOD
as the go-to source for on-demand video entertainment.

Read the original:
Zeugma and Roku Demonstrate Premium Internet Video at TelcoTV