DiBcom Demonstrates the Advantages of Diversity Reception In DVB-T
January 13, 2006 - Based on the assumption that currently 80% of all portable digital TV-on-laptop devices require the use of a large roof top antenna for adequate TV reception, DiBcom was pleased to demonstrate during the CES a new truly portable PC TV solution on laptop incorporating antenna diversity (combination of 2 antennas). Antenna Diversity, already used in automotive applications for mobile digital terrestrial TV reception using a combination of multiple antennas to optimise signal reception, has proven to enable the best indoor reception providing up to 11 dB gain (versus single antenna reception) in European countries for portable reception.

Malaysia - September Trial Programme For Digital TV
January 13, 2006 (Bernama) - Malaysia will start its trial programme for digital television in September with an initial funding of RM75 million to pave the way for the national digitalisation drive in broadcasting. The trial programme will be led by Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM).

From Satellite to Set-Top-Box - Auroras Entertainment Successfully Demonstrates Fully Integrated MPEG-4 IPTV Service
January 12, 2006 – Auroras Entertainment successfully demonstrated its fully integrated IPTV services earlier today. In front of a standing room only audience of customers and vendors, Auroras successfully broadcast a full array of MPEG-4 IPTV services from a teleport facility located in Long Island, NY into a Whitefish, MT hotel conference room. Today’s demonstration clearly confirmed that Auroras’ MPEG 4 IPTV service is ready for prime time.
Two 50” TV sets broadcast live, MPEG-4 encoded feeds from Wealth TV, NFL Network, and Oxygen, while diagrams on the wall showed, and CTO Mike Kazmier explained, the necessary steps required to successfully deploy IPTV services.
While numerous vendors have been working on individual components of MPEG-4 IPTV service, the ability of carriers or other providers to successfully combine and utilize these various components has remained a question. By integrating C-band satellite facilities, teleport service (including IRD’s, MPEG-4 encoders, DVB-S2 modulators, and uplink capabilities), middleware, MPEG-4 set-top-boxes and additional services such as VOD, Auroras made believers out of their guests, who are anxious to begin deployment

BT Movio pilot reveals consumer thirst for the UK's first broadcast digital TV to mobile service
January 12, 2006 – Results from BT’s pilot of its broadcast digital TV to mobile service, BT Movio – formerly known as BT Livetime - have demonstrated clear consumer demand for broadcast digital TV and radio to mobile phones when the service becomes available in the UK later this year. The pilot - the largest of its kind undertaken in Europe – revealed that two thirds of customers would be prepared to pay up to £8/month for the innovative BT Movio service on their current mobile network, creating new revenue streams for mobile operators.
Set for commercial launch later this year, BT Movio intends to be the first wholesale mobile broadcast entertainment service to launch in the UK and will enable operators to offer consumers a simple to use and reliable digital TV and radio service. The service is broadcast using the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) network and is navigated through the world’s first implementation of DAB delivered electronic programme guide (EPG) on a mobile TV phone. Unlike other mobile TV services, BT Movio’s use of a broadcast platform allows multiple users to access services at the same time without a reduction in quality.
Over the past four months BT Movio, together with its mobile operator partner for the pilot, Virgin Mobile, has been broadcasting digital TV and digital radio via a DAB-IP enabled smartphone to 1000 users in the M25 area. The results of the pilot have been extremely positive with the majority of pilot users saying that they would consider upgrading their mobile phone to one which supports the service. 73 per cent of participants stated that they would be prepared to pay for the service on their current network if the service was priced competitively. 38% were prepared to switch networks to receive this service.

Canada - Growth in cable and radio fuels COGECO results
January 12, 2006 – Today, COGECO Inc. (TSX: CGO.SV) announced its financial results for the first quarter ended November 30, 2005.
For the first quarter of 2006, net additions of Cogeco Cable basic customers were approximately 10,900 compared to about 7,700 for the same period last year. The sustained appetite for digital video and HSI services continues to prevail as shown by over 21,000 digital video customer additions and close to 23,000 HSI customer additions during the quarter.

Shaw Communications Inc. announces first quarter results and continued subscriber growth
January 12, 2005 - Subscriber growth in the quarter in all products exceeded growth in the comparable quarter last year. Digital Phone lines grew 34,088 to 90,651 as at November 30, 2005. Internet and Digital subscribers were both up 4.7%, increasing by 54,724 and 28,296, respectively, and Basic subscribers were up by 29,429 or 1.4% in the quarter. DTH customers increased 10,199 or 1.2%.
Shaw Communications Inc. is a diversified Canadian communications company whose core business is providing broadband cable television, Internet, Digital Phone, telecommunications services (through Big Pipe Inc.) and satellite direct-to-home services (through Star Choice Communications Inc.) to over three million customers.

Motorola Technology Fuels the Digital Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean
January 12, 2005 - Motorola, Inc. has played an instrumental role in the transition to digital cable throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. With a variety of all-digital and hybrid solutions ranging from set-tops to headend technology, Motorola is providing the flexible, versatile and reliable systems that fuel the digital revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Motorola digital cable deployments allow consumers in the region to receive digital video applications direct to their homes. During the past three months, Motorola deployments in Latin America and the Caribbean include:
• Brazil -- Vivax, the second largest cable operator in Brazil, chose Motorola headend infrastructure products and digital cable set-tops as part of a rollout of digital cable services in the city of Manaus.
• Chile -- VTR, the leading telecommunication company in Chile bundling services such as broadband Internet, cable TV and local telephony, will leverage the Motorola digital video platform as the foundation for the national launch of advanced services including an interactive program guide (IPG), video-on-demand (VOD), and more in Santiago, Chile.
• Mexico -- Cablecom the fourth largest cable operator in the country, selected the Motorola’s end-to-end digital cable solutions to enable the deployment of services in at least 8 cities, including San Luis potosí, Reynosa and Ciuadad del Carmen in 2005, with the remaining launches in 2006. The agreement includes multiple Motorola digital headend technologies, as well as digital set-tops.
• Colombia -- TV Cable Bogota, Colombia’s largest cable operator, will also leverage Motorola set-top and headend solutions for its launch of digital services. TV Cable’s digital deployment is part of a much broader initiative that also includes HFC, CM and CMTS equipment.
• Bahamas -- Cable Bahamas selected Motorola Digicipher Conditional Access headend technology and all-digital set-tops as part of a broad, multi-island full digital initiative.

Botswana - New pay tv service on the cards
January 12, 2005 (Business Day/SAPA) - BLACK Earth Communications has formally applied for a commercial broadcasting licence, which if granted, will see a new subscription Pay TV service to Africa operating out of Botswana.

More Chinese IPTV Policies Expected This Year
January 12, 2005 (ChinaTechNews) - China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has started discussions with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) on the relevant standards and issues related to IPTV development.

Enuclia Semiconductor Secures $13 Million in Series B Financing Led by Menlo Ventures
January 12, 2005 - Enuclia™ Semiconductor, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, has secured $13 million in Series B financing led by Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif. Arvind Purushotham, managing director at Menlo Ventures, will join the Enuclia board. Sevin Rosen Funds and BA Venture Partners, who co-led Enuclia’s $5.3 million Series A funding in December 2004, also participated in the Series B round.

Samsung Electronics to Supply the First Terrestrial DMB Phones to China
January 11, 2006 - Samsung Electronics, Korea based leading telecom systems and mobile phone provider, has agreed to supply a total of 500,000 terrestrial DMB phones to two major Chinese Mobile TV operators – Beijing Jolon Digital Media Broadcasting Co., LTD. and Guangdong Mobile Television Media Co., LTD – making Samsung the first handset manufacturer to provide commercially ready terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) phones in China.
Samsung will provide 200,000 handsets to Beijing Jolon which will launch China's first commercial DMB service in the Beijing area in April this year. Samsung and Beijing Jolon will work together to develop a terrestrial DMB technology standard for China as well as various DMB phones and value-added DMB services.
Samsung has also agreed to supply terrestrial DMB phones to Guangdong Mobile Television Media, which plans to begin commercial service in Guangdong Province within the first half of 2006. Samsung will deliver 300,000 phones for one year after the launch date. The two companies have also agreed to partner up in development and marketing stages of DMB phones.
China is expected to become the second country, following Korea , to start a commercial DMB service. Trial services are ready to be commercialized in many other parts of the globe this year as some European countries plan to start broadcasting in time for the 2006 World Cup. Mobile broadcasting will be the main issue of the mobile phone industry for this year.

Chinese IPTV users to reach 500,000, says UBS
January 11, 2006 (telecomasia.net/SinoCast via NewsEdge) - Europe's UBS Securities estimated that the broadband subscriber base of China Telecom and China Netcom will rise to 63 million with an annual growth rate of 28% from 2005 to 2008.

IPTV banned in Zhejiang
January 11, 2005 (Shanghai Daily) - SHANGHAI Media Group, the only nationally licensed Internet Protocol Television provider has had its IPTV service banned in east China's Zhejiang Province, Shanghai Securities News reported today.

UK - DTV receiver sales up 25% says Purnell
January 11, 2005 (DTG) - UK broadcasting minister James Purnell says around 800,000 digital television receivers were snapped up by consumers in the weeks before Christmas, a rise of 25% over the run-up to Christmas 2004.

Consolidated Communications Deploys Entone’s Hydra IP Video Gateway For New IPTV Services
January 11, 2005 - Entone Technologies, a leading provider of personal video content delivery solutions, announced today that Consolidated Communications is deploying Entone’s Hydra IP video gateway to support the telco’s IP television (IPTV) service launch.
Consolidated Communications is the 15th largest telephone company in the US, with approximately 245,000 access lines throughout Illinois and Texas. The company has provided telecommunications services to its communities for more than 100 years and offers a triple-play service bundle of voice, video, and data.
By using the Hydra IP video gateway, Consolidated is able to eliminate set-top boxes, therefore dramatically reducing the installation costs and complexities associated with IP video deployment.

Microtune's Tuner Chip Enables Digital TV in Toshiba's European Notebook PC Offerings
January 11, 2006 - Microtune® Inc. announced today that the Toshiba Module Group has deployed Microtune's MicroTuner™ MT2060 single-chip tuner in the expanded European brand offering of Toshiba's personal entertainment notebook PCs.
Microtune's MT2060 tuner is engineered to deliver superior digital TV reception, based on the European digital TV standard (called DVB-T), and its miniature size permits it to be easily integrated into the sleek, stylish portable designs of Toshiba's notebook computers. Toshiba's notebook PCs are in production now.

TELUS building $15 million satellite ‘head end' in British Columbia to transmit TELUS TV signals
January 11, 2006 - TELUS TV will bring customers hundreds of digital channels via a $15 million satellite and content distribution centre TELUS is now building north of British Columbia's Fraser Valley. Once TELUS TV is launched in B.C. sometime in 2006, the facility will gather TV signals from dozens of satellites for transmission to customers across B.C. and Alberta.
The centre, commonly called a ‘head end,' will initially provide TELUS TV customers with more than 200 video and audio channels once it is fully operational – planned for the summer of 2006 – growing to well over 300 channels within a year. In addition to eight satellite dishes, with room for three more, TELUS is installing Internet Protocol-based network and signal transport technology to manage signals and distribute content to customers.

OpenTV Signs Multi-Year License With India's Largest Cable and Satellite Operator
January 11, 2006 - OpenTV Corp., a leading provider of enabling technologies for advanced digital television services, today announced a multi-year license agreement with companies comprising the Essel Group, a diversified media and communications company that is India’s largest cable and satellite operator, to deploy OpenTV’s software and services. The agreement represents OpenTV’s initial entry into the Indian pay television market, recognized as the fastest growing in the Asia Pacific region.
OpenTV’s solutions will enable Essel Group to deliver a variety of advanced interactive television services, including PVRs (personal video recorders) and EPGs (electronic program guides) to its subscriber base. Essel Group expects to provide its interactive services first to subscribers of Dish TV, India’s first and fastest growing satellite television service, with over one million subscribers and an expected annual growth rate of 100% per year for the foreseeable future. Essel Group subsequently expects to deploy similar OpenTV-enabled services to a portion of its Siticable customer base, India’s largest at approximately 6.5 million subscribers, as Sitibase converts its cable systems from analog to digital.

SKY Italia selects Pace Micro for the launch of Italy's first PVR for payTV
January 11, 2006 - Pace Micro Technology plc, the leading dedicated innovator of technology solutions for the payTV industry, has been selected by SKY Italia as the launch partner to provide personal video recorder (PVR) set-top boxes for its new `MySKY` service.
The PVR Pace has developed for SKY Italia features the latest in PVR technology, most importantly a 160Gb hard disk drive, which will enable MySKY subscribers to record up to 60 hours of digital quality programming. In addition subscribers will benefit from the greater viewing flexibility PVR provides as they can pause or rewind live TV and fast forward at the touch of a button, time-shift and automatically record multiple episodes in a series.
The MySKY PVR also incorporates integrated twin tuners, which allow one programme to be recorded while watching another, or two programmes to be recorded at the same time while watching a previously recorded programme.

Sky Italia exceeds 3.6 Million subscribers
January 11, 2006 - Sky Italia CEO, Tom Mockridge, today announced that Sky Italia's subscriber total had exceeded 3.6 million during the first week of 2006.

SAMSUNG And Time Warner Cable Deploy World's First Interactive OCAP TV
January 11, 2006 - Samsung and Time Warner Cable announced that interactive digital cable services including Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP™) are running on Samsung OCAP™-compliant HDTVs in Time Warner Cable's Gastonia, North Carolina division. The announcement was made today during the CableLabs ICES Press Event at the Consumer Electronics Show. The services and applications include Time Warner Cable's OCAP Digital Navigator, its in-house developed Interactive Program Guide. This application along with various other Interactive television (ITV) applications developed by cable operators and third parties were on display at the Samsung booth, #11033 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, January 5th - 8th.

IPTV Worldwide Services Revenues to reach US$12.6 Billion by 2013, Incremental Network Equipment Market Increase only US$336 Million
January 10, 2006 - According to newly released report from Dittberner Associates Inc. the incremental IPTV equipment market will only reach $336 Million in 2013 up from $30 Million in 2005. The number of IPTV subscribers, will reach 53 Million globally in 2013 from about 2 Million as of end of last year.

In DMB, ABI Research Sees Promise for Telecom and Broadcasting Operators
January 10, 2006 - As the border between broadcasting and telecommunications blurs, DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) will become a key part of global broadcasters' strategies for future business diversification, and will provide tactical momentum driven by bundling of services.
After the commencement of S-DMB and T-DMB commercial services in May and December, 2005, European operators such as TF1 and the BBC are offering T-DMB pilot services with successful deployment experience and proven performance. ABI Research anticipates that in European regions, competition for mobile TV services will be fierce, with many technologies and vendors. Despite DVB-H's strong positioning in the region, Korean T-DMB will allow European operators to provide cost-effective solutions that also support compatibility with their DAB.
ABI Research's new study, "South Korean DMB Markets", examines DMB services, technologies, contents and applications in South Korea as well as globally, and identifies the best strategies for DMB broadcasters, terminal vendors, chipset makers and content providers. Drawing comparisons with DVB-H, MediaFLO, WCDMA (HSDPA), and WiBro, the report suggests opportunities and promising paths for bundled services using DMB.

Digital Home Device Sales Break $100 Billion Barrier
January 10, 2006 - The digital home industry came of age in 2005 as global revenues surged past the $100 Billion mark for the first time, according to new research from the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. Star products such as digital flat panel TVs, MP3 players and portable games consoles helped drive retail revenues to $118 Billion, a growth rate of 25 percent. 2006 will be another record year, according to the study, with revenues forecast to exceed $150 Billion. Hot growth sectors in 2006 will include entertainment PCs, next generation games consoles such as Xbox 360 and PS3, and new HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc players.

Seven Star selects Irdeto Digital TV conditional access system
January 10, 2006 (Domain-B) - In a major thrust towards migration to digital television in Mumbai Seven Star, which has been offering Cable TV services in Mumbai since 1994, has selected the Irdeto Digital TV's conditional access system to provide content protection for not only its migration to digital TV but also its existing pay TV operation.

UK - Sky Brings Legal Movie Downloads to Millions of Sky Digital Viewers
January 10, 2006 - Sky takes a significant step in its drive to offer customers more choice in how they watch television with the launch today of new ways to enjoy Sky content on computers and mobile phones.
Two new services – "Sky by broadband" and "Sky by mobile" – will give customers more flexibility than ever before about how, when and where to watch Sky TV. Users can download blockbuster or classic movies to enjoy when they want and access highlights of the weekend’s Barclays Premiership matches on their PC with Sky by broadband, or catch up with the latest news on the move with Sky by mobile.
The new services are designed to increase the value and enjoyment that customers get from joining Sky digital. From launch, "Sky by broadband" and "Sky by mobile" are available to millions of Sky digital viewers in the UK and Ireland as part of their existing subscription.

DIRECTV 'close to wireless strategy'
January 10, 2006 (MSNBC/FT) - Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, said on Monday the group's DirecTV satellite television arm was close to deciding a strategy on how to enter the wireless high-speed internet market, with a plan due within two months.

Vivendi Universal - TF1 - M6 Sign Proposed pay-TV Commercial Agreement
January 9, 2006 - After having consulted the relevant labor relations committees, Vivendi Universal, TF1 and M6 have signed an agreement on January 6, 2006, in accordance with the announcement made on December 16, 2005. This agreement seeks to combine the pay-TV businesses in France of Group Canal+ and TPS within a group controlled by Vivendi Universal.

Rogers Announces Wireless, Cable and Telecom Subscriber Results for Fourth Quarter 2005
January 9, 2006 - Rogers Communications Inc. today announced selected preliminary fourth quarter 2005 subscriber results for its wireless, cable and telecom operations.

                                           Three Months Ended December 31
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (Subscriber statistics in
     thousands, except churn)             2005      2004       Chg     % Chg
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    CABLE

    Homes Passed                       3,387.5   3,291.1      96.4       2.9

    Basic cable subscribers            2,263.8   2,254.6       9.2       0.4
    Basic cable, net additions (7)         9.2     (14.8)     24.0         -

    Digital terminals in service       1,139.7     795.7     344.0      43.2
    Digital terminals,
     net additions (7)                   344.0     182.1     161.9      88.9

Kreatel delivers IP-STB Solution to FastTV’s Scandinavian IPTV service
January 9, 2006 - Kreatel Communications today announced the agreement with Bonnier-owned FastTV to supply set-top boxes for FastTV’s Scandinavian IPTV service. Deliveries of Kreatel IP-STB 1510 and Kreatel TV Software have already started.
In cooperation with city and regional networks and Swedish Space Corporation for the infrastructure and playout, FastTV offers broadband television services including more than 50 digital TV channels, video on demand, email, and EPG to a large number of households in cities across Sweden, Denmark and Norway.