Poland - "n", the new generation television to roll-out on 12 October 2006
September 22, 2006 - The ITI Group presented today "n" its new generation television offering set to launch on 12 October 2006. "n" is the synonym for a simple and user friendly system and will soon become part of the ITI Group leading brand family.

IPTV for Croatia: Siemens supplies turnkey IPTV solution to Croatian T-Com subsidiary
September 22, 2006 - TV of the future has already arrived in Croatia with the IPTV solution from Siemens Communications: With a broadband connection and set-top box, people there can benefit from the comprehensive “MAXtv” offer made by Deutsche Telekom subsidiary Croatian T-Com. For the country’s new IPTV with its wide range of services, Siemens Communications set up the turnkey technology and integrated it into the carrier’s network.

Levira and Starman to establish a joint venture to provide Digital Terrestrial Television services in Estonia
September 21, 2006 - Estonian broadcast transmission company AS Levira and Estonian leading cable TV operator AS Starman have come to an agreement according to which the companies have on the 20th of September 2006 establish a joint venture - Eesti Digitaaltelevisiooni AS (Estonian Digital Television Ltd.). The company will start to provide Digital Terrestrial Television services on the territory of Estonia.

Gemstar-TV Guide Releases Digital Terrestrial Service in Italy
September 21, 2006 - Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., a leading media, entertainment and technology company, recently executed a commercial agreement with TI Media Broadcasting, one of Italy's foremost technology companies. The agreement calls for TI Media to supply both analogue and digital bandwidth for Gemstar-TV Guide's Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) in the Italian market.

Over Four Million North Americans Will Subscribe to Mobile Broadcast Services in 2007
September 21, 2006 - Mobile broadcasting - as opposed to streaming "unicast" services - is expected to rapidly become the model of choice for distribution of live television and movies to mobile devices in the United States, and by the end of 2007 approximately four million subscribers will receive entertainment and information on their wireless handsets via mobile broadcast technologies such as DVB-H and MediaFLO.

When will iDTVs Make Set-top Boxes Unnecessary?
September 20, 2006 - Based on a recent study, IMS Research is forecasting nearly 40% of TV sets shipped in 2011 will be enabled with some type of digital tuner enabling reception of digital TV without the need for a set-top box. This proportion is up from an estimated 7% in 2005.

SVP Alliance Announces SVP-Ready Products in Production and Six New Licensees
September 20, 2006 - The SVP Alliance made several key announcements today, gaining important market traction as Broadcom, Conexant, Humax, Pace, Samsung, Thomson have become official licensees of SVP technology. Chipset manufacturer Broadcom will start shipping SVP-compliant chips in volume in 2006. In addition, STMicroelectronics has announced that they will offer SVP-compliant chips in 2006 for consumer electronics manufacturers. These chips provide the highest level of security to protect valuable content that moves from device to device.

Alliance Formed by Industry Leading Companies to Communicate Benefits of Digital Watermarking
September 20, 2006 - The Digital Watermarking Alliance, an international group of industry leading companies, today announced its formation to promote the value of digital watermarking to content owners, industry, policy makers and consumers.
With movies, music and photos increasingly being distributed and shared digitally across numerous mediums, and printed materials such as IDs, financial instruments and product packaging at risk to counterfeiting, fraud and theft, protecting the rights and integrity of these assets and enabling legitimate uses has become critical. At the same time, consumers are demanding instant access to entertainment content - any time, any place and in any format.
Recognizing this critical juncture in the digital revolution, the Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) has been formed by leading companies to advocate for digital watermarking technology and solutions that will protect and identify content while enabling the freedom and mobility that is expected by today's consumer.

S.Africa's MTN plans pay-TV on mobile phones
September 20, 2006 (Reuters) - South African cellular operator MTN is in talks with Naspers' MultiChoice pay-TV business to provide television on mobile phones by 2010, a top company official said on Wednesday.

Motorola and PCCW Launch Mobile TV Technical Trial in Hong Kong
September 20, 2006 - Motorola, Inc., a global leader in mobile communications today announced an agreement with PCCW-HKT Telephone Limited, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s leading telecommunications provider, PCCW Limited, to conduct a six-month technical trial using Motorola’s end-to-end Mobile TV system in Hong Kong.

500 million digital homes worldwide by 2011
September 20, 2006 - Nearly 40 million digital TV households will be added in 2006, bringing the global total to 183 million. A new report from Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that digital penetration of TV households will reach 16% by year-end. According to Global Digital TV - 6th Edition, the North American penetration rate will exceed 60%, with western Europe at 40%. A further 46 million digital homes will be added to the total in 2007.
More than 344 million digital homes will be added to the total between end-2005 and end-2011. China will be a major contributor to this increase by accounting for 98 million of the extra homes - or 28% of the global increase in these years. Other significant rises will come in the US (52 million more), Japan (35 million) and India (19 million).

France - Revised set-top requirements published
September 20, 2006 (DigiTAG) - The Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) has published a revised document outlining the requirements for DTT receivers in France.

Ground-breaking new technology brings a first to digital terrestrial TV
September 19, 2006 - Fen Technology Ltd, an electronic design services company, today announce the successful delivery of an interactive television solution to allow UK based Electra Entertainment and its partners to bring to market an innovative interactive platform for digital terrestrial TV (DTT) viewers in markets such as Freeview in the UK.
Electra's technology offers consumers access to a rich vein of interactive services at the touch of a button on both entry level and high end terrestrial TV platforms. Services offer high levels of audio and graphics rendering with negligible impact on materials costs, are persistent to the platform and are instantly accessible while viewing any channel via a graphically rich guide.

Orca Interactive Ltd Interim Results for the six months ended 30 June 2006 (Orca Share Price Chart)
September 19, 2006 - Emblaze Ltd (LSE: BLZ) announces that its Group company, Orca Interactive Ltd, a global leader in the IPTV middleware market, has issued its results for the six months ended 30 June 2006.
• Orca’s new Interactive Alliance IPTV partner program is gaining momentum with the addition of eight new companies.
• During the first half of the year, Orca announced that its RiGHTv software had been commercially launched with Spanish operator Jazztel. Working alongside Indra, a Spanish systems integrator, Orca’s solution was aimed at helping Jazztel penetrate the residential broadband market. The IPTV service implemented at the end of 2005 initially offered live television over IP using MPEG-4, and will include other services in 2006.
• Orca also announced an agreement with a Global Next Generation Network (NGN) equipment vendor for IPTV deployment by a large European telecommunications service provider. The deal consists of an initial purchase of 50,000 Orca RiGHTv™ middleware licenses and professional services for a triple play service of IPTV, Video-overIP and broadband Internet access being built by a large European telecommunications service provider. The IPTV service is expected to be launched in the second half of 2006 and that the agreement will be extended to eventually include up to 400,000 end-user middleware licenses.
• In April, Orca announced that it was working with systems integrator Telrad Networks to provide ten large urban areas of the country of Georgia with an IP/MPLS-based voice, data and video networking system for Georgia’s second largest telecom operator, NewNet Telecommunications. The new network has been designed to meet NewNet's growth and capacity requirements for the next 10 years.

Netherlands - Samsung introduces digital cable hard disk recorder [Dutch]
September 19, 2006 - Specifically for digital subscribers of @Home (Essent Kabelcom), Casema, Multikabel and CAIW, Samsung has developed the Netherlands' first digital TV hard disk recorder for cable.

Global DSL Rockets to 164 Million Subscribers
September 19, 2006 - Global subscriptions to DSL rocketed to 164 million by 30 June 2006, according to the latest data produced for the international DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic. Worldwide, the number of business and residential users selecting DSL (digital subscriber line) for broadband access increased by almost 46 million – a growth of 38% in the 12 months.
Another 18 million broadband subscribers in European Union (EU) countries chose DSL in the year to 30 June 2006, a growth of 45% that reinforces the region’s global leadership. There are more than 56 million DSL subscribers in the EU, accounting for more than one-third of the global total.

Satellite Operators Will Drive High Growth Rates for the Hybrid Set-Top Box
September 19, 2006 - The recent temporary suspension of BSkyB's broadband movie download service, due to the release of a utility that circumvented digital rights management in Windows Media files, has focused attention on a new phenomenon: satellite operators have found a way to offer video-on-demand in competition with cable and telecom operators.

Taiwan - MediaFLO to compete with DVB-H for mobile TV standard
September 19, 2006 - Qualcomm has teamed with Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) and China Network Systems to offer its MediaFLO technology as a candidate for screening by Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) to obtain trial operation licenses for mobile TV services, according to industry sources.

PlusTV and Conax Have Signed a Contract for Pay-TV Operations in Finland
September 18, 2006 - Digi TV Plus Oy, a new digital pay-TV company in Finland and Conax AS, a leading supplier of state-of-the-art conditional access solutions for digital TV, have signed a contract concerning the delivery of Smart Cards and Conditional Access Service for terrestrial pay-TV operation in Finland.

Euclid Discoveries' Video Compression Technology Now Works on Movies and TV Shows
September 18, 2006 - Euclid Discoveries announces a major advancement in the evolution of its EuclidVision™ video compression technology, which now has applications for general entertainment video. Previous versions of EuclidVision achieved compression ratios as high as 15,168 to 1, a 460% improvement over the MPEG-4 standard, which is the state of the art for digital video.

Germany - Analogue switch-off in Staufenberg
September 18, 2006 (DigiTAG) - NDR has announced that analogue switch-off will take place in the region of Staufenberg on 10 October.

ESS Technology Business Update and Reorganization
September 18, 2006 - ESS Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESST), announced today that the company has decided to reorganize its operations and change its core business plan because of intense competition and reduced growth expectations. The company currently addresses three market segments: standard definition DVD, high definition DVD and image sensors for camera enabled cellular phones. The company will concentrate its standard definition DVD business activities on serving only a few large customers while we will continue to evaluate alternatives to maximize the value of this business. Additionally, the company will look for business partners or acquirers for its high definition-BluRay DVD business and its Camera Phone division.

Vimio enters into an agreement with Bharti Telesoft to deploy mobile TV services in the Indian market
September 18, 2006 - Vimio plc, a leading provider of media distribution solutions and content to mobile network operators, which was admitted to trading on AIM in September 2005, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Bharti Telesoft Ltd, an Indian software group, to deploy TV services to mobile phone users in the Indian market.

FCC'S Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) Spectrum Auction Concludes
September 18, 2006 - The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) first auction of Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) spectrum licenses ended on September 18, 2006. A total of 1,122 licenses were offered in the auction, and 104 bidders won 1,087 licenses. The AWS licenses can be used to provide any of a wide array of innovative wireless services and technologies, including voice, data, video, and other wireless broadband services offered over Third Generation (“3G”) mobile networks. The licenses offered in the auction encompassed a range of geographic area and megahertz sizes in order to accommodate the varying spectrum needs of different types of wireless providers, including those serving rural areas.
Auction No. 66 began on August 9, 2006, and closed after 161 rounds of bidding, raising total gross bids of nearly $13.9 billion. The top five winning bidders based on the net amount of their winning bids include: T-Mobile License LLC; Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless; SpectrumCo LLC; MetroPCS AWS, LLC; and Cingular AWS, LLC.

Incompatibility dogs mobile TV
September 18, 2006 (EETimes) - As mobile TV gears up in earnest, operators and handset vendors are finally coming to grips with a slew of problems that are impeding its uptake--including some of their own making.

ATI Selects MIPS Technologies for Next-Generation DTV and PC Multimedia SoCs
September 18, 2006 - MIPS Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer, networking, personal entertainment, communications and business applications, today announced that ATI Technologies Inc. has licensed the MIPS32® 4KEc® and 24K® processor cores to power its next-generation multimedia SoCs for both DTV and PC products. Earlier this month, ATI announced the availability of the Xilleon 260, the industry's first MPEG and video processing SoC to support full high definition (1080P) video worldwide, and the first ATI SoC to be based on the high-performance 24K processor core.