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- Regulating Interactive TV: National Cable and Telecommunications Association tells the FCC that it is premature, counter-productive, and contrary to the public interest to contemplate regulating interactive television in the US (11MAY01) (NCTA) (related.link) (related.link)
In the first related link, another news announcement from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) that reports on the SCTE Expo 2001 in Orlando, Florida, cites NCTA president Robert Sachs as indicating, "The development of ITV services would be best served ... by allowing the work of engineers and marketers to progress free from government regulation." Sachs is further quoted as stating, "Interactive TV needs the attention of the members of the SCTE - not the attention of the FCC." You can click here for Sachs' complete SCTE Expo 2001 keynote address.- Open The Australian Digital TV Skies: Fairfax Corporate Affairs Manager Bruce Wolpe says Australian government policy on datacasting is absurd, dead, and should be buried (11MAY01) (AustralianIT) (alt.link)
AustralianIT quotes John Fairfax publishing group's corporate affairs manager Bruce Wolpe as stating, "The current policy has led us to a dead end and is not leading to a digital TV future for Australia. There should be an open skies digital TV policy in Australia. Datacasting is absurd, dead and should be buried. New players should be eligible for licences and there should be no content restrictions on those licences."- Digital TV Datacasting Auction Aborted: Australian federal government's datacasting auction is ditched due to lack of competition (10MAY01) (B&T) (related.link) (related.link) (related.link) (related.link)
B&T cites Australian Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston as indicating the Australian government's "decision to scrap the licence auction and re-consider the Government's position on the medium was based on a lack of competition." In the first related link, the AustralianIT reports, "Other withdrawals from an original field of seven bidders left only two potential buyers for the auction, which was to have begun on May 21."- Lift Digital TV Restrictions: Internet Industry Association tells Australian government to lift all restrictions on new digital television and datacasting services in Australia (11MAY01) (TheAge) (related.link)
- Support For Digital TV Interface And Protection: Consumer Electronics Association says majority of digital television manufacturers to use IEEE 1394 digital interface in digital video products and have endorsed Digital Transmission Content Protection system for protecting content (11MAY01) (CEA)
- Interactive TV For Brazil: Globo Cabo to begin testing Microsoft TV Basic Digital middleware using 250 Samsung digital set-top boxes in Sorocaba, Brazil with eventual planned deployment of at least 600,000 digital set-top boxes during the next five years using Microsoft TV and NDS software (11MAY01) (Microsoft) (alt.link) (alt.link) (related.link) (related.link) (related.link)
- Internet-On-TV For Spain: Retecal to launch Teleweb providing internet and email via TV sets (11MAY01) (Europemedia)
- TiVo To Advertise On Cable TV and DirecTV: TiVo to launch six-week advertising campaign of commercials and informercials to counter UltimateTV advertising (11MAY01) (Standard)
The Industry Standard reports, "The six-week campaign from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, S.F. will run on cable outlets and on DirecTV, where it will be bundled with an infomercial and a promotion offering free installation."- UltimateTV Advertising News: Venables/Bell & Partners to handle advertising for Microsoft UltimateTV (11MAY01) (Adweek) (related.link)
- TiVo Won't Kill Off The TV Commercial: Alan Brody discusses why the TiVo-and-ReplayTV commercial-skipping catastrophe will not happen (10MAY01) (Digitrends)
Alan Brody writes, "Zapping takes work.... So people won't zap unless you make them.... People actually do like ads, if they're relevant, because they represent news from the marketplace." Brody also indicates people may not want to time-shift because they may not want to be left behind while everyone else sits around the virtual electronic fireplace of the global village.- TiVo Harddrive Problems: TiVo "stuttering" video problems are blamed on "routine" harddrive glitches (11MAY01) (CNET) (alt.link) (alt.link)
CNET quotes TiVo spokeswoman Rebecca Baer as stating, "The hard drive failures have been within the normal rates of industry hard drive failures. At this point, there is no reason to believe that it is connected to the software."- Reorganizing WebTV & Potential Rebranding In The US: Microsoft organizational changes has new MSNTV team working on WebTV service (10MAY01) (CNET.Reuters) (alt.link) (alt.link)
Reuters reports, "While software giant Microsoft has not formally announced a re-branding of its WebTV operation, one executive at the Internet TV service said it has undergone some organizational changes, and the new team that works on it is now called MSNTV." You can click here for previous news and comment about the expected rebranding of WebTV as MSNTV and how it may relate to the DirecTV deal with a "contribution" of UltimateTV to Sky Global.- Microsoft's Big Bet On DirecTV: Microsoft's possible $3 billion investment in DirecTV is to get Microsoft software into the living room (14MAY01) (Standard) (alt.link)
The Industry Standard quotes Microsoft TV sales and marketing vice president Alan Yates as stating, "Software is the key to delivery of a never-ending stream of functionality to mass market consumers through the TV set." Click here for other recent DirecTV merger news including a news item where US Senator John McCain wants the US federal government to look at the possible merger.- Elsewhere With Reorganizational Changes For Open In The UK: BSkyB completes acquisition of British Interactive Broadcasting which will become the Sky Interactive division integrating the Open interactive service (09MAY01) (BSkyB) (related.link) (related.link) (related.link)
The news announcement quotes BSkyB CEO Tony Ball as stating, "With this deal Sky has taken control of its interactive future. We will now consolidate all our assets in one division, Sky Interactive.... Interactive services give Sky the means to enhance and differentiate the experience on its digital platform thereby increasing customer satisfaction and maintaining strong retention levels."- Digital TV Restructuring: BSkyB planning to cut 300 jobs against backdrop of red ink of costs for converting subscribers to digital (10MAY01) (MediaGuardian) (related.link) (related.link) (related.link) (related.link)
Media Guardian reports, "Sky has sunk into the red due to the cost of converting customers to its digital service, which has been driven by a giveaway of the set-top boxes needed to receive the signal. The cost of acquiring movie and sports rights has also soared and the company is shouldering losses from a joint venture with the German media mogul Leo Kirch."- More BSkyB News: BSkyB 3Q and nine month highlights (09MAY01) (BSkyB)
- Daily SMS-Soap Texting: Materna is talking to British TV companies about developing a soap opera via short-message-service texting on mobile phones (11MAY01) (BBC)
- Broadband VOD: CinemaNow CEO Curt Marvis wants to take advantage of current DSL chaos (11MAY01) (Videobusiness)
Video Business quote CinemaNow CEO Curt Marvis as stating broadband video-on-demand is "still in its absolute infancy. We see signs that the Sonys and the Disneys and the Viacoms of the world are now doing similar things. I see that as validation of what we've spent the past two years doing."- Broadband VOD versus Cable VOD: Broadband video-on-demand for PCs could slow down cable video-on-demand for TV (10MAY01) (MediaLife)
Media Life magazine quotes Hoak Breedlove's Darren von Behren as stating the potential of video-on-demand via the PC is "pretty limited." With regard as to whether Sony would commit to cable video-on-demand while also committing to an internet video-on-demand service, Media Life quotes von Behren as stating, "I think you'll see that change. Sony will come aboard eventually. For the time being, they're just worried that there might be a business model out there that might make them more money, that might be more direct."- Tcommerce In Ten Years: Myers Reports says Tcommerce won't roll around until about a decade from now (10MAY01) (Mediapost)
Mediapost cites Myers Reports as indicating, "ITV will find deployment 'difficult' until 2006, after which it will grow 'exponentially' through 2010." But when it does come about, "interactive television is more than a wave of change - it represents a tsunami for the broadcast and cable industries."- One-Screen Digital Entertainment Could Be Five Years Away: NBA Entertainment's Brenda Spoonemore says the one-screen interactive television model is still years off (April2000) (DigitalTV)
Digital TV quotes NBA Entertainment internet services vice president Brenda Spoonemore as stating, "The one screen model is still years off. The philosophy is to put ourselves in the best possible position to maximize our content. With Convera [the company created by the NBA and Intel] we've taken control of our own dstiny, helping to define standards for sports content for streaming media and broadband. Ultimately, in five years, when it is a one-screen model, we'll be positioned and not be at the mercy of the marketplace."- Cable Video-On-Demand For Canada: Cogeco Cable selects Concurrent Computer Corporation as video-on-demand solution provider for subscribers in Ontario and Quebec, Canada (10MAY01) (CCUR)
The news announcement states, "Cogeco Cable, which offers cable services to over 900 000 basic subscribers [in Ontario and Quebec], has already deployed more than 108,000 digital television set-tops using the Motorola digital platform and offers its digital service to approximately 80% of its customers."- Concurrent Computer Corporation successfully tests and validates TVN Digital Content Express VOD asset management and distribution system for use with Concurrent MediaHawk Model 2000 Video Server (09MAY01) (CCUR) (alt.link)
- To Porno Or To Not Porno: AT&T Broadband considers whether to provide Vivid On Demand's Hot Network on video-on-demand cable service in Los Angeles (11MAY01) (EMonline)
- Interactive TV For The Philippines: Philippine Multi-Media System Inc to provide interactive television to Dream Broadcasting System subscribers using OpenTV technology (10MAY01) (OpenTV)
- LSI Logic acquires majority ownership of C-Cube Microsystems (11MAY01) (PRN)
The news announcement states, "LSI Logic's consumer and communications market offerings include: satellite digital set-top boxes, terrestrial digital set-top boxes and DSL. C-Cube is a leading provider of silicon-based solutions for digital set-top box, DVD and emerging audio-video CODEC-based applications, such as personal video recording (PVR), home media services, recordable DVD, residential gateway and streaming video."- Big TV For Internet-On-TV: Princeton Graphic Systems' $3499 36-inch Ai 3.6HD television set provides internet-on-TV service for $18.95 per month (10MAY01) (NYTimes)
- Searching For Video Pirates: MPAA and Ranger Online to use specially-designed search engine to hunt down video-file-swapping pirates (10MAY01) (Videobusiness)
- China VCD Pirates Raid Popular Chinese TV Shows: VCD piracy hurts sales of the authentic videos, cuts into TV station advertising revenues, and reduces royalties (12MAY01) (SCMP)
The South China Morning Post reports, "People can buy pirated VCDs at electronics markets and at the entrances to supermarkets all over Beijing.... Forty episodes [of a TV show] can now fit on to eight to 10 disks, with image quality unaffected."- Interactive TV For China: NDS opens NDS Technology Beijing Co Ltd for the China market (PDF) (10MAY01) (NDS)
- Interactive Music TV: Music Choice Europe uses NDS interactive television applications to provide interactive synchronized music channels (PDF) (10MAY01) (NDS) (related.link)
The news announcement states, "Subscribers can tune in to any of Music Choice's 44 channels and see details about the current track on screen as well as TV screen ads. NDS designed the application to handle more than 20,000 real time data updates per day, an average of an update every 4.5 seconds."- Broadband Set-Tops As Integral Tools: EnReach's David Cong says rapid proliferation of broadband connectivity will make advanced residential gateways an integral tool for broadband service providers (10MAY01) (EnReach) (alt.link)
In this news announcement regarding participation in a panel on the "Digital Households - The Gateway to Home Networking" at Carmel Group's fourth annual convergence conference, "Convergence 2001: Content Reaching Terminal Velocity," May 16 and 17, 2001, at the Fairmont San Francisco, the news announcement quotes EnReach business development and product management vice president David Cong as stating, "As rapid proliferation of broadband connectivity occurs advanced residential gateways are destined to become an integral tool to broadband service providers."- TV Tuner For PC: Compaq Presario PCs to have ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon television tuner card as configurable option (10MAY01) (ATI) (alt.link)
- *** CLICK FOR MORE NEWS ***
- Regulating Interactive TV: National Cable and Telecommunications Association tells the FCC that it is premature, counter-productive, and contrary to the public interest to contemplate regulating interactive television in the US (11MAY01) (NCTA) (related.link) (related.link)
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