BBC executives have told the BBC Trust, which is examining the Canvas project, that its total cost over its first four years will exceed £115m (E128m) including £48m+ of marketing costs. To help attract new shareholders and spread that cost executives have proposed the stipulation that the company must be controlled by PSBs should be […]

From Sotires Eleftheriou in Paris According to the latest figures from the ARCEP, the French telecoms regulator, the number of Internet subscribers in France reached 19.4 million at the end of Q2 2009, with 18.7 million via broadband – an increase of 12 per cent in one year. The rate of growth has nevertheless slowed […]

Minerva Networks, a provider of open and IPTV delivery platforms, has confirmed that VTC Digicom, the second largest TV network in Vietnam, has selected Minerva's iTVManager platform to deliver premium digital entertainment services. The video services will be offered to over 100,000 subscribers throughout Vietnam in the first phase and will be expanded in the […]

Miniweb the VC-backed spin-off from BSkyB's Sky Interactive division, which raised now £20 million (E22m) from US-based investors last year and still provides "red button" services to Sky TV, wants to launch its own IPTV service in the UK in early 2010. Miniweb says it already has distribution deals with multiple retailers and ISPs and […]

UAE telco du has contracted with Motorola’s Home & Networks Mobility business to supply its VIP series IPTV set-top boxes in order to support the telco’s delivery of IP video services to its customers. The Motorola VIP1200E and VIP1216E series set-top boxes ordered by du support HD and SD digital video services as well as […]

An IMS Research study has revealed that nearly 13 per cent of total worldwide IP set-top box shipments in 2008 were operator deployed IP+DTT STBs. Of the 1.6 million IP+DTT STBs deployed, 87 per cent of shipments went to Western European TV households. The study says "Uptake of operator deployed IP+DTT STBs has been popular […]

Philippine telco PLDT has announced the launch of a new IPTV service dubbed Watchpad. Existing subscribers to the company's myDSL broadband service will receive the TV over DSL offering for free. Initial channels available include National Geographic, Cartoon Network, Pinoy Box Office, CNN, Animax Mobile, CNBC and GMA 7. PLDT customer sales and marketing group […]

The Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) has published the Profiles specification for its Release 1 Solution. This specification is accompanied by a revision (Version 1.1) of its seven-volume Release 1 IPTV Solution specification, originally published in January 2009. All OIPF specifications are freely available for download from the Publications section of the Forum website www.oipf.tv. The […]

From Colin Mann in Cannes Project Canvas, the IPTV joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and BT, is co-operating with HbbTV, the new pan-European initiative aimed at harmonising the broadcast and broadband delivery of entertainment to the end consumer through connected TVs and set-top boxes. The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) cross industry […]

An IMS Research study has revealed that IPTV deployments globally are largely attributed to tier 1 telcos. By the end of 2014, IMS Research forecasts 40.1 million TV households will be subscribers of Tier 1 telco IPTV services. Rebecca Kurlak, research analyst and author of the study, states, "Tier 1 telcos have the advantages of […]