Swedish research firm Berg Insight says that, in Western Europe at least, digital music sales will overtake physical sales as early as 2011 when it will be an €11.6 billion market ($15.7 billion). Today it says that it already accounts for 10% of music revenues, and it will grow at 6.5% per annum and surge as the handset becomes the primary listening device, and also as the mobile web takes off.
NTT DoCoMo said that it now has more than 10 million subscribers buying flat rate mobile data plans including i-mode subscribers paying $34.20 a month and a new i-mode plan with full-browser handsets which can view PC Web sites, for a flat monthly fee of $50 in Japan.
Forrester Research has made much headway into the news this week with the message that paid downloads are a dead end and that they will evaporate by the end of next year, replaced by free, advertising supported broadcaster driven services and subscription based film services. I don’t know, you put ‘Forrester’ in front of a crystal ball gazing blog and it’s called research. Other ‘conclusions’ from the report are that Apple TV will have to be opened up (easy to say because we know that it won’t be), that cable operators like Comcast will offer internet TV through set tops, and that the Adobe Media Player will allow video downloads which won’t let you fast forward through the ads.
Dutch incumbent Telco KPN this week said it would delay the introduction of its DVB-H mobile TV service until 2008. It had previously said it would be launched this year, and now it will fall back to a later date, not because the network is not in place, but because it wants to think more about content and how it introduces the service.
San Marcos, Texas based off the shelf encoder specialist Kulabyte, has put its multi-core encoder together with the On2 Technologies VP6 codec, for encoding Flash video and says that it has achieved better than real time encoding with High Definition video. Kulabyte licenses the On2 codecs and says that its encoder can be used with the On2 Flix encoding software and at last month’s NAB show in the US demonstrated 1080p encoding at a rate of 42.2 frames per second. On2 is the basis of encoding for Flash video, now dominant for video on the internet, and which is viewed using the Adobe’s Flash player.
Latvia’s Lattelecom, which launched its IPTV system in April, says that it used Widevine for its software only conditional access, Optibase for an encoding platform and systems integration, Orca for middleware, BitBand for VoD servers and software, and Kreatel for set tops. The system is encoded in H.264 and offers HD content as well.
A company called Media Rights Technologies in the US has sent cease and desist notices to Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real Networks claiming that they have each violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The logic seems to be that because they have refused to license its technology, called X1 SeCure Recording Control, they are knowingly allowing the theft of copyrighted material. It’s a bit mind boggling, and we don’t expect it to get anything except an angry rebuff from all and sundry.
The European Commission has reached an agreement on roaming charges across Europe with a price cap of €0.49 per minute ($0.66) for outgoing and €0.24 per minute ($0.32) for incoming calls. Prices will drop further in later years but this new price is ready to put in place by mid-July. Previously Viviane Reding EU Information Society Commissioner was rebuffed last July but appears to have found agreement behind closed doors and this will now be formally voted in by the European Parliament.
Finnish IPTV software supplier Ortikon says that it has landed a deal to supply Finland’s largest cable operator SW Television Ltd / Welho with its Ace IPTV middleware. Welho has just 305,000 customers. The system has Motorola set tops and Conax conditional access.
German cable operator Primacom says that it has had a number of offers to buy the company, which has around 1.3 million customers. The chances are bids will have come from other cable groups such as Kabel Deutschland KDG and Orion Cable, or even the private equity groups that control many of the cable assets in Germany. A value of €454 million ($614 million) has been suggested.
Swisscom says it has bought into Kyte.tv, a company that lets users launch their own TV channel and broadcast it over the internet. Terms were not revealed but is was described as paying a 7 figure sum. Swisscom Mobile already offers Kyte.tv on its mobile handsets. This week the offer by Swisscom to buy Fastweb was seen to be successful with over 82% of acceptances to the bid. Swisscom will now retain Fastweb’s Italian public listing, and will leave a float of 30% or more in pubic hands.
Telefonica O2 Czech Republic says that has managed to capture some 30,000 customers for its IPTV service since it launched last autumn.