A US court has awarded $51 million to Dish and EchoStar from a Robert Ward, who posted software on the internet that helped people bypass their security and get their Pay TV for free. It was considered a breach of the Federal Communications Act and damages were calculated based on how many individuals downloaded the pirate software. Wonder how he’s going to pay that then?
Broadcom has some new cable modem chips out this week including the BCM3382, a DOCSIS 3.0 SoC which it says will drive down the cost of high speed data, voice and IP video services. It has more advanced power management, Broadcom said, among other things, but mostly it’s about all of it being on one chip.
US researcher In-Stat says that the world is more than ready for advanced video advertising and that it will grow to a $5 billion industry by 2013. Online VoD services, such as Hulu, CBS Interactive and ABC.com are already driving growth it says. By advanced video advertising In-Stat means addressable advertising with improved targeting, reporting, and overall return on investment (ROI.) It said key companies for its delivery are Adobe, Arris, Brightcove, Cisco, Motorola, Rovi, Sigma Systems, and thePlatform.
Samsung in Europe has built almost 100 Internet TV applications on offer with its new Internet@TV platform, which is included in most of its internet ready TV sets and Blu-ray players just announced for 2010. The applications include the BBC’s iPlayer, LoveFilm’s online movies and a music services from Muzu.tv including official music videos. Other applications are links to Social Networking sites and Games.
When Google comes out and says that it is thinking about closing down its Chinese operations we sense PR furor rather than a genuine attempt at pulling out of what one day will be the largest internet market on the planet (not that Google is doing that well there right now). It says that hackers tried to access Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists but were not successful ‘ for hackers read ‘the Government’ and the company says that it is fed up having to censor search results and it will stop doing this. It’s a bit of a standoff. The Chinese government won’t want Google going offshore and still operating (but blocked), but consumers equally might kick up a bit of a fuss if they can’t get to Google.
While Ticketmaster and Live Nation shareholders have gone ahead and approved the merger of the two big US live event businesses, and the UK quietly added its approval (after early dissent), there is still the small matter of getting the US Justice Department go ahead. On the side supporting the merger, the two companies combined businesses would be a $3.5 billion unprofitable business today, but may well become profitable if they cut out common costs; on the negative side it means expensive live events are set to go up not down if they merge. We reckon they will get merger approval with some elements of the combined business having to be put up for sale to create competition in the US. The UK had earlier said that it would not approve the merger but changed its mind.
Toshiba has announced solid state drives based on 32 nm NAND Flash chips, which would mean a 128 GB drive in a slim SATA format, ready made for PCs, Notebooks and Netbooks as well as home entertainment systems. The drives were shown at the Consumer Electronics Show and samples will be ready in the first quarter with mass production scheduled for the second quarter. The drives will have a read speed of 180 Megabytes per second and a write speed of 70MBps. The 128GB modules are only one seventh the volume and one eighth the weight of 2.5 inch form factor SSDs, and consume a fraction of the power but other form factors will be 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB although these last two will be far larger, and for laptops really.
A US rumor has it that Vudu is up for sale and that Wal-Mart is in the running. Why would Wal-Mart, which has tried and failed to launch its own online video services, buy a service that isn’t doing that well? We think fake rumor, part right, that Vudu is up for sale.
Cable Digital News says that Motorola has sold off its Euro cable modem business to Taiwanese firm Compal Broadband Networks for an undisclosed sum. The Euro DOCSIS format is used in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the business also includes voice adapters and wi-fi gateways. Motorola will continue its DOCSIS services in Asia Pacific and of course in the Americas. Is this a precursor to that whole business being sold off, we wonder?
A commission appointed with the task of investigating whether Orange should be allowed to keep its TV channels only on the Pay TV platforms that it owns, has, of course, confirmed that this is not in the interest of the broadcast business, says Broadband TV News this week. In May last year a French Appeals court squashed a decision by the Tribunal of Commerce which said Orange had unfairly bundled its sport TV channel, in a case was brought SFR and Iliad.