AT&T has just introduced U-verse Online, a new version of its web site where content can be viewed by just about anyone, which will also eventually be the gateway for its TV Everywhere style service. U-verse customers can also schedule and manage DVR recordings from the site. Back in March, AT&T revealed its plans to offer U-verse on wi-fi enabled mobile phones and says it is keen on a three screen strategy for U-Verse.
The FCC has agreed with the MPAA’s (Motion Picture Association of America) request to allow TV operators to implement “Selectable Output Control” schemes, so programmers can remotely disable analog outputs on their set-top boxes. The analog hole is how most piracy is effected, recording analog programming and re-encoding it. Where this is implemented it will mean that operators can cut off analog devices, but only on VoD shown films made available at the same time they are in cinemas. The FCC said operators cannot extend this throughout the DVD release period.
The Microsoft Mediaroom powered IPTV effort of BT in the UK called BT Vision has just upgraded its Film Club offer significantly, doubling the number of on demand movies that club members can see. There will now be over 60 films available each month with 14 films refreshed every week. This services costs just ‘6.99 a month. BT Vision has less than a half million subscribers, around 451,000 with new figures for the quarter out tomorrow. When it was launched in 2006, BT Vision aimed for 2 to 3 million customers in three years.
Orange is now being quoted saying that now that it has handed over its broadband service into BT care in the UK, it will revive a long term plan to introduce a TV service over broadband. It has said it will do this for the past five years and just never managed to get it off the ground. We assume this is to be an Over The Top service, perhaps like the one TalkTalk will introduce later this year using the Canvas set top.
Samsung has built a WiMAX wireless broadband network in 2.5 GHz for Alem Communications in Kazakhstan, via its subsidiary Digital TV. It will be introduced in Almaty, the economic hub of Kazakhstan, this month.
UK RF chip specialist Mirics has signed a distribution deal with EDOM Technology for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and will provide local support to Mirics’ customers and partners. Mirics sells FlexiTV, which consists of a cheap radio chip which plugs into a PC’s USB port, which uses with the main PC processor to tune a TV signal.
There were more Android phones shipped in the US in the first quarter, than Apple iPhones, according to the NPD Group. Androids moved into second position at 28% of the market behind the RIM Blackberry operating system, which had 36%, ahead of Apple with 21%.
Telenor has acquired 35% of C More Entertainment, the company which runs Canal+ TV channel distribution in the Nordic region. TV4 had been the sole owner prior to offering shares to Telenor. The deal cost around ’82 million. TV4 bought C More in 2008 from ProSiebenSat for ‘290 million, when it outbid Telenor for it.
Broadband TV News this week says that German cable operator Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg is to buy a number of regional networks from Tele Columbus, which amount to around 50,000 homes, due to Tele Columbus being in financial trouble being and up for sale.
Swedish VoD specialist Edgeware, which invented the idea of using cheap Flash memory based systems to serve video, has integrated its servers with MediaMelon which offers hosted file delivery across various servers and networks. The combination is supposed to allow service providers, such as Telcos and Cablecos to make true-HD video over the internet a reality. Sounds a bit like a localized CDN to us.
The French regulator CSA is calling for applications for three pay channels and two free channels in HD to fill gaps which are appearing on its existing DVB-T multiplexes. The spectrum comes from the closure of previous terrestrial pay services.
Terra Firma, the private equity firm which bought record label EMI has managed to find $156 million in new financing so that it can meet its loan repayments due to Citigroup. The debts were incurred when Terra Firma bought EMI for $4.8 billion in 2007. Failure to find it could have meant losing the asset and having it sold off, which may still happen, but this should give it almost a year of breathing space.
US analog mobile TV chip company Telegent Systems says it has now shipped 80 million mobile TV chips globally (which is 30 million more than when it last gave out numbers) and the company has launched a search for a CEO who will see it through its next phase of growth. Telegent says it has withdrawn its registration statement for an initial public offering despite the fact that rival chipmaker MaxLinear went ahead with one successfully, recently. Basically the company is making so much money it doesn’t need to go public right now. Telegent says that it ships the chips into devices in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India, but we know the bulk continue to be sold in China.
According to Apple Insider, Apple is working on a rival to Adobe’s Flash which is operating under the codename of Gianduia. It is billed as a client side, standards based framework for Rich Internet Apps. Apple had the guts of the product last Summer when it was showing it at the World of WebObjects Developer Conference. Apple Retail is supposed to have already used Gianduia to create web app clients. Gianduia is a specially sweetened Italian Chocolate so it’s a name derived from Java and Coffee beans etc..
Three of the major UK operators, Vodafone, O2 and Orange have all announced special data rates for attaching to Apple iPads this week ‘ all pushing the deals for 3G+Wi-Fi versions. Vodafone has opted for basic data packages of 1GB for ’10 and 5GB for ’25 on roll-over monthly contracts; O2 and Orange both have a pay as you go options both starting at ‘2 a day and are also offering free wi-fi with BT OpenZone. O2 is offering 1GB and 3GB plans for ’10 a month and ’15 a month, while Orange is to offer a flat 5p per MB of data, with the promise that you can never pay more than ’40 in any given month. It will also offer a weekly iPad subscription for ‘7.50, and monthly deals at ’15 for 3GB and ’25 a month for a colossal 10GB.