US set top and cable equipment vendor Arris came out with Q2 revenue of $1.73 billion, up $470 million, or 37% compared to this quarter last year, after the acquisition of UK firm Pace and up 7% over the immediate past quarter. Arris recorded an $84 million net income, had an order backlog of $1.24 billion and cash of $902 million after generating $261 million of cash in the quarter.
Amazon Video says it is planning to launch its streaming partners program in Europe according to job specs it has advertised, initially targeting the UK and Germany, pushing subscription content. In the US in December Amazon allowed Prime Members to subscribe to Showtime, Starz, and other OTT content through the Amazon account, and says it will look to bring other TV channels on board.
X1 customers who buy Netflix from Comcast will still have to count their data against a cap when they use Netflix. This is not the case for Comcast Stream TV. Netflix will be integrated into the X1 set-tops later this year. Comcast execs talking to US trade journals said that this is because Netflix, unlike Stream, travels over the public internet. On the other hand, Comcast is thinking about raising the cap to 1TB anyway.
FBR Capital Markets said this week it would lower its rating on both Disney and Time Warner saying they will find it difficult to expand earnings after 2017 on box-office and cable revenues, as OTT services undercut them.
Streambox has announced it has been integrated into Facebook Live, to make it more reliable to get video off your phone into Facebook over 3G and 4G.
Last week we just missed the item about Vodafone moving onto TV in Romania with a test only ‘4G TV’ mobile app. It gives access to 20 local and international TV channels and aggregates content from HBO Go and the local music streaming service Zonga.
Global pay TV operator and media firm SPI International has added five new channels to Exchange Vue, an IPTV service specifically for US services personnel, developed by DHI Telecom which has operations in the US, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The new channels will be available to soldiers in Afghanistan and Kuwait first, before rolling out worldwide.
US telco equipment vendor Adtran has launched the Mosaic Cloud Platform, an SDN-based broadband access platform built around open source software through multiple vendors. It includes the Mosaic OS and Programmable Network Elements which aims to reduce operating expenses and improve customer experience by driving service providers towards user-driven networks that enable a subscriber self-service model.
Inside Secure has published Q2 results showing revenue of $20.3 million, up 25% from the previous quarter and 28% year on year. The company is selling its semiconductor business to Swiss cybersecurity firm WISeKey for $13.2 million, but it has included results pending the sale, with this sector bringing in an additional $12 million in revenue. Total revenue for the first half of this year was $53.6 million, up by 56% from the first half of 2015. Profit for the quarter was $9.9 million and $23 million for H1. Inside Secure points to strong growth in its software revenue thanks to the NFC patent agreements entered into by investment fund France Brevets with Sony and Samsung.
Orange (France Telecom) grew its digital TV customers to 8.1 million, up from 7.4 million this time last year. Mobile customers rose to 188.6 million, up 1.3% from last year, and it also increased fixed broadband subscribers by 3.1% year on year to 17.9 million, including a rise of 540,000 in France and 184,000 in Spain.
Turkey’s alternative ISPs Turkcell Superonline, Vodafone Turkey, TurkSat, and members of Telkoder (the association of telcoms operators) have held a meeting to form plans for a joint venture company to invest in fixed broadband infrastructure in the company. This aims to rival the broadband dominance of Turkish incumbent Turk Telekom which has 8.3 million broadband connections. “The alliance members constitute 55% of the Turkish telecommunications industry’s revenue. Our objective is to make sure that 21 million more households in Turkey reach a viable FTTH solution,” said Turkcell CEO Kaan Terzioglu.
Consumers want a simplified way for their cable set tops to provide easy access to both OTT services and cable TV channels, according to research from Evolution Digital in the US. The findings also show that pay TV subscribers are irritated by set top rental costs and are eager to be able to opt into skinny bundles instead of paying for large bundled packages. Rather conveniently, Evolution Digital says its eBox IPTV hybrid set top provides an integrated search capability for linear channels and OTT content, through a UI developed by TiVo.
Shenzhen-based networking products manufacturer TP-Link has released the TL-WPA8630 KIT AC1200 WiFi Range Extender, AV1200 Powerline Edition. It claims to be the first AC1200 range extender on the market that also features advanced HomePlug AV2 powerline technology. The $130 extender plugs into the home’s existing WiFi router and the HomePlug AV2 tech creates a wired powerline network over the home’s electrical wiring.
Comcast has recorded revenue of $19.3 billion for Q2, up 2.8% from the same period last year, and a growth of 4% to $38 billion for the first half of 2016. Operating income was down 1% to $4.1 billion, and earnings per share dropped 1.2% to $0.83. It claims that video customers only fell 4,000 to 22.4 million, but includes Stream TV, student campus and MDU sales in this. Broadband numbers rose 220,000 to within a handful of 24 million.
Satellite services provider SES has revealed that several US cable operators are testing UHD 4K content across its UHD platform and are receiving HEVC 4K IP set tops to gear up for a wave of UHD trials in US households later on this year.
The US District Court has ruled against AT&T in favor of Herring Networks in a motion involving the US operator wanting to dismiss seven allegations against it, meaning trials can now get underway. The claims state that AT&T backed out of a carriage deal in exchange for Herring Networks’ assistance in getting the merger with DirecTV approved. Herring Networks is a family-owned video programming company in the US which owns the One America News Channel and is claiming $100 million.
Swiss pay TV software provider ADB has integrated recommendation software from ContentWise into its newly launched TV platform Graphyne2, which will be debuted at IBC this year.