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The BBC’s Project Canvas IPTV open standard
will cost £115.6 million to run over a four-year
period and considerably more to the broadcaster
than previous estimates suggested should only
four partners be involved. The BBC’s original
submission put the cost of Canvas to the BBC
at £16.6 million, based on four partners being
involved, but this projection has now been
revised to £24.7 million. In total, in the time it
has taken to develop the proposal and in the
first four years of Canvas being in operation, the
total cost to all parties would be £115.6 million.
BSKYB MAKES SKY PLAYER
AVAILABLE ON HYBRID BOX
BSkyB has put its Sky Player online catch-up
TV service on a hybrid DTT/IPTV set-top box
alongside the BBC iPlayer. As part of a deal
with IP Vision, the Sky Player is now available
via its Fetch TV SmartBoxes, which
became the first hybrid DTT/IPTV devices in
the market to feature the iPlayer. The partnership
means that channels including Sky
Movies, Sky Sports and others, will feature via
IPTV on the Fetch TV boxes by early 2010.
N O R T H A M E R I C A
CANADA
MTS ALLSTREAM LAUNCHES PVR SERVICE
MTS Allstream launched what it claims is Canada’s
first whole-home PVR service. According to the
company, the service, which is offered on its
Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform,
MTS Ultimate TV (available in Portage, La Prairie,
Brandon and Winnipeg) for CAN$ 5:00 a month,
allows users to record up to three programs at the
same time and play back programs from any con-
nected TV in the home, as well as pause, replay
and rewind live TV from their main set-top box.
TELUS EXPANDS IPTV COVERAGE
Telus has reportedly expanded coverage of its
IPTV services in western Canada. The company’s
IPTV service is now available to the residents in
Lethbridge and Medicine Hat in Alberta and Campbell
River in British Columbia. Telus TV offers
more than 390 channels (including 35 HDTV channels),
VOD service and a PVR. The company’s
IPTV subscriber base exceeded 137,000 customers,
representing an 83% year-over-year growth.
UNITED STATES
CONSOLIDATED SETS RECORD
FOR IPTV ADDITIONS
Consolidated Communications, which has
operations in Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania,
reported the company’s highest-ever IPTV
subscriber additions for a single quarter. Consolidated
signed up 1,800 customers during the
third quarter, and now has more than 21,500
total. The company’s IPTV subscriber take has
increased by almost 40% over the past year.
AT&T AND VERIZON SET FOR
DOUBLE DIGITAL IPTV GROWTH
AT&T and Verizon are expected to post doubledigit
IPTV subscriber growth in their respective
third quarter releases, according to analyst
firm Strategy Analytics. The firm estimates that
Verizon`s FiOS TV customer base will grow
12% in the quarter, exceeding 2.8 million total
subscribers. Meanwhile, AT&T is expected to
add over 250,000 new U-verse subs, implying
a 17% sequential growth rate. A recent report
published by Strategy Analytics shows US IPTV
growing to 15.5 million subscribers by 2013.
THOMSON, LIVETV TO DEPLOY IPTV
TECHNOLOGY
Thomson signed a long-term contract with LiveTV
to develop of a live TV broadcast system for
aircraft based on Thomson’s IPTV-based satellite
television distribution technology. The solution
aims to enable networks to convert satellite content
into video-over-IP content for distribution and viewing
on individual seat back screens. Thomson’s
system will offer digital and live insertion channels
as well as an electronic program guide service.
ECHOSTAR VIP-TV TO DELIVER
SERVICE TO CT COMMUNICATIONS
EchoStar Satellite Services will deliver its ViP-TV
video transport service to CT Communications.
CT Communications will receive transport of up
to 46 IP-encapsulated high definition TV channels
to its IP headend. It supplies triple-play services
to more than 8,000 customers in Western Ohio.
EchoStar’s ViP-TV transport service can offer
a suite of services, including a secure, MPEG-4
encoded IP stream of approximately 300 popular,
broadcast-quality TV and music channels
from a satellite located at 85 degrees West.
TV2MORO LAUNCHES ARABIC TV SERVICE
TV2Moro has launched a subscription pay-TV
service to serve Arabic communities in the US and
Canada. The service is available in two packages,
basic and premium, through a set-top box and
includes channels such as Al-Jazeera English,
Al Hayat 1 and 2, and Orbit Al Yawm. A further
10 channels will be added in the near future.
AT&T IPTV SERVICE TOPS 2
MILLION CUSTOMERS
AT&T announced in December that it has reached
its 2 millionth AT&T U-verse TV customer. In 2009,
the operator added more than 25 HD channels and
www.TELE-satellite.com — 02-03/2010 — TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine
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