At its first meeting, the members of the Broadband Services Forum (BSF) set the direction of the group's future initiatives. Project work on IPTV and dynamic and interactive services such as gaming and video were given top priority by a poll of the meeting's attendees. "Content-to-go" was another area on which the BSF membership wanted to focus. These areas will top the BSF's agenda in 2005.

The input from a membership representing diverse industry segments within the broadband market is one of the greatest strengths of the BSF. "As the only industry group that represents the interests of service providers, content providers and technology vendors, the BSF is a unique position to address the profitable new services that are critical to all of these stakeholders," said BSF Chairman Derek Kuhn.

The BSF meeting also marked the release of a white paper on Content-Aware Networking Services (CANS) by its Technology Working Group. Juniper Networks VP Scott Stevens outlined the action plan for the CANS project. Completion of the CANS project will include a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will facilitate network-level device authentication and automation of service delivery. The BSF will take these APIs to a standards organization for formal codification.

The keynote "The Promise of IP Television" was delivered by Amy Friedlander, SVP of Programming at SBC. In her presentation, Friedlander shared SBC's services vision, and provided valuable insights into how service providers and their partners can work together to define and monetize new services.

This presentation, as well as several others from Bell Canada, ViewNow/Kasenna, Thomson, Alcatel, Nortel, and RHK reinforced BSF's position that broadband is about more than high-speed Internet. "Broadband is about a lot more than just access," said Kuhn. "It's really about creating an entire foundation of new services that enhance people's lives."

A new marketing communications plan, including an exciting brand campaign, was the theme of the marketing team's presentation. For the new brand design, the BSF is working with Starmark International, which also included a set of consumer-facing product logos for potential future use by consumer electronics companies to easily communicate broadband compatibility. "Icons like the BSF's 'B-Band' logo are a useful shorthand for communicating complex technical meaning to the mass market," said Starmark EVP John Russell.

The agenda also featured a progress report from the BSF's new business working group, which is currently undertaking a major survey of content and service providers. The business working expects to define new business models across the broadband services value chain.

BSF member companies Nortel, Alcatel, Aliant, and Skystream will present a panel discussion, "Broadband Entertainment Vision," at NAB 2005 on Thursday, April 21 in Las Vegas.

The next BSF meeting, hosted by the Welsh Development Agency and BT, will be held May 16-17 at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay in Cardiff, Wales.