There was no lack of IPTV and Internet TV news this week. Several large companies topped the headlines this week...
Here are some other interesting reads...
Telecoms' quest for customers leads to IPTV USA Today - August 16, 2005
"There's also the problem of IPTV itself. The technology works well in the lab and in smaller deployments. But it has yet to be rolled out on a massive scale. That raises the question of how it will behave once it has to support millions of customers accustomed to Bell-quality service."
SBC's $4 billion IPTV investment 'not much money'USA Today - August 16, 2005
"If I bet wrong, I didn't break the future of this business," counters Stephenson, who is also SBC's chief operating officer. "For a company of this size, $4 billion is very little money. If I bet wrong, it's not much money for us to burn."
"So what's the backup plan if IPTV doesn't work out?"
Are baby bells abusing their gov't granted right-of-way?ZDNet - August 16, 2005
"But, now, with the cable TV guys into offering telephone service and the electric guys promising high speed Internet access, and who-knows-who-else looking for ways to blast a WiMax signal to your house, the wire owners have been forced to diversify into each others' business. OK, well, the cable and phone guys won't be delivering kilowatts any time soon. But, you get the picture. The competition has intensified, not to mention the pressure that Voice over IP is putting on one of the businesses that almost everybody is into: traditional telephony service. Feeling the heat, the Baby Bells, who still rely heavily on that business, recently got a get out jail free card whenthe FCC declared Internet Service Provision an "information service" that doesn't trigger the regulation requiring Baby Bells to share their right of way or their wires with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Earthlink and AOL."
Web access may be as close as an electrical outletChristian Science Monitor - August 15, 2005
"But now Broadband over Power Lines (BPL), with investments from big-name companies including Google and IBM, is beginning to move beyond small trial projects to deploying systems for large communities. For example, some 50,000 homes in the Cincinnati area have signed up for BPL Internet- service. And Manassas, Va., a town of 37,000, runs its own BPL service. "Our hope is that in the next two years you'll see millions of homes" using BPL, says Kevin Kushman, vice president of corporate development at CURRENT Communications Group in Germantown, Md. CURRENT is partnering with Cinergy Corp. to provide BPL in the Cincinnati area."
TiVo Tackles Cable, Tests On-Demand 'Net DownloadsMarketing Vox - August 15, 2005
"Starting this week, as part of a trial program, TiVo will allow some customers to download TV shows from the internet to their set-top boxes even before the shows air on TV, reports the AP. In a deal with the Independent Film Channel, several of that cable channel's shows will be available via broadband. Engadget late last week posted the message that TiVo had sent customers regarding the test service."
TiVo Subscribers Can Get Movies Over BroadbandTechWeb - August 15, 2005
"TiVo Inc. on Monday launched a trial service that lets subscribers with high-speed Internet connections download to their digital video recorders programming from the Independent Film Channel."
Future of TV is hanging on the phonethisismoney.co.uk - August 14, 2005
"THE future of broadband promises even more thrills, according to industry executives. And there is already a taste of what is to come. HomeChoice, which has been available in London for the past three years, provides a full TV service down a phone line as well as broadband internet."
Phone companies to introduce Internet-based TV serviceSalt Lake Tribune - August 13, 2005
"BellSouth and the nation's other regional telecommunications giants have reason to worry: As wireless customers ditch their landlines and cable TV companies begin offering phone service, the old Baby Bells' core business is under serious attack."
"Get ready for the counteroffensive."