The consumer DVD recorder market experienced smaller than expected growth in 2006, but IMS Research estimates the volume of DVD recorders shipped worldwide in 2011 will reach 59 million units, generating approximately US$20.2 billion in manufacturers revenues.

Digital video recorders currently have the advantage of being deployed by pay-TV operators at relatively low cost in the North America, Western Europe, and some parts of the Asia Pacific region. However, recording onto an optical disc is expected to gain momentum due to several factors that will enhance current usage models and value propositions for burning elaborate, menu-driven DVDs from a consumer DVD recorder. Traditionally, elaborate DVD creation has been confined to PC-based applications.

Five percent of UK households will be watching television over an internet connection (IPTV) by 2011, according to new research study.

Around 1.5 million households in the UK will be watching TV over an internet connection by 2011, according to a new study published today by the Centre for Telecoms Research

The new study expects a surge in households with IPTV (from around 80,000 in 2006) driven by consumers migrating to faster broadband connections and the promotion of hybrid DTT/IPTV set top boxes by telecom operators (such as BT Vision).

If you're looking at companies launching quad-play strategies, then check out a new report analyzing Japan's Softbank.

Softbank’s acquisition of Vodafone’s Japanese mobile operation in March 2006 marks a new stage in the Group’s development. Infrastructure is one of the ‘triple number one’ elements that Chairman Masayoshi Son has identified as the Group’s strategic focus, and now Softbank has interests in all access technologies. Coupled with its portal and content capabilities, Son believes that Softbank now has a reach that no other service provider can match. With the pieces in place to realise its aim to be the digital lifestyle company, it’s all about execution. This report assesses the quad-play strategy and opportunities of one of the most aggressive service providers worldwide.

Any computer equipped with a TV tuner card can display and record television programming. A new study from ABI Research shows the total worldwide PC TV tuner market growing from about 15 million units 2006 to 41 million units in 2011.

That represents a solid growth curve, but according to ABI Research principal consumer electronics analyst, Steve Wilson, "The TV tuner card market hasn't taken off quite as quickly as some industry commentators expected it to. That has less to do with technology than with consumers' awareness of their possibilities, and broader market support from studios, operators, and the FCC. The technology is pretty much in place; the questions that need to be resolved before we see really rapid uptake relate to the user-experience, and the integration — via digital media adaptors — with the rest of the consumer electronics that people have in the home."

DoubleClick releases the results of its recent research of online video ad placements, illustrating that video is a highly effective format for online advertising. Findings show that audiences have high interaction rates with video ads, users click the "Play" button more than they click on image ads, video ads are typically played two-thirds of the way through and video ad click rates are far higher than those of image format ads.

DoubleClick conducted its analysis of more than 300 online video ad campaigns that were placed by more than 130 advertisers over a four-month period in 2006. The objective was to identify major trends in the performance metrics of online video ad campaigns according to campaign features, such as vertical industry sector, ad format, ad size and ad length.

IPTV operators confront increased competition from cable and satellite. They are discovering that video quality can be a crucial differentiating factor that attracts and keeps customers. Yet IPTV operators have also found that there are many parts of the systems where video quality and packet-flow can be compromised, causing major impact on consumers’ Quality of Experience.

This report report addresses how to acquire and maintain the highest video quality throughout the IPTV distribution network and in the home using both MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-2 technologies. It provides both operational and technical insight into how to design, test, operate and monitor an IPTV network for the sake of achieving the highest quality SDTV and HDTV using a bandwidth-budget that is shared with other triple-play services. The report also focuses on large, medium and small IPTV systems, and reveals answers to Quality of Service and Quality of Experience issues in the planning, development and operational stages of IPTV services.

MRG announced its new IPTV Market Leaders Report for March 2007. The report tracks the top IPTV vendors in 24 sub-sectors (six each for four geographical regions) based on their deployments and installed base in over 570 IPTV Service Providers worldwide.

The report demonstrates the extreme volatility in the IPTV industry, with half the number one market leaders changing position since the previous report. "The greatest volatility was in Video-On-Demand, where all but one of the number ones changed," states Len Feldman, IPTV Analysis Director. "The least volatility was in Video Headends, where not a single number one changed since the last report."

The global content delivery networks (CDN) market looks set for a strong growth phase, driven particularly by the increasing Internet content and growing convergence among various networks and devices. While vendors have the opportunity to cash in on this burgeoning demand for content delivery networks solutions, they are also likely to be challenged by the growing demand for highly customized solutions. To overcome this, vendors will be expected to expand their infrastructure and technologies to keep pace with changing market requirements.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, World Content Delivery Networks Market reveals that revenues in this market totaled $0.50 billion in 2007 and is likely to reach $2.50 billion in 2013.

CCID Consulting has issued a report today covering the development of IPTV in China in 2006 and forecasts outlook of the industry.

In 2006, the development of IPTV in China was encouraging: Despite various guesses, the issuance of license gradually became clearer. In addition to SMG, CCTV International, Southern Media Corporation and CRI also got their licenses. The number of pilot cities gradually increased. Branches of China Telecom and China Netcom carried out equipment tests, invited bids for network building and engaged in business cooperation negotiations. Number of users were growing in a considerable pace in Hangzhou, Harbin and Shanghai. In Fuzhou, Heihe, Mudanjiang and Changchun, IPTV started to enter commercial use. In Hangzhou, Shanghai and Harbin, various business models were developed for IPTV. Many innovative measures accumulated rich experiences for the success of the business models. Thanks to its network interconnectivity and content compatibility, IPTV now enjoys a growing reputation and is also more appealing to consumers. Though IPTV still faced policy, network, standard and contents problems in its development in 2006, the current situation for IPTV nevertheless remains positive in its future prospects.

CCID Consulting's statistics show that by December 31, 2006, the number of IPTV users in China reached 550,000, and was still growing fast.

Table 1 Distribution of IPTV User Numbers in China (Unit: 10,000)

Operators	2003	2004	2005	2006
Total	1.8	4.6	26.7	55.0

Source: CCID Consulting, Jan. 07


Source: CCID Consulting

In order to understand Chinas consumer attitudes toward IPTV and its 11 existing and upcoming applications, In-Stat/MDR surveyed 339 non-IPTV adopters via telephone in December 2006.

According to the survey results, they found that the advantages of IPTV and its applications are not being realized by most of the respondents. The acceptance rate of IPTV is rather low.

As for the 11 associated applications involved in the survey, TV-based applications gained higher interest than other interactive applications. As for non-TV based interactive applications, only the video phone received relatively high interest levels from respondents, with 35.1% of the overall respondents showing interest.

Customer premises equipment company Tilgin has revealed the results of its IMS Attitudes Report 2007. The research shows that new cross-platform services such as mobile and online TV management will be key in both securing IPTV market share and as a route for operators to increase incremental revenues.

Tilgin's research of 2,500 UK consumers conducted by YouGov highlights demand for a range of new information, communication and entertainment services placing the TV at the heart of the digital home.

Remote TV management, where a digital video recorder can be controlled online or via a mobile phone, is the most popular service and 27% of 18-44 year old consumers would like their current or potential new TV provider to offer it. The research also indicates significant demand for a range of other converged services:

• 22% would like to see incoming phone call management services, where caller ID information appears on the TV screen
• 20% would like to store and share photos and videos through their IPTV service
• 19% would be interested in TV based instant messaging and email applications
• 15% would like to see SMS messaging services between TV and mobile devices

The number of U.S. households subscribing to FTTx (fiber connections) will increase from three million in 2007 to 18 million by the end of 2011, according to FTTx and BPL: Analysis and Outlook. The new report from Parks Associates finds fiber subscriptions will join DSL and cable as mainstream broadband access methods over the next five years, driven by aggressive deployment plans from the telcos and increased consumer demand for new data, voice, and video services.

According to a new online survey conducted by market researcher Synovate for ClipBlast!, the video-search platform, that's where Americans find themselves – awash in online video but all too often left high and dry when looking for something specific. By a wide margin, Americans are having a tough time locating the video that they want on the Web: fully 40 percent agree that the quest for video online is "frustrating" or "inconsistent."

Conducted in February, the survey asked 1,000 Americans what single thing they liked least about video on the Web. Four respondents in ten called the process "frustrating – it's too difficult for me to find exactly what I'm looking for," or "inconsistent – it's too tough to find quality video productions." Another 32 percent described Web video as "too commercial – there are too many video ads." While 16 percent agreed with the statement that "it's chaotic – there are too many videos to wade through," just 12 percent complained about "too much user-generated content to wade through."

The survey results echo a report issued last year by Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff, which noted, in part, "online video content is exploding at an incredible rate ... but finding what you want is hard."

On the Internet, it's true – and will continue to be true for at least another year. In 2006, newspaper-run Web sites captured about $81 million in locally spent streaming-video advertising, while local TV broadcasters captured about $32 million. Although it is small potatoes in the $280 billion U.S. advertising industry, it spotlights a fascinating phenomenon: Print media are using the Internet as a crossover platform to tap traditional TV advertisers, just as TV stations (and others) are trying to use the Internet to tap traditional print advertisers.

Online competition between newspapers and broadcast TV stations – the leaders in local advertising – will intensify this year as both sides develop Web-based video products. The clash will focus on automotive advertisers initially, though real estate, health and employment are prime targets as well. The opportunity to deliver 15-second pre-roll ads along with a tantalizing new opportunity for local advertisers - long-form "infomercials" on demand – are becoming antidotes for media companies suffering declines in their core products.

New research by Frost & Sullivan discusses the North American market for IPTV-based services and the set-top boxes required to deliver them to consumers. In addition to revenue and unit shipment forecasts for set-top boxes, it profiles major service providers and set-top box vendors. The study also reviews major strategic opportunities for success and analyzes market direction through consideration of challenges, drivers, and restraints that IPTV-based service providers and related vendors are expected to face in the near term. Strategic recommendations are also provided for vendors and service providers.