Telecom Italia and Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) have struck a deal to offer on-demand major blockbuster movies from the US movie studio on "Alice Home TV”, Telecom Italia’s TV via Internet service, and on Rosso Alice, Telecom’s Italia ADSL portal.

Concurrent, a worldwide leader of on-demand technology that is shaping the future of television, today announced that Cox Communications has chosen Concurrent's MediaHawk 4000 On-Demand platform for the launch of VOD service in the cable operator's Cleveland, Ohio division.

Everstream, a Concurrent company and industry leader of software for data collection, warehousing, advertising, reporting, and business analytics for the cable and broadband industry, announced its deployment with Blue Ridge Communications. The deal marks Everstream's continued expansion of its Hosted Services, enabling smaller operators to rapidly deploy enterprise data collection and warehousing, as well as audience measurement and iTV usage analytics and reporting.

glowria, Continental Europe's leading independent personalised on demand entertainment provider, announced today that it had signed an agreement with the Neuf Cegetel Group, the largest alternative telecommunications provider in France, to provide a Video on Demand (VoD) service to Neuf Cegetel's subscribers via TV over DSL and PC.

Akimbo Systems, the first Internet video-on-demand service for television, today announced that it has closed a Series C investment round of $15.5 million. New investors Cisco Systems Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, AT&T Inc., one of the world’s largest telecommunications holding companies, and venture capital firm, Blueprint Ventures, join existing Akimbo investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sprout Group and Zone Ventures.

Music VOD service i-concerts, and France’s broadband ISP operator Free have finalised a strategic 2-part partnership deal, to launch one of the first ever TV channels via ADSL to offer around the clock High Definition concerts and create the largest European IPTV VOD concert platforms.

Brightcove, an Internet TV pioneer, announced today that SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT will use Brightcove to deliver broadband video in new video players deployed across its network of artist and label websites, offering consumers on-demand access to music videos, interviews, live performances, and behind the scenes footage from its extensive catalog of videos.

NS8 Corporation (NS8) announced that its digital media division, iWave Interactive, has completed a multi-year partnership with Advanced Datanetwork Communications Co., Ltd. (ADC), one of Thailand's largest telecommunication carriers, to provide interactive and on demand digital media services to PC and mobile devices along with its proprietary library management and distribution system.

SeaChange International customer OnDemand TV, Inc. is launching the world's first IPTV on-demand service to offer high-definition programming encoded in the H.264 video compression standard. Beginning next month, FTTH-connected subscribers around Tokyo and Osaka will have access to on-demand libraries of high-definition movies, sports and other programming.

Widevine Technologies, the leading provider of downloadable content protection and digital forensics solutions, announced that Pioneer Telephone Cooperative has fully deployed Widevine Cypher in order to acquire, protect and deliver secure premium broadcast and video-on-demand content from major studios and broadcasters for its Digital TV service.

Broadbus Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of technology solutions for Television on Demand (TOD), and NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today announced that NDS has selected the Broadbus B-1 Video Server as the first on-demand video platform for the NDS Synamedia Metro IPTV middleware. Synamedia Metro is an integrated IPTV middleware solution that enables telecommunications providers and broadband operators to quickly and easily offer the power of IPTV to their subscribers. The NDS solution will incorporate the Broadbus B-1 Video Server, a 100% solid-state, carrier-class solution for the delivery of IPTV and on-demand video services.

Concurrent, a worldwide leader of on-demand technology that is shaping the future of television, today announced that Chinese cable operator Shekou CATV has chosen to launch the first commercially available Video-On-Demand (VOD) service in China using Concurrent's MediaHawk VOD platform. As part of this deal, Concurrent is partnering with Chinese technology manufacturer SZCOM to equip existing set-top boxes for advanced, two-way cable services.

Private Media Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in premium-quality adult entertainment products, services and mobile and Internet content, and Erotic Media AG announced the signing of a Pay-TV license and a VOD (Video-on-Demand) agreement for the use of the Company's content in the territory of German-speaking Europe.

Entriq, Inc., a company that provides all-in-one pay media solutions to manage, protect, monetize and deliver multimedia content to broadband, mobile and IPTV devices worldwide, today announced that it has been selected by Channel 4 to help enable its new online video-on-demand offering.

As online video takes center stage with the explosion of YouTube, iFilm and like sites, members of AOL, EMI, Google, Yahoo and Brightcove came together to discuss the current desire of consumers for user-generated content and the long-term impact it poses on the media industry.

Read the full article by Amanda Termen in CNet's "Is the Web the new Hollywood?"