Irish telecoms provider Smart Telecom has selected Verimatrix to secure its advanced interactive and Video-on-Demand service in Ireland, called Smart Vision. The Verimatrix Video Content Authority System enables Smart Telecom to deliver secure, premium content throughout its digital video network.

Dublin-based Smart Telecom is a progressive operator in the Irish market that has built a next generation Carrier Ethernet network to offer triple play services – digital television, broadband and telephone. Its recent €2.5 million investment in IPTV will enable Smart Telecom to offer Smart Vision with more than 100 television and radio channels to 550,000 homes in Ireland. Based on figures from analyst firm Screen Digest, the European IPTV market is set to double in subscriptions from 2.9 million in 2006 to 5.6 million during 2007.

Yahoo has signed an agreement with Sony BMG to extend its video-on-demand license. In addition to expanding the existing relationship into additional territories around the world, the new worldwide deal adds a broad array of additional Sony BMG music videos to the Yahoo! Music catalog. As part of the agreement, Sony BMG music videos will be available for distribution across Yahoo! and off-network through a Yahoo-branded video player. The deal also enables Yahoo! users to utilize various Sony BMG audio recordings in user generated audiovisual content.

The Walt Disney Company and FASTWEB announced they have signed a deal to launch Disney Channel On Demand, a Video On Demand offer on FASTWEB IPTV starting on November 5th. For the world's leading kids tv brand, the agreement represents a further step in its strategy of seeking to leverage on new digital platforms to extend its reach and availability to viewers. FASTWEB IPTV subscribers are given the opportunity to enjoy viewing in a new way – choosing their favourite programme when they want to watch it. The Disney Channel On Demand offer will feature a range of popular programmes including hit live action series such as Hannah Montana, the well known sit-com Quelli dell'intervallo, animated heroes such as Kim Possible and American Dragon, and cult Disney Channel Original Movies such as High School Musical 2 in its Dance Along version. For younger viewers, Disney Channel On Demand will offer a range of series for preschoolers, such as the newly launched Disney My Friends Tigger and Pooh, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny.

EchoStar is offering a ``push and pull'' video on demand service as part of its IPTV platform, ViP-TV. The launch of ViP-TV was announced earlier this week. The VOD content for ViP-TV is based on EchoStar's existing VOD service, which is currently offered to DISH Network satellite TV subscribers. Because it is both a push and pull service, ViP-TV offers more movie and programming options than the current popular titles associated with a push-only VOD service.

Kasenna is recognized as the #1 provider of VOD software worldwide in IPTV, according to results published in the new "IPTV Market Leaders Report - September 2007" by Multimedia Research Group. Rankings were based on the number of IPTV subscribers with access to VOD services.

MediaBase XMP VOD software from Kasenna runs on industry standard servers to deliver superior performance for operators deploying on-demand video services. Kasenna's MediaBase boasts a broad feature set designed to address the needs of telecommunications providers, with MPEG-4 support, content distribution capabilities, and advanced clustering technology for proven scalability.

Harmonic is developing a video-on-demand solution for SES AMERICOM’s IP-PRIME IPTV service using Harmonic’s StreamLiner 2000 video servers, CLEARcut storage encoding solution and Ingest Gateway workflow software. The Harmonic solution will enable telephone company operators and broadband service providers of every size throughout the United States using the IP-PRIME service to offer a high quality, cost-effective VOD service to consumers.

PCCW of Hong Kong has selected the Redback Networks SmartEdge multi-service edge router platform to help deliver video-on-demand and other broadband services. PCCW is the largest IPTV service provider in the world, serving more than 800,000 subscribers. It is also one of the largest broadband carriers in China with more than 1 million customers. The addition of PCCW as a carrier customer puts Redback at the center of more than 50 percent of the largest IPTV deployments in world. Other Redback customers deploying IPTV and broadband video services include AT&T, Belgacom, China Telecom, China Netcom, ChungHwa Telekom, Korea Telecom, KPN, Neuf Cegetel, among others.

Concurrent announces the commercial deployment of video-on-demand in Lithuania. Lithuanian telecommunications provider UAB Alpha komunikacijos has chosen Concurrent’s MediaHawk On-Demand Platform to launch in September. The new broadband system is projected to reach up to 40,000 IPTV subscribers in a decentralized architecture covering most of the major cities, including Vilnius, the capital city. The sale is the second one in the Baltics to be secured through Concurrent partner Scansatec, one of the leading broadband and IP technology providers in Finland and the Baltics. Concurrent is now the sole on-demand vendor in the entire Baltic region.

Concurrent announces the first commercial deployment of video-on-demand in Central America. Cable Onda, the leading cable service provider in Panama, has chosen Concurrent’s MediaHawk 4000 on-demand platform to support the launch of VOD to approximately 15,000 digital cable subscribers in a centralized architecture. This is the first on-demand launch in both Panama and Central America, as well as the first Latin American launch for Concurrent’s Real-Time Media product.

Concurrent launches an advanced HTML-based VOD application-authoring platform, ideal for promoting real-time content such as time-shifted TV and network DVR content. MediaHawk PRISM is a web authoring platform that leverages commercial-off-the-shelf web-development technologies and standards, allowing the cable operator to control their own application look and feel utilizing standard web authoring tools. MH PRISM’s initial launch was with Jupiter Telecommunications, Japan’s largest MSO and MCO, and the product is now available for deployment worldwide.

SeaChange is delivering the foundation for telecommunications giant KDDI's new on-demand television business. KDDI provides VoIP-phone, backbone Internet and other IT services to more than 60 cable television operators across Japan. Leveraging technologies and professional services from SeaChange through Panasonic, this summer KDDI's fully managed, end-to-end on-demand platform will empower cable operators across Japan to quickly launch their own on-demand services.

On-demand services will be centrally managed at KDDI network operations centers initially, with the ability for each cable operator to expand and enhance their service according to their regional coverage. Popular television and movie content will be provided by KDDI, and cable operators will have the ability to provide their own local content, which will also be managed through the KDDI central site.

The cost of watching Barclays Premier League football on television took a dive today as BT launched its BT Vision Sport service. This service allows fans to catch-up with more matches in full than any other service and for just £4 a month. Fans will be able to choose from Premier League matches just hours after the action - at a time of their choosing - and they can combine the service with a package of live English and Scottish matches from Setanta Sports for only £12 a month.

BT Vision Sport is ideal for fans who have BT Total Broadband but who are unwilling, or unable, to pay high TV sports subscriptions. BT’s “near live” service includes 242 Premier League matches per season and – through a new deal announced today - up to 125 Coca Cola League and Carling Cup games. Fans can also access Setanta Sports’ live action which includes 46 Premier League matches from England and 60 from Scotland (including all the old firm derbies) as well as action from other European football leagues, US PGA tour golf, Nascar and Magners League rugby. BT Vision also offers a library of classic sporting action and documentaries available on demand and supplied by sporting giants ESPN and IMG.

Media consumers throughout Britain will soon have the chance to enjoy their favorite programs whenever they want with the BBC iPlayer, a new video-on-demand player powered by broadband content delivery services from VeriSign.

As part of the July 27 beta launch of BBC iPlayer, the world's largest broadcaster will provide UK license fee payers with the custom software application that enables greater flexibility over how and when they access BBC content. At launch, the broadcasting giant will make the previous week's TV and radio content available online for playback on Windows PCs equipped with BBC iPlayer software. After consumers download a program, they will have 30 days to view it before the file is automatically deleted. Launched files delete themselves after viewing.

As for some old, but significant news from last week MySpace will launch its new video platform, MySpaceTV. The announcement comes on the heels of explosive video growth driven by dozens of industry content partnerships and user interface changes. According to comScore Media Metrix, MySpace’s total number of video streams has leapt by 100% and the site has added 15 million unique streamers since January.

MySpaceTV will be an integrated component of the company’s worldwide community and content platform, continues the evolution of the company’s video offering by aggregating the best elements of video and empowers MySpace users to view, create, and share videos in new ways throughout the community. MySpaceTV will serve as the community’s primary video channel and as a stand-alone user destination at www.myspacetv.com.

AOL launched an update to its AOL Video portal with enhancements designed to make it even easier for consumers to find, watch and share more than 20 million videos from across the Web without having to visit multiple websites. New features of the updated AOL Video portal include:

• A redesigned main page that makes it easier for consumers to discover, search for and find millions of videos from across the Web;
• A redesigned video search experience that leverages industry-leading Truveo video search technology and features better presentation of Web search results to help users more easily find what they are looking for and;
• A new embedded playback experience where consumers can find and watch videos from other popular video sites on the AOL Video site.