2006 is shaping up to be an exciting year for IPTV. For a glimpse at what initiatives will be taking focus in 2006, check out Light Reading's great summary of the TVoDSL conference that took place in Paris this week.

Meanwhile, Denmark's TDC announced a deal to use Alcatel and Microsoft for its IPTV rollout.

Verizon continues to roll out FiOS TV with new service announcements in Massachusetts and New York.

Lastly, be sure to check out Alexander Cameron's white paper, "IPTV: The Great Content Adventure."

Here are the headlines...

IPTV: New Signs of Life
Light Reading - January 27, 2006
"After a year of frustration, the European IPTV community expects 2006 to be the year in which concrete decisions are made and real budgets are spent, according to companies attending this week's TVoDSL 2006 event in Paris."

Uni2 to launch IPTV by end of quarter
TeleGeography Research - January 27, 2006
"France Télécom’s Spanish telco Uni2 is planning to launch IPTV services under the Wanadoo Spain banner before the end of the first quarter, becoming the latest in a growing line of operators looking to break into the broadband TV market."

MTV climbs aboard iTunes TV bandwagon
C21Media - January 27, 2006
"Shows from MTV, MTV2, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and The N have all joined the iTunes line-up, with MTV following the lead set by Disney last October when the Mouse agreed its landmark deal to distribute ABC series Lost and Desperate Housewives via iTunes."

Next Big Thing? Amateur Videos Line Up Next To Hollywood Fare In IPTV World
Kagan Research - January 26, 2006
"Google has made a fortune by simply cataloging content created by others. So could The Next Big Thing be organizing non-professional video programs on demand? Will this be another "disruptive" medium to established media giants that cuts into sales of theatrical films produced at a cost of tens millions of dollars and TV series dramas costing $2 mil. per episode?"

TV production headed for shock
Globeandmail.com - January 26, 2006
"Television as we know it is dead. And we can blame technology for it, says IBM Corp. Peering into its crystal ball, IBM says that audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented, their attention spans split among multiple media choices, channels and platforms."

HD IPTV Transport: The Competitive Imperative
TMCnet - January 26, 2006
"While IPTV is hot and getting lots of press, one issue is often overlooked: how will content and service providers provide sufficient high definition television (HDTV) programming to make IPTV truly competitive?"

San Ramon Internet TV plan draws complaint
The Mercury News - January 25, 2006
"A cable trade group representative on Tuesday night blasted a proposed plan by AT&T that would introduce Internet Protocol Television, or IPTV, into San Ramon."

Sports Entities, Mobile Providers Prepare For Surge In Mobile Sports Rights Deals
Kagan Research - January 25, 2006
"The concept of receiving audio/visual sports on mobile telephones will burst into the consumer marketplace Feb. 5 with a 60-second Super Bowl commercial for branded sports service Mobile ESPN (face value cost for that airtime is $4.8 mil.; last year's game pulled 133.7 mil. viewers). With the Super Bowl ad, Mobile ESPN launches nationally, after being in limited consumer marketing since late November."

Microsoft: LatAm to see IPTV services offered in 2006 - Regional
Business News America - January 25, 2006
"Latin America will start to see commercial success with internet TV (IPTV) services in 2006, Renato Cotrim, regional business manager for Microsoft's TV products unit in the southern cone told BNamericas."

Television programming execs in Vegas
United Press International - January 23, 2006
"The old saying, "Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," doesn't apply to this week's National Association of Television Programming Executives meeting at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center -- Jan. 24-26 -- with a special day devoted to mobile content on Monday. NATPE is where television program buyers and sellers meet and greet to strike programming deals. Most of next fall's U.S. television programming will be purchased or launched here. But this year's NATPE is going to be different than in the past; this year's show will be about the future of television."

Broadcom Buys Sandburst
Red Herring January 23, 2006
"The $80-million deal boosts the chip firm's ethernet chips offering for networks primed to deliver IPTV, video-on-demand."

IPTV Era Begins To Take Shape
Top Tech News - January 23, 2006
"The company is taking perhaps its biggest risk with the Verizon Gaming Network, which lets subscribers play games on dedicated servers within the Verizon network or drop in on public ones. What makes it relatively unique is the company's targeting of hard-core gamers with a lot of first-person action titles."

AOL to invest in UK LLU
Computer Business Review - January 23, 2006
"The battle lines continue to be drawn up as companies position themselves to take advantage of the all-important triple-play market in the UK. This time it is the turn of the giant internet service provider, America Online Inc, which has announced plans to invest as much as 120m pounds ($211.5m) in local loop unbundling, LLU."

Qwest Nears UTOPIA
Light Reading - January 23, 2006
"Qwest Communications International Inc. is running fiber to 13,500 new homes in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan, just 10 minutes down Interstate 15 from the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) municipal broadband network."

TELKOM JOINS THE FRAY IN BROADBAND TV DELIVERY BID
MyADSL - January 23, 2006
"Fixed-line telecommunications operator Telkom will begin pilot tests in the next few weeks with partners Microsoft and Alcatel to gauge the technical and commercial feasibility of delivering television to consumers over its broadband digital lines that subscribers use to access the Internet."