We've scoured through headlines on broadband, IPTV, VoIP, Triple Play, and all sorts of related topics for 11 months. If there is one thing we can attest from that span of time, it's that there is no longer a lack of journalism covering IPTV-related information. The amount of headlines we read week in and week out just keeps on growing. If that's a sign of the future, then we'll need to hire more help.

Please let us know if you like our weekly IPTV Headlines report or have any suggestions to improve it.

A few notable headlines this week that aren't listed here (because we covered them) are:

• SBC confirms that Project Lightspeed is full speed ahead.
• The FCC opens an investigation into allegations that local authorities may be making the process of getting franchises unreasonably difficult.
• Comedy Central and CBS both expand their Internet TV offerings.

Here are our other interesting reads...

CBS Crosses Online 'Threshold,' Distributes It Via CBS.com
MediaPost Publications - November 3, 2005
"CBS is crossing another digital threshold - literally. The broadcast network, Wednesday unveiled plans to distribute three episodes of prime-time sci-fi series "Threshold" online via CBS.com. The move represents yet another in the broadcast networks' rapid embrace of the Internet as a distribution platform, and follows NBC's announcement this week that it would begin offering Internet downloads of the "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" available."

Commentary: Hell Freezes Over -- Real & Microsoft to Collaborate
Streamingmedia.com - November 1, 2005
"On October 11, Microsoft and RealNetworks announced a deal to set aside their legal differences and agreed to work together on a broad product front. While the agreement looks like a smart move for Real and Microsoft's overall business, in the long run it may in fact limit technology innovation."

Shanda begins limited sales of IPTV gaming console for USD 849
Interfax China - November 1, 2005
"Instead of selling disc-based games, Shanda will offer fee-based online and IPTV services to consumers via the console in order to avoid the piracy problem. The "EZ Station" is being manufactured by Chinese TV maker Changhong and Envada Electronics, and comes installed with Shanda's "EZ Center" software package. The console, able to support broadband, IPTV, and cable TV connections, will offer users news, online radio broadcasting, online Karaoke services, stock and financial information, access to 50 TV stations, 50 electronic games, 30,000 online novels via the Shanda-owned literature website Qidian.com, and 800 pay-per-view TV programs and films."

BellSouth likes to go it alone
USA Today - October 31, 2005
"Last winter, BellSouth CEO Duane Ackerman passed — yet again — on a chance to turn his company into a global player. The invitation came from his old friend and business partner, SBC CEO Ed Whitacre."

Fragmentation slows IPTV adoption
EE Times - October 31, 2005
"A closer look at the market, however, reveals that IPTV design requirements today are fragmented and that technology suppliers are still struggling to find sizable commercial deployments to which they can sell their products in volume. Asked what's high on his IPTV wish list, Alan Delaney, product manager for IPTV at set-top developer Pace Micro Technology (West Yorkshire, U.K.), bluntly responded, 'Purchase orders.'"

IPTV: Think outside the box
EE Times - October 31, 2005
"Emerging Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) set-top boxes constitute a rapidly evolving and fluid product category. Market forces and available technologies are driving variations on the concept. Some models call for video-on-demand and multicast TV; others bundle TV with voice-over-IP (VoIP); many require Internet browsing or the functions of personal video recorders, digital media adapters or video phones."

Navigating Telco TV
CED Magazine - October 30, 2005
"In smallish Keller, Texas, a suburb 30 miles west of Dallas, Verizon FiOS TV recently got off the ground, and in one defining moment, sent a resounding message to the cable and satellite industries that telco TV is now on the air, and in business."

The house that Microsoft built
The Business Online - October 30, 2005
"Despite last week reporting net income of $3.14bn (£1.76bn E2.6bn) on revenues of $9.74bn for the quarter that ended in September and sitting on a $40bn-plus mountain of cash, Microsoft is at a crisis in its 30-year history. The dominance it has enjoyed for so long in the personal computer market is being threatened by rival products based on free open-source software such as Linux. At the same time, the focus of computing is shifting from the office to the leisure market. In an era when broadband providers see the television set as the primary internet portal, Microsoft is rapidly expanding from its traditional desktop market."

The house that Microsoft built - part 2
The Business Online - October 30, 2005