Research and Markets has announced the addition of 2006 Australia Digital Media, Convergence, Triple Play and IPTV Report to their offering.

Annual report on the Digital Media, Convergence, Triple Play and IPTV market in Australia includes: in-depth analyses of the market and the various trends and developments, market overview and statistics for the Digital TV market, Broadband TV, Triple Play business models, convergence, media centres for the digital home, content and media markets, personal/digital video recorders (PVR/DVR), datacasting and Set Top Boxes.

Content Outline:

1. Digital Media Market Accelerating In 2006
2. Media Reforms and Politics
3. Media Politics
4. Telco and Media Industry Analyses
5. Triple Play Models
6. Broadband TV
7. Mobile TV
8. Electronic Program Guides
9. Digital Video Recorders
10. Home Networks
11. Home Media Centres
12. Industry Business Models
13. Internet Media Companies
14. Marketing Strategies
15. Advertising Strategies and Revenues
16. Digital Media
17. Glossary of Abbreviations

List of Exhibits and Tables

Digital Media

The first results from the convergence of telecommunication, media and IT developments are to be seen in the arrival of the new digital media. Led by the Internet a new range of Internet media are developing and these, in turn, are motivating other industry sectors to also change their business models in order to better align them with the emerging Internet economy.

Telecommunication and Media Industry Analyses

Most of the Australian telecommunication and media companies have a vested interest in protecting their traditional businesses. Over the last 50 years they have been able to obtain certain political advantages that have allowed them to carve out monopolistic markets. The new digital media are undermining these companies' privileged status and their grip on their monopolies. They are now being forced by these changes to jockey for a position in the new Internet economy. Key industries covered are: telecommunication, TV and radio broadcasting, newspaper publishers, film and video industries.

Internet Media Companies

Changes in the Australian telecommunication and media markets are forced upon the industry by the emerging Internet companies such as: Google, ebay/Skype, Yahoo, Vonage, AOL, MSN, News Limited and Amazon. They are breaking down the old business models in the industry which are mainly built around monopolistic market structures. Their success, however, depends on access to high-speed broadband infrastructures, and the vested interests are trying to keep a grip on this market. This will result in a continuation of the fierce battles that are taking place between the traditional players and the new Internet companies.

Digital Media Application

With the convergence of telecommunication, media and IT we see the arrival of digital media. The report focuses on some of the earliest Internet applications and their subsequent development. These applications have created some of the largest media companies in the world. As speed and capacity increase, a whole new range of applications will be entering the market over the next decade. Reports cover: Internet portals, online directories and search engines, blogging, vlogging and web publishing.

The narrowband services have been around for several years and the new video applications are emerging as the Internet media companies seek to exploit the added speed and capacity of broadband infrastructure. As speed and capacity increase a whole new range of applications will be entering the market over the next decade. We report on the digital media developments in: video entertainment, music, MP3, iPods, games, gambling and online dating.

Take-up for digital TV receivers in Australia has improved considerably since broadcasts began in 2001. However, by mid-2005 digital TV was still only a niche medium with a penetration of only 820,000 digital TV receivers. While DSL TV is being introduced in some developed markets around the world, progress in Australia is very slow. Telstra will certainly pull out all stops to make life as difficult as possible for potential DSL TV players; however, with the new access charges, wholesale facilities such as ULL and line-sharing are looking more interesting by the day. Video-on-Demand (VoD) exhibits good potential on the new information and entertainment superhighways, but the vested interests involved are making it very difficult to come up with workable models. With mobile TV becoming available the industry has been looking at new technologies to deliver such services in a more efficient way.

Broadband TV – IPTV

With the arrival of the Internet, content once again became important and video-based applications were revived for delivery over the Internet. The file-sharing features of the Internet created the success of Napster. Similar peer-to-peer file-sharing initiatives show that multimedia file sharing remains a key application. More specifically, multimedia file sharing can be seen as a subset of webcasting, of which streaming data/audio/video and VoD are other components. New DSL-based-broadband networks in Australia are now rapidly moving into triple play business models, delivering voice, data and video services. DSL TV is one of the emerging disruptive technologies.

Mobile Content and Mobile TV

During the 1990s the three Australian mobile operators refused to link their networks so as to allow seamless SMS over their networks. In July 1999 Telstra surprised the industry by initiating discussions to interconnect the SMS services from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. This resulted in an unprecedented boom in SMS and the arrival of service providers such as BlueSkyFrog, Mobile Messenger, Communicator, Red Oxygen and permission-based content providers such as Coca Cola and Pepsi. We provide an overview of the key players and their services. While the content market for mobile operators has never taken off, the real game seems to be strategic positioning for the wireless broadband market. Also included are scenario forecasting models.

As an extension of the immensely popular SMS service, MMS was aimed at providing longer text messages, in addition to music and pictures, it also allows for the sending of messages to multiple recipients. Launched in Australia in 2001, it has failed to take off. Elements of MMS will be introduced into other technologies, similar to where WAP ended up. The current technology – and more importantly its business models – don't yet stack up. The same applies to the mobile TV technology –possibly a great engineering feat, but where is the business model?

Media reforms in Australia

Mass media has become the greatest form of mass communication, and in many ways the TV is the key conduit for reaching the general population. The potential to influence people's views and opinions is enormous, and accordingly a raft of laws exists to regulate what is actually broadcast in Australia, and who is in control of those broadcasts. Media reforms have been addressed on many occasions during the past decade, but, with full control of the Senate, the government gave it another go in 2005. However, in November 2005 the Minister for Communication, Helen Coonan, put it in the too-hard basket again for 2006.

Companies Mentioned:

• BigPond Media
• Sensis
• IPTV
• Telstra
• M2B World
• VOD Pty Ltd
• Movies Online Ltd/Reeltime
• Anytime
• Crank TV
• ROO Media
• iceguide
• TiVo
• Hobbyists
• Foxtel's
• Austar
• TiVo
• Sky
• News Corp
• Homeplug

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c46558