It was a rather slow week for IPTV and Internet TV headlines but in week 2 (or round 2 as we like to call it) Verizon continues to be the talk of the town as they roll out FiOS TV. Verizon came out this week announcing that they would accelerate availability of FiOS TV in Texas. Additionally, they sealed content agreements with MTV, BET, and Scripps.

Comcast returned fire with CEO Brian Roberts stating Comcast Corp.'s future in the cable business depends on offering more content to its subscribers, in many cases for free.

Will Verizon be successful in peeling away customers from the incumbent cable companies? Let us know your thoughts. In the meantime, grab a bag of popcorn and enjoy the show!

Here are some other interesting reads...

Video-laced Web sites become pseudo-TV stations
The Desert Sun (USA Today Original) - October 7, 2005
"Don't touch that mouse. Online news and entertainment video is booming, says market tracker Forrester Research, with video traffic doubling every six to eight months on average at Web sites that offer sight, sound and motion."

The Essential Components of IPTV
Converge! Network Digest - October 7, 2005
"We know IPTV will revolutionize the way we watch television in terms of giving us access to services such as listening to our home voice mail from our TV directory, or allowing us to order a pizza from our TV, before our HD movie begins. But, with so many companies vying for position in this hot sector of telecom, and IPTV-mania sweeping the networking landscape, there is a lot of confusion about how to deliver these kinds of revolutionary new services. Many vendors are talking about a complex set of systems that many telcos, such as SBC, are spending billions of dollars to acquire. This article breaks down the complexities IPTV into four bite-size components: the IPTV head-end, the backbone network, the access network and the subscriber premises."

UTStarcom Stung by Softbank
Light Reading - October 7, 2005
"What was supposed to be an IPTV coup for UTStarcom Inc. has turned into a disaster, at least for one quarter, and a 22 percent drop in stock value, at least for one day."

Yahoo 2.0: Time spent = more money
ZDNet - October 6, 2005
While not a big article on IPTV, Yahoo does mention IPTV in their immediate future. "Semel described Yahoo's content strategy has three prongs: user generated content, such as that enabled Yahoo 360, Flickr, Local and tools and themes going forward; licensing and aggregating partner content; helping to design the future of what content will be come and lay the groundwork for what content looks like in the broadband world with everything connected and IPTV."

IPTV in China
eMarketer - October 5, 2005
"China will overtake Hong Kong, the US and others as the largest IPTV market in the world by the end of this decade, according to Informa Telecoms & Media."

NTL Agrees to Buy Telewest for $6 Billion to Create BSkyB Rival
Bloomberg - October 3, 2005
"NTL Inc., Britain's biggest cable operator, agreed to buy Telewest Global Inc. for about $6 billion, creating a larger rival for U.K. pay-television leader British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc."

IPTV: Big Potential -- but When?
BusinessWeek - October 4, 2005
"Telecoms see this video-delivery technology as their answer to cable's encroachment into telephony. Trouble is, it's still a way off."

IPTV and FCC regulations
CEO Magazine - October 2005
"Take IPTV and closed captioning, for example. The FCC has rules that require broadcasters and cable operators to transmit closed captions to viewers, rules that require programmers like Discovery and Disney and Starz-HDTV to insure that captions are included when they deliver the programs, and rules to require TV sets to display the captions. Do these rules apply to IPTV services like Starz Ticket or Akimbo or Movielink? I don't think so."

Unicast vs. Multicast - The Challenge for Cablecos
Converge! Network Digest - September 28, 2005
Iolo Jones, CEO of Narrowstep, writes, "The world of television is becoming a confusing place. Technology that has remained stable and consistent for over four decades is suddenly being usurped. At one end of a spectrum is the development of high definition television, at the other the development of TV on IP. Even the basic building blocks of broadcasting are being replaced, as tape is giving way to hard drives. It is therefore not surprising that the way that programming is delivered is also undergoing a revolution."