A la carte TV programming is on everyones mind after FCC chairman Kevin Martin spoke on Tuesday about a new report that concludes a la carte TV programming is economically feasible and in the best interest of consumers. The new report contradicts an earlier report released in 2004 that states a la carte TV offerings would equal higher rates.

"I had many concerns with this (earlier) report, including the logic and some of the assumptions used," Martin said during his testimony to the Senate forum. "I asked the media bureau, as well as our chief economist, to take a more thorough look at the issue. The staff is now finalizing a report that concludes that the earlier report relied on problematic assumptions and presented incorrect and incomplete analysis."

According to an article in the Red Herring today, the reaction of the telcos is favorable. "Verizon Communications and AT&T, the two largest telecommunications carriers in the United States, see the unbundling of television packages currently being pushed by regulators as an opportunity to steal subscribers from the incumbent cable and satellite operators."

"There is some feeling that this may be a differentiator for Verizon or AT&T," said Verizon spokesperson Eric Rabe. "This could be something that either company adopts to differentiate themselves, but we are still examining our options in this area."

• In other news, Telecom Italia rolled out their IPTV service.
• Intel released an announcement on Viiv, their upcoming PC platform to manage movies, TV, music, games, and photos.
• Skype added video capability to their software with the help of On2.

We also attended the PVR 2006 conference in Munich, Germany. The conference was well executed by thebrainbehind with some interesting concepts coming out of it (More so with the topic sliding quite frequently from PVR to IPTV).

Here are some reads...

The Value-Added IPTV Services Bundle
Converge! Network Digest - December 2, 2005
"The evolution of IP-based home broadband delivery enables significant opportunities for telcos to provide these types of advanced integrated services as part of an IPTV services bundle. While excitement continues to grow around telco IPTV deployments, some in the industry have expressed concerns over the ability to recoup these huge IPTV deployment costs through new service revenues. In addition, the ability for telcos to effectively differentiate their bundles from existing cable and satellite offers lead some to believe that IPTV subscribers will have to be won on price alone, leading to further difficulties with IPTV return on investment."

The Clicker: Cable channels a la carte
Engadget - December 1, 2005
"Break out those fingers because we’re about to do some counting. What are we counting? It’s simple: how many cable-television channels do you actually watch? Go ahead and tally them up. I’ll wait… Well then – there’s ESPN because you gotta have SportsCenter. There’s Comedy Central for one’s daily dose of the Daily Show. What’s left? News channels surely make up a couple — CNN, MSNBC, etc. Or, for those among us with a more conservative bent, there’s Fox News and stations of its ilk. Everyone has a guilty pleasure. Maybe yours is E!? SpikeTV? We hear the kids today like their MTV, whatever that is. Members of the fairer sex might stereotypically dial up Food TV. But at the end of the day you’ve probably got a few spare fingers and, no surprise here, you’ve also somehow been pushed into the “extended cable” package."

TiVo Merges The Internet With TV
InformationWeek - December 1, 2005
"Customers with a TiVo Series 2 DVR connected to the Internet over broadband will have access to a movie ticket service, a Web radio network, and entertainment portal Yahoo."

Row blocks video on demand
Austrailian IT - November 30, 2005
"EVERYONE agrees video on demand over the internet should be a goldmine for telecoms and media firms, but the two converging industries have yet to figure out how both can make money, a conference in France has heard."

IPTV on the horizon - the Alex Cameron interview
E-consultancy.com - November 30, 2005
"I don’t believe ISPs should be publishers, broadcasters or channels – I believe they should be carriers/operators. They should use the BSkyB model where they provide the casing over the building blocks of the TV network (e.g. channels, satellites, viewing cards, set-top boxes etc), but not the channels or infrastructure."

"I was strongly against Tiscali’s move to operate its own online TV channel. In my experience online "channels" are a total red herring that just help marketing departments to spend their budget and impress their bosses, eventually fading into the ether."

CHINA: Internet TV set for huge launch as trials finish
AsiaMedia - November 30, 2005
"Mainland fixed-line operators China Telecom and China Netcom are well positioned for a massive launch of internet protoccol television (IPTV), with estimates that between 500,000 and one million households will be able to receive the service by the end of the year."

Deutsche Telekom admits broadcasting intentions
Computer Business Review - November 30, 2005
"Just weeks after Deutsche Telekom AG denied reports that it was seeking to turn itself into a television company, Europe's largest telecoms operator is now reportedly interested in bidding for the pay TV rights to transmit matches from the Bundesliga, Germany's top football league, as momentum increases behind IPTV (internet protocol television)."

IPTV - not yet the killer app.
Point Topic - November 30, 2005
"New analysis from Point Topic shows how the IPTV market is developing in 2005. IPTV had almost 1.5 million subscribers by mid-2005, up from around 1 million paying customers at the beginning of the year."

"Europe and Asia Pacific are the leading regions for IPTV, ahead of the Americas."

"After correcting for a difference in the way we count IPTV subscribers, that represents subscriber growth of around 40% in the first sixth months of 2005. The main growth was in Hong Kong, China, France, Spain, Canada and the USA."

Telecom Italia IPTV Offer Looks Expensive
newratings.com - November 28, 2005
"Telecom Italia's (TI) new IPTV offer looks expensive, says a telecom analyst. TI announced Monday the rollout of its broadband TV starting from December 2, which completes its triple play (internet-voice-video) offer at the cost of EUR45.90 a month, excluding phone calls' charges."