Eagle Broadband, Inc. announced today the availability of the company's new MediaPro IP3000SD, a standard definition IP set-top box for the residential IPTV, hospitality and other vertical markets.

The launch of the IP3000 platform accelerates Eagle's push into the residential IPTV market with the company's most cost effective, entry-level set-top box. The IP3000 product family complements Eagle's existing high-end IP5000 family of IP set-top boxes enabling the company to now deliver a full range of standard and high-definition solutions for the residential IPTV market. The IP3000 is also an ideal entry level solution for the hospitality industry, providing a robust, compact solution for economy and mid-level hotel properties.

More than 80 percent of American consumers believe better prices and service will emerge if cable TV companies have to compete for customers, and most of those consumers want their elected officials to take action to encourage competition, according to a survey released today by national advocacy group Consumers for Cable Choice.

MobiTV introduced MobiTV2, a breakthrough, integrated way to access and enjoy live television, video on-demand, made-for-mobile content and radio on mobile handsets. MobiTV2 features the next generation of its Emmy(R) award winning live TV service and MobiRadio, a new radio service with more than 50 channels of commercial free digital music. The new platform was designed to take full advantage of the latest mobile phones and high-speed wireless networks, offering carriers a unified interface for the seamless delivery of all types of digital content. MobiTV2 features a new intuitive programming guide combined with dramatically improved audio and video quality.

Consumers and business users hungry for increased network capacity are ready to add a little fiber to their diets. According to new research from IDC, the worldwide fiber access equipment market will reach $1.9 billion in 2009, as users migrate to higher speed data services and innovative new services such as IPTV, HDTV, and video-on-demand (VOD).

A major new strategic management report warns that broadband video services will eventually displace broadcast distribution, but telecommunications providers may not be the ultimate winners of the network television revolution.

IPTV--internet protocol television--the delivery of digital television and other audio and video services over broadband data networks using the same basic protocols that support the internet, will transform both television and the web.

In the network processor semiconductor chip market, software continues to be a major differentiator for gaining true competitive advantages. This trend revealed itself again with today's announcement that Zhone Technologies, Inc., selected the Agere Systems Advanced PayloadPlus APP300 network processor for use in Zhone's Very-Fast-Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL-2) equipment.

SkyStream announced it has been awarded the contract to provide 106 channels of MPEG-4 AVC video headends for Shanghai-based IPTV operator SiTV. SiTV is launching China's largest IPTV service today, and will initially serve 10,000 homes across Shanghai by the end of 2005.

Netica Ltd., Israel's leading Internet applications developer and web design studio, announced the release of a new Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) interface. The new advanced user interface designed and developed by Netica, along with Orca Interactive, a global market leader in developing middleware and applications for IPTV.

Finally, the day has come. Move over cable and satellite and make room for Verizon.

Verizon unleashed their counter-attack to cable companies who now offer VoIP (voice over IP) by kicking off their highly anticipated IPTV service. Verizon officially started taking orders Thursday for the new IPTV service, called FiOS TV, in Keller, Texas. Click here to read about the features and pricing plans.

Will Verizon be successful in peeling away customers from the cable and satellite industries? We'll stay tuned...

Here are some other interesting articles...

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Internet VAS--Focus Report on IPTV 2005 to their offering.

This report is based on our solid understanding of the Chinese telecommunication and media markets, with a focus on telecom and VAS. We combined in-depth interviews with professionals in relevant industries with our broad collection of second-hand materials.

Amino returned home from this year's IBC event in Amsterdam after collecting one of the industry's most prestigious awards for its latest IPTV set-top box. The AmiNET124 was awarded the Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit Award to the best IP set-top box for its innovative design and advanced performance - features which have already led to both customer interest and actual deployments only a few months following the product's initial launch at Supercomm in June 2005.

The future of television arrived today in a blaze of fiber-optic light, as Verizon unveiled Verizon FiOS TV to residents of this city 30 miles west of Dallas. Verizon will begin taking customer orders for FiOS TV today in Keller, and make it available in communities across Verizon's footprint in the future.

FiOS TV is designed to compete with cable and satellite and win. It is delivered over Verizon’s fiber-to-the-premises network, which has industry-leading quality and reliability. Fiber delivers amazingly sharp pictures and sound, and has the capacity to transmit a wide array of high-definition programming that is so clear and intense it seems to leap from the TV screen. Verizon’s network design includes backup facilities not common to traditional cable systems, such as duplicate "head ends" where the TV service receives national programming.

On Saturday, September 24, 2005 KyLinTV, Inc. will celebrate the successful launch of KyLinTV with an event that is open to the public from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm. KyLinTV is a service poised to bring the best of Chinese broadcast TV channels and Video on Demand (VOD) -- over 15,000 hours of entertainment -- into Chinese homes across North America (an estimated 3 million households).

Veoh Networks, Inc., the first Internet Television Peercasting Network, announced the public availability and testing of its Veoh 1.0 Beta. Veoh 1.0 allows video content producers to publish full-screen video to the network and lets consumers easily find the specific video content they are seeking.

"We are excited to launch this first beta of our product, and start to get consumer and publisher feedback," said Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of Veoh Networks. "Over the next few months you will see a wide expansion of our offerings – but in the meantime, there are thousands of shows now that viewers can watch and enjoy."

Verizon is prepared to announce their new FiOS television service as soon as next week with the initial launch to occur in Keller, Texas.

To expedite the process of rolling out the FiOS TV service, Verizon and SBC won a landmark case in Texas two weeks ago when the IPTV franchise bill was signed by Gov. Rick Perry. The bill vastly streamlines the process of getting IPTV and cable franchises for telecommunications carriers.

According to the AP article, "The launch schedule, pricing and channel selection for the FiOS TV service are expected to be detailed tomorrow, according to a person at Verizon who asked not to be identified to avoid pre-empting the company's official announcement."

You can read the full article at BusinessWeek.