The Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR.org), a collaborative industry consortium and recognized leader in next-generation IP service usage and exchange standards worldwide, announced it will host an open, industry wide meeting to focus on accounting and settlement standards for IPTV services. This would be applicable to telephony service providers, voice operators, broadband network providers, cable operators, entertainment content partners, support vendors, media and analysts. This meeting will allow all interested parties to influence the direction of this IPTV initiative.

Based in Cambridge, England, SJC is a software company that has developed advanced video codec products such as MPEG4 (H.264) and Windows Media/VC1. The intellectual property for these codec products has been licensed and deployed in an array of set top boxes for several customers including Amino. The company's primary focus is in embedded systems design, particularly for advanced networked equipment using technologies such as MPEG, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and wireless Ethernet.

Continental Vista Broadcasting Group Inc. announced the launch of its newest property, WhiteBlox, at the NATPE show in Las Vegas on Jan. 23 - 26, 2006. WhiteBlox delivers dynamic, powerful simple building blocks to help companies launch their own private-label broadband networks and will be unveiling its new brand and technology at the show to the television and entertainment community.

Motorola's acquisition of Kreatel Communications topped headlines this week. With this purchase and Cisco's purchase of Scientific-Atlanta, everyone is wondering how the set-top box market will shape up and are these just the beginning of additional mergers and acquisitions.

Motorola's acquisition strengthens their presence in Europe, adds to their IPTV portfolio, and gives them Kreatel's customers such as major service providers Telefónica (Spain), TeliaSonera (Sweden), and KPN (The Netherlands).

On a different note, a discussion took place this week between telephone companies and other providers about charging fees to companies with products causing high bandwidth usage. Some examples of this could be Skype, Google Video, Vonage, or the P2P networks. Google's Barry Schnitt responded saying, "Google is not discussing sharing of the costs of broadband networks with any carrier. We believe consumers are already paying to support broadband access to the Internet through subscription fees and, as a result, consumers should have the freedom to use this connection without limitations."

Entone Technologies a leading provider of personal video content delivery solutions, announced today that Consolidated Communications is deploying Entone's Hydra IP video gateway to support the telco's IP television (IPTV) service launch.

By using the Hydra IP video gateway, Consolidated is able to eliminate set-top boxes, therefore dramatically reducing the installation costs and complexities associated with IP video deployment.

The America Channel (TAC) announced its fifth telco deal -- a digital IP carriage agreement with Optical Entertainment Network (OEN). The America Channel will launch in 2006 on OEN's FISION fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service in Houston, Texas. The America Channel previously reported deals with Verizon FiOS and other telcos, for nationwide deployment in 2006. The America Channel has now secured carriage with companies representing approximately 80% of the projected telco video market.

ITV Local, the broadband TV site that features local news, weather, music and what's on guides, has extended its contract with Narrowstep and has plans to offer increased functionality.

ITV Meridian is expanding ITV Local to cover the whole of the South and South-East. The public will also have the ability to submit video clips and adverts from their own computers and see themselves on ITV.

Our take: ITV Local has a beautiful interface and offers high-quality video. We look forward to seeing how many viewers contribute their own video and how ITV Local organizes and presents the content. Could this be the future of community interaction?

TV Worldwide, and its new Internet TV Channel Golf Center TV, announced that it had entered into an agreement with Turner Sports Interactive, producer and manager of PGA.com and PGA Worldwide Golf Exhibitions, to webcast the 2006 PGA Merchandise Show... & Convention along with the PGA Show Demo Day Presented by Sprint January 25-29, live from the Orange County Convention Center and Orange County National Golf Center & Resort in Orlando, Fla., at PGA.com and Golf Center TV. The free webcast will feature selected live and archived seminars, news and interviews with industry leaders present for the show and highlight the latest products, solutions and trends in the golf industry. Nicklaus Golf and Golfaholics have recently signed on to be a Golf Center TV channel sponsors and main webcast sponsors include Callaway Golf, Adidas Golf and MacGregor Golf.

Recent announcements by the cities of Amsterdam and Paris that they plan to deploy pilot fiber-to-the-home networks have been reinforced by a similar declaration two days ago from France Telecom. Deutsche Telekom had already indicated last year that it was making FTTH plans, and several big initiatives are under consideration in Spain.

Tut Systems Inc., an industry leader enabling the delivery of next-generation data and video services over broadband networks, will showcase its industry-leading MPEG-4 AVC solutions for encoding and transcoding on 25-27 January at TVoDSL and Triple Play Showcase 2006 at Stand #213.

During 2005, Tut Systems more than doubled its base of international IPTV deployments and counts IPTV deployments in more than 18 countries across 5 continents.

U.S. consumer spending for online entertainment, including on-demand gaming, music, and video services, will grow by 260% in the next five years, according to Digital Lifestyles: 2006 Outlook, a new study from Parks Associates. Driven by broadband usage and innovations in digital entertainment platforms and content services, revenues will grow from $2.4 billion in 2006 to nearly $9 billion in 2010.

SkyStream, a leader in IP video delivery, announced that increased sales in its IPTV video headend and satellite direct-to-home and VSAT businesses led to record revenue growth in 2005. SkyStream achieved 11 percent net income for the fourth quarter, and was profitable for the entire year on an EBIT basis.

Analysys International says China's IPTV market will still be in the cultivation phase in the coming three years. Although China's IPTV commercial trial is in process, China's IPTV market progress is limited by technology and content restrictions, and the improvement of consumer recognition is slow.

Supporting its Metro network serving thousands of customers on Finland's west coast with Triple Play services, Vaasa Telephone Company is relying on Extreme Networks, Inc. to deliver voice, video and data over a high performance Metro Ethernet ring.

Vaasa has built a high-speed 10 Gigabit network between the cities of Vaasa and Seinajoki using Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond 10K switches for the network core and Summit switches at the network edge. Today, the network aggregates more than 30,000 combined Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) and DSL connections, carrying broadband traffic for phone calls, Internet connections and video.

Aeon Digital announced that it has entered into an exclusive agreement with MusicNet to provide key technological and programming components for the on-demand music service and make its catalog of licensed digital music tracks and videos available to Aeon Digital's online network subscribers in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. The agreement with Aeon Digital reinforces MusicNet's ongoing diversification to deliver its industry-leading digital music services and content on the PC, directly to portable devices and set top boxes, and over the air to mobile phones.

Consumers can choose either the DV-220 set top box or a specially-equipped 32" LCD TV to access the Aeon Digital network.