Calix today announced the completion of the acquisition of GPON market leader Optical Solutions. The operations of Optical Solutions have been fully integrated into those of Calix, which will maintain a development center in Minneapolis. Complementing the market-leading Calix C-Series multiservice access product family, Optical Solutions products will be marketed as the F-Series gigabit passive optical network (GPON) access systems. The F-Series products, along with a revolutionary new family of optical network terminals (ONTs) also announced today, significantly enhance the ability of service providers to rapidly deploy field-proven, high-value broadband services over either copper or fiber media.

Widevine Technologies announced digital copy protection for high definition DVD-based content delivery formats Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

The introduction of Widevine Cypher for high-definition DVD players extends the patented Cypher Virtual SmartCard to provide advanced copy protection on these new devices. This enables IPTV service operators to license and acquire premium content for extended service delivery to a wide variety of retail available, IPTV-enabled high definition consumer electronics devices.

Amaru Inc., through its Singapore-based subsidiary M2B World Pte. Ltd. and its Hollywood-based company M2B World Inc., have released the findings of a month-long independent study commissioned by the company to analyze consumer broadband attitudes in the United States. The study revealed consumer behaviors, interest and preferred applications for on-demand entertainment, including preferences for emerging technical solutions such as IPTV set-top boxes and addressed the willingness by consumers to access IPTV-based programming.

In the words of John Belushi: Toga! Toga! Toga! National Lampoon, the world's most-widely recognized brand in comedy, has taken the first step to dramatically increase its online initiatives, announcing today the launch of its first full broadband, IPTV programming service, National Lampoon Toga!

National Lampoon's Toga will use Brightcove for video distribution, ad delivery and asset management. Brightcove is an Internet TV service that provides content owners, ranging from national cable networks to one-man video production companies, a cost-effective way to distribute video through the Internet and to build broadband businesses.

London's Olympia exhibition centre will provide the setting in March for the first public appearance of a radical departure in IPTV middleware, with the launch at this year's IPTV World Forum of a new service delivery platform from Zignal, a leading provider of IPTV software solutions and devices.

Rotani, Inc., a leading developer and designer of future generation wireless networking solutions, today announced the release of its VideoPuck technology for IPTV. VideoPuck is an end-to-end solution for multicast video in the home that enables error-free transmission of IPTV video when paired with standard Wi-Fi and HomePlug networking equipment.

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), owner and producer of GLOBALCOMM, announced the GLOBALCOMM Innovations Summit, featuring dynamic presentations and announcements on the latest technology from nearly 20 innovators, including Microsoft TV, Scientific-Atlanta and Verizon Airfone. GLOBALCOMM, the next-generation communications marketplace and summit, will be held June 4-8, 2006, at Chicago's McCormick Place. For TIA, GLOBALCOMM replaces SUPERCOMM as TIA's annual event for the industry.

Tut Systems, Inc., an industry leader enabling the delivery of next-generation data and video services over broadband networks, today announced that it has expanded its distribution relationships in the Chinese telecommunications market through a relationship with the CETC-IPTV.

April 3-7, 2006
Cannes, France

Leading TV Commissioners looking for new digital formats
Content 360 is a brand new initiative encouraging multimedia and application developers to work on new content ideas in partnership with the UK's public broadcaster (The BBC), the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC), and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Verizon customers in Plaistow and Newton, New Hampshire and Portsmouth, Greenland, Newington, Stratham and New Castle, Massachusetts can experience breathtaking high-speed Internet access as the company unveils its Verizon FiOS (FYE'-ose) suite of Internet services to homes and small business here.

iSeeRadio, a company of Continental Vista Broadcasting Group Inc., is demonstrating its dynamic IPTV broadcasting and advertising solutions for radio stations at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville Feb. 15-17, 2006. iSeeRadio enables radio stations to broadcast live and on-demand interactive video and audio through its customizable media player to audiences anywhere.

eWAN1, Inc. announced that the Company will launch their Global Internet television (IPTV) service on April 19, 2006, offering consumers 75 channels of high definition clarity "On Demand" broadcast content through their television screens via any broadband internet connection.

The question on the doorstep of Congress today: "Is it time for added competition in the video market?"

Verizon and AT&T will be addressing a Senate panel about removing regulations that require companies to obtain local franchise agreements so that they can increase the pace of their IPTV rollouts.

Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg today urged Congress to reform the age-old cable franchise approval process that effectively delays consumer choice and price competition in the consumer video market by impeding rapid entry by market insurgents.

Seidenberg said Verizon offers its FiOS TV in portions of seven states, but that the federal law requiring a second franchise from thousands of local authorities to offer competing video service over its network - as well as cable operators' efforts to block the process - is "the biggest limiting factor to how fast we can offer video over our fiber network."

This report examines the global IPTV opportunity, including its impact on the transformation of the telco business model, global IPTV forecasts and the impact of IPTV on pay-TV market dynamics, including competitive reaction from cable and satellite DTH players. In addition, using analysis generated from at least 10 case studies of carriers that have launched or have solid plans for IPTV, this report provides a thorough analysis of the key characteristics of successful IPTV business models, including strategic approach to IPTV, technology choice, content acquisition, service bundling and pricing, IPTV adoption and profitability.