The Rockland County village of Grandview-on-Hudson is bringing its residents a major step closer to choice for their cable television services, thanks to the Village Board's vote last night (July 17) to award a video franchise to Verizon for its FiOS TV service. Also last night, the Long Island village of Lynbrook granted Verizon a video franchise, increasing the company's total number of franchises in the state to 10.

Lawrence consumers are one step closer to having a choice for cable TV now that city officials and Verizon have begun the process to grant the company a video franchise. After negotiations are completed, more than 72,000 potential viewers will be able to choose Verizon's FiOS TV as an alternative to their current cable provider.

IntAct, an Amino Technologies plc company, announced that it will produce a full reference design based on the award-winning AmiNET124 IPTV set-top box (STB). The design will incorporate Texas Instruments Incorporated's (TI) TMS320DM642 720 MHz DSP-based digital media processor -- one of the fastest processors currently available -- and will offer original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) a reliable and proven technical blueprint. The move to create a reference design from this successful STB potentially opens the IPTV market to new OEM entrants, supporting the IPTV industry's growth and increasing the availability of consumer premises equipment from different vendors.

Harmonic Inc. announced that T-Online France, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, has deployed Harmonic’s DiviCom® Electra 5000 multi-service encoders to power its new Club Internet ADSL-based digital television service. A comprehensive video, voice and data triple play offering that is now available throughout France, Club Internet TV is the first video service to be commercially launched in Europe using the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform. Harmonic's full range of market-leading MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) headend solutions are selected by top tier telco operators around the world—including for the majority of European IPTV deployments to date—to deliver high quality, low bit-rate video services using the existing DSL-based infrastructure.

The Asia/Pacific region is leading the global revolution of IPTV in infrastructure deployments, applications development, and subscriber adoption, reports In-Stat. The region’s broadband penetration and regulatory support help to foster the fastest-growing IPTV market in the world, the high-tech market research firm says.

KyLinTV has just rolled-out Guangdong Southern Television (TVS), the first channel in China to broadcast entirely in Cantonese, as part of the largest selection of Chinese entertainment in North America: 26 live broadcast channels and a vast video library that offers subscribers more than 20,000 hours of choice.

In a recently-published report entitled, "The Worldwide Market for Digital Set-top Boxes & iDTVs - 2006 Edition," IMS Research estimates that approximately 96 million digital set-top boxes were shipped in 2005, and forecasts that worldwide shipments of digital set-top boxes will more than double over the next five years, surpassing 200 million units shipped in 2011.

Dreampark, leading provider of IPTV Middleware systems in the Nordic region, today announced that its product has been selected by iVisjon, a Norwegian IPTV operator with services in Norway and Denmark.

Wave Industries, Inc., developers of Wave Worms and Tiki-Man fishing products announce the launch of the Fishing Insider Network (FIN), an Internet video channel dedicated to anglers. The FIN broadcast will feature fresh and salt water fishing with each broadcast focused on three topics: fishing destinations, tips and tactics and a review of the latest fishing products. Subscribers will receive five minute, TV-quality shows twice a month directly to their PC. Unlike media streaming, FIN will enable subscribers to view full screen TV-quality video without the disruption of buffering or extended download times.

Download speeds powerful enough to stream movies or link everyone in an office to the Internet are now available to FiOS Internet customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Subscribers to Verizon's fiber-optic FiOS TV service will be able to enjoy the rich diversity of high-definition, educational and children's programming provided by PBS and the nation's local public television stations under a major agreement announced today by the Association of Public Television Stations (APTS), PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) and Verizon. The agreement ensures that Verizon will carry local public television stations' digital programming.

Verizon customers can experience breathtaking high-speed Internet access as the company expands its Verizon FiOS (FYE'-ose) Internet Service in parts of Jefferson Hills, Kennedy, North Fayette, Robinson Township and South Park.

Verizon announced that many residents in Loudoun County and Leesburg are now eligible for FiOS TV, offering a true choice for subscription television and on-demand programming via the company's all-digital, fiber-optic network. Verizon is the first company to offer such a communications network, connecting homes and businesses directly to fiber optics on a widespread scale.

Sarasota County today became the eighth jurisdiction in Florida to endorse consumer choice and competition in the cable-TV market when the county commissioners voted to award a far-reaching franchise to Verizon for its FiOS TV product, to be delivered via its new, digital all-fiber network.

CloverLeaf Digital LLC, a leading provider of interactive television applications and services, today announced two additional IPTV deployments of CloverLeaf’s localized interactive TV walled garden network. By launching CloverLeaf’s localized interactive network, CT Communications and Panhandle Telecommunication Systems, Inc. are now able to offer on-demand local news and information to their digital video subscribers.