Research and Markets has released the 2006 Digital Media Technology - Digital TV, Mobile TV, IPTV, MPEG Report. In it, you will learn the latest developments of technologies including IPTV, MPEG, DVB, ATSC, AAC, VRML, AVC/H.264, MP3, FTTH, FTTC, HFC, HILN, and much more. The new biennial report covers a wide range of digital broadcasting technologies with explanations, trends, and analysis.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the eMarketer report: Internet Video Audience to their offering.

No matter how you measure it, more people are watching more online video more frequently than ever before. And yet rapidly increasing audience size and interest have not translated into a large advertising market. The question is: Will it ever?

The Internet Video Audience report analyzes not only who's watching video content online, but also what they watch and how they watch it.

Telecommunications Online interviews Bill DeMuth, SureWest Communications' CTO, who explains the company's goal to move away from hybrid networking solution of fiber and coax to a pure fiber connection. SureWest's CTO states that fiber is the only answer if they are to reach their objective of providing 100 megabits of bandwidth to enable differentiating features such as multiple HD channels enhanced services. "The IPTV industry as a whole has been a little too much of a me-too type of service.”

Be sure to check out the full article.

And in case you missed it, be sure to read AT&T's opposing viewpoint of why they don't need FTTH.

Symmetricom, Inc. has acquired QoSmetrics S.A., a privately held provider of QoE solutions for IPTV and other triple play services, for a price of approximately $16 million in cash.

Symmetricom management will hold a conference call on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007 at 6:00 a.m. Pacific time to discuss the acquisition.

If you haven't already heard, the Federal Communications Commission has approved the $85 billion acquisition of BellSouth by AT&T.

The 4-0 vote of approval came Friday after AT&T sent in a modified proposal on Thursday that included a series of major concessions including a network neutrality agreement. In it, AT&T agreed to "maintain neutral network and neutral routing in its wireline broadband Internet access service." The agreement will last for 2 years or until any formal network neutrality agreement legislation is passed.

AT&T also included a commitment to rolling out IPTV in the BellSouth region. "AT&T/BellSouth will continue to deploy fiber-based facilities and intends to have the capability to reach at least 1 .5 million homes' in the BellSouth in-region territory by the end of 2007. AT&T/BellSouth agrees to provide a written report to the Commission by December 31, 2007, describing progress made in obtaining necessary authorizations to roll-out, and the actual roll-out of, such advanced video services in the BellSouth in-region territory."

• AT&T's official press release
• FCC's press release announcing the approval
• AT&T's modified merger commitments

Happy 2007 to all our readers. As you probably noticed, there has been a brief hiatus in the news here at TVover.net due to the holidays. We are now back in action after a festive holiday and ready for the year ahead. There is no doubt that it will prove to be an exciting one for IPTV, but what will be the major movements? Will M&A mania continue? Will HomePNA, MoCA, BPL, or Wi-Fi rule the home? Will FTTH penetration continue to explode? Who will shake up the market leader reports?

News will be slow today as many are not yet back from the holidays, while others are probably still waiting for their hangovers to subside. For those who did venture into the office, we recommend jumping over to Light Reading and checking out their 2006 Top Ten Heavy Findings. Notably, number 6 is "Cable companies are fearing -- for the first time in their history -- telco TV."

Intellon Corporation announced that 12 service providers in Europe and Asia are now using Intellon's HomePlug ICs for in-home IPTV distribution. Operators now deploying Intellon's ICs for IPTV include 1&1, Chung Hwa Telecom, Club Internet, France Telecom, Free, Hanaro Telecom, neuf cegetel, PCCW, Simmin, Tele2, Telecom Italia France and TPSA.

Before deploying Intellon's solution, operators were consistently reporting that 10%-30% of their customers were canceling the newly-ordered IPTV service when new Ethernet wiring was required for the installation.