Discovery Communications announces that it has agreed to acquire HowStuffWorks, the online source of high quality, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works. Acquiring HowStuffWorks further strengthens Discovery Communications' global position as the number-one nonfiction media company dedicated to providing knowledge and satisfying curiosity across all platforms.

HowStuffWorks' 11 million global monthly unique visitors, which have grown 25% over the past year, have access to an extensive and rapidly growing library of deep and broad content designed to deliver the most relevant information possible. In addition to an editorial team that creates new content every day, HowStuffWorks leverages the exclusive digital rights to over 30,000 books, 800,000 images and more than 180,000 maps as it explains the world from brains to bats, from rocket engines to roller coasters, from hybrid cars to HDTV, and countless other topics.

The continued broadband expansion in the Middle East and Africa – subscriber figures are up by nine per cent in the last quarter alone to over SEVEN million – is helping to attract record levels of interest in the region’s first ever major IPTV event, the IPTV World Forum Middle East and Africa -

The show is being held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai and will run from 5th to 6th November 2006. Already confirmed as key speakers at the conference, which will cover issues from the current state of the market and business opportunities to the technologies required to successfully deploy IPTV, are Mickael Ghossein, CEO of Jordan Telecom; Tariq Habib, Head of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at Etisalat, UAE; Khaled Taha, Director of Technology at Al Jazeera Network; Sarat Lallah, CEO of Mauritius Telecom; Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, President and CEO of Showtime Arabia, UAE and Khireddine Slimane, General Manager, Algérie Telecom.

A new report from Infonetics Research, worldwide IPTV equipment revenue hit $562.4 million in the second quarter of 2007, up 33% from the previous quarter.

The report, "IPTV Equipment, Services, Subscribers, and Capex," predicts worldwide IPTV equipment manufacturer revenue will more than double between 2007 and 2010.

Hosted by FierceIPTV
Wednesday, October 24
7pm – 10pm

http://www.fierceiptv.com/events/cocktails/


FierceIPTV invites you to connect with an elite group of key industry players and experience southern hospitality at its finest. This inaugural networking reception at TelcoTV* will provide a chance to mix, mingle, and relax off the trade floor.

The "southern comfort" is on us as you relax at this candlelit poolside retreat.

RSVP today for your complimentary admission, and we'll see y'all on October 24!

Belgacom and Nokia Siemens Networks have extended their contract for the delivery and integration of an IPTV solution for another three years. Nokia Siemens Networks is also supporting Belgacom's plan to add high-definition television to its existing portfolio of interactive TV services via IP-based broadband lines.

The two companies are building on a successful partnership in television services that began in 2004 with the supply of Nokia Siemens Networks' IPTV solution to Belgacom. As a result, Belgacom's total customer base for its Belgacom TV soared to more than 190,000 subscribers by the end of June 2007, far beyond expectations, making the Belgian operator one of the top IPTV providers in the world. By extending the contract, Belgacom has reinforced the partnership between the two companies and expanded its planned services to include high-definition interactive television.

FierceIPTV announces its first-ever list of "IPTV Innovators" recognizing telcos leading the field in the advancement and deployment of IPTV. This year's winners are mostly small telcos, the majority with 30,000 lines or fewer, that have deployed IPTV via fiber-to-the-home or hybrid copper/fiber systems.

In previous years, the Fierce 15 recognized progressive startup vendors in the IPTV space, but the publication shifted its focus this year to IPTV providers -- companies actually deploying IPTV technologies and making IPTV a consumer reality.

FierceIPTV evaluated numerous telcos based on how early they deployed, the technology they used and what features they offered, such as video-on-demand, HDTV and wireless routing.

Symmetricom announces the company will be presenting a free TechThink Webinar on “Digital Rights Management and its Impact on IPTV Service Quality: Security and its Impact on Quality of Experience Monitoring,” in conjunction with the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. The webinar is scheduled for Thursday, October 18, 2007, 1:00 p.m. EDT/10:00 a.m. PDT. This ATIS TechThink Webinar is the second in a series of three ATIS Webinars focusing on IPTV and will examine issues surrounding deploying DRM technology and how to measure its impact on Quality of Experience from source content to customer premises equipment.

MRG announces the IPTV Market Leaders Report -- September 2007, which tracks the top 120 IPTV vendors in 24 regional sub-sectors based on their installed base for 6 product areas in over 600 IPTV Operations and 8 million subscribers worldwide.

"It's far too early to call the IPTV market 'mature,'" says Len Feldman, Director of IPTV Analysis for MRG, "but the industry is definitely becoming less volatile. In our last February '07 Report, 50% of the Number-One companies changed; but in this one, less than 20% of the Number-Ones changed." Yet, some volatility continues due to large increases in subscriptions (as seen at Verzion, France Telecom, Neuf Cegetel, Belgacom and Telefonica), and growing influence of Chinese vendors like Huawei, ZTE, and UTStarcom.

Optibase announces that Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services chose the Optibase H.264 Media Gateway 5100 IPTV encoding platforms for its planned IPTV service offerings. Airtel Broadband & Telephone Services provides broadband & telephone services in 94 cities in India. Bharti Airtel is currently undertaking IPTV trials in a thousand households and is planning to launch its IPTV services in the last quarter of the current calendar year. Optibase’s carrier grade TV streaming platforms, incorporated in UTStarcom IP-based end-to-end networking solution, will be utilized by Bharti Airtel to supply high-quality H.264 video.

AT&T announces several expansions to its robust AT&T U-verse TV channel lineup, including new High Definition networks and Filipino, South Asian and Vietnamese programming options. Beginning Oct. 15, U-verse TV will add History Channel HD and Lifetime Movie Network HD to its HD lineup. With these networks, U-verse TV subscribers with the HD service option have access to a lineup of more than 30 HD channels.

As revenue from standard STB sales declines along with demand in the period 2008 to 2012, STB vendors will initially rely on firmer markets for DBS, IPTV, and DTT STBs. However, according to a new study from ABI Research, by the end of the decade even those sectors will be under pressure from alternative technologies being introduced to facilitate “the connected home,” and vendors will have to add new features and functions in order to revive flagging shipment numbers.

The continuing IPTV evolution in Asia – subscriber figures are up by 50% in the last year alone to over two million* – is helping to attract record levels of interest for this years’ IPTV World Forum Asia.

Now in its third year, Asia’s leading IPTV event is set to be the most successful, with an expected attendance of over 4,000 visitors and 150 exhibitors.

The event is being held at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Singapore from the 5th to 7th December 2007 and will run parallel with The Connected Home Asia, and TV Over Net Asia conferences. The show will explore the major issues of 2007, particularly the transformation and evolution of IP services, the entry into a new phase in IPTV development and setting the media and communications agenda for the future.

Brightcove announces a new service for delivering broadcast-quality Internet TV. Extending their widely adopted Internet TV platform, the new service, Brightcove Show, will give content publishers the ability to deliver instant-on, broadcast-quality streaming video to their viewers. Brightcove Show takes advantage of new advances in the Adobe Flash Player technology, high-quality video encoding, and content delivery acceleration technology from BitTorrent, to enable full-screen video playback of broadcast- quality content streamed through the Internet.

As recently as 2001, some mobile communications experts were saying that mobile television might be a reality within 20 years, but would probably arrive much later because the technical problems were so difficult. Yet only half a dozen years later, according to a new study from ABI Research, successful mobile video technologies are largely in place. As questions about business models, distribution, and content are resolved, the mobile TV industry will take off in earnest.

Operax and Orca Interactive offer a comprehensive solution allowing operators to manage their service expansion while ensuring Quality of Service for advanced video and IPTV services. Operax provides pre-IMS and IMS-compliant, carrier-grade dynamic Resource and Admission Control solutions to operators worldwide, allowing them to guarantee end-to-end QoS for any IP session. Combining these advanced technologies with Orca Interactive‘s highly flexible IPTV middleware, the new solution will enable operators to quickly deploy new applications and services without reconfiguring their network infrastructure. In addition, the new solution will help provide leverage in the face of growing competition from incumbent cable and satellite pay-TV operators, as well as broadcasters and service providers offering Internet video streaming over operators’ existing infrastructures.