Sony Pictures Television debuts the first of several YouTube Brand Channels at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. The first of the ad-supported Channels will be The Minisode Network.

With its launch on YouTube, The Minisode Network, which delivers approximately five-minute versions of popular television shows, will grow from 18 to 21 series with the addition of "Married, With Children," "Newsradio" and a new animation block. Additionally, TMN has begun acquiring programs from other companies, including a recent deal with World Events Productions, distributors of "Voltron" and "Saber Rider."

Vividas launches the new Fox Soccer Channel Broadband service, powered by the Vividas Media Platform, a fully-integrated Web-based video and e-commerce platform. The new FoxSoccer.tv site will offer on-demand soccer matches from England's Barclays Premier League, as well as other international competitions to millions of viewers throughout the United States. The new service uses Vividas' innovative full-screen video streaming technology. The site's e-commerce back end also offers consumers easy, instant access to their favorite matches.

Fox Soccer Channel Broadband offers up to five soccer matches each week. Users have the option to buy single matches, 10-match packages or season passes giving access to all available games. Prices start at $4.99 per match with a full-season package priced at $49.99.

A software provider of embedded Linux-based media over IP applications announced the launch of its new technology built on Texas Instruments' DaVinci digital media processors. DigiLink's new technology will enable traditional TV viewers to watch Internet TV directly on their Digital Televisions and it will be demonstrated live in the Texas Instruments' DaVinci demo suite during the 2008 CES. DigiLink also announced the formation of a strategic partnership with 3D Incorporated, a consumer electronics business development company, in anticipation of accelerating the adoption of DigiLink's enabling ITV technology in consumer-oriented products.

IPTV Test, Measurement & Monitoring Report helps simplify the pursuit of Video Quality, Quality of Service and Quality of Experience as they relate to the design and operation of IPTV services. Created primarily for IPTV Operators, Technical Specialists and TM&M Vendors, this report goes far beyond what has been traditionally covered in Video Quality Control, Quality Assurance and Quality of Experience.

Based on analysis of best practices of over 30 vendors and service providers, the report illustrates how Operators are actually using TM&M to improve customer retention and scale quickly to new subscriber bases. "Even a small TM&M budget of $3-$6 per sub per year is likely to return many times that investment in customer retention or added revenues," states Gary Schultz, MRG's CEO.

DivX and Veoh announce an agreement that will bring Veoh’s leading Internet television service to viewers through the DivX Connected platform. The partnership will enable consumers to easily access many of their favorite Web videos from Veoh on a variety of consumer electronics devices.

Under the terms of the agreement, Veoh will make some of its most exciting and unique video content from its popular Veoh.com site accessible on DivX Connected devices, extending the content experience beyond the limits of the PC and into the living room. The first DivX Connected device available to consumers from D-Link is presently for sale online in the UK, France, and Germany and will be released in the US in 2008.

Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform is delivering video entertainment experiences to more than 1 million set-top boxes worldwide and its service provider customers are adding two new IPTV subscriber households every minute. The Mediaroom platform is on pace to reach 1 million subscriber homes in the first quarter of 2008. These milestones demonstrate the growing consumer demand for IPTV and connected television experiences that go beyond traditional pay-TV offerings. Helping to lead this connected TV revolution, Microsoft Mediaroom is transforming the way viewers experience television, movies, music, photos and games in their own homes.

BT has selected Motorola as the lead supplier of next-generation set-top boxes for its BT Vision digital TV service. Motorola will supply BT with second-generation V-Boxes boasting a new look, the potential for substantially improved energy efficiency and enhanced capabilities for deployment in 2009.

The HD-capable V-Box digital TV recorder will provide access to up to 40 Freeview TV channels and 30 radio channels, the ability to record an average of 80 hours of content, on-demand access to a huge library of films, TV shows, music videos and sport and a range of interactive applications.

RealPage has selected the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System for IPTV to secure content on StarFire, RealPage's new IPTV service designed specifically for the multifamily housing industry. VCAS will secure content delivered from the StarFire headend to apartment homes via RealPage's private, managed IP network.

VCAS has been integrated within RealPage's "Leasing Office of the Future" and Simulation Labs where property owners and managers can experience every aspect of its innovative IPTV service -- from service sign up to the branded resident portal and interactive program guide. StarFire IPTV leverages the latest generation VCAS architecture, which supports an entire spectrum of wholesale/retail IPTV configurations. In particular, RealPage has integrated Verimatrix's Remote Stream Manager that enables seamless end-to-end encryption of centrally broadcast channels combined with secure locally originated content. This architecture eliminates the need for additional costly equipment to be purchased, operated and maintained by the local IPTV retailers.

Microsoft announces the availability of DVR Anywhere on the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform, giving DVR consumers the flexibility to watch their recorded TV programs on any TV in their home, further enhancing the platform's powerful connected TV capabilities. In addition, Microsoft also announced it is working with leading programmers, including Showtime Networks Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s TNT and CNN networks, to showcase new connected TV applications and scenarios that are enabled by the extensible Microsoft Mediaroom platform.

With DVR Anywhere, viewers could begin watching a movie in the living room, resume viewing it on the kitchen TV during dinner, and finish watching the same movie from the comfort of their bedroom. In addition, members of a household will never have to fight over the remote control again, due to the capability to watch the same or different recorded programs from multiple TVs in the home simultaneously while recording other shows to be viewed at their convenience.

Sling Media will be showing their award-winning SlingPlayer Mobile software running on RIM BlackBerry smartphones at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 7th – 10th. The technology demonstration will take place in Sling Media’s booth, #73106, Sands Convention Center, using a BlackBerry Pearl 8120, which incorporates both cellular and Wi-Fi data connectivity. Sling Media will release SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry later this year.

The personalized mobile TV experience for BlackBerry smartphones is enabled by the award-winning Slingbox which allows customers to watch their home TV on an Internet-connected Mac or PC as well as a number of mobile phone platforms including Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian OS.

TV Worldwide has again been selected by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to webcast the 59th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards at the 41st International CES Show live from Las Vegas, on Monday, January 7, 2008, 10:00 PM ET/7:00 PM PT at www.TVWorldwide.com and www.TVMainStream.com. Honorary Webcast Host, Apollo 11 Astronaut and TV Worldwide board member Buzz Aldrin will present an Emmy award during the presentation and discuss his upcoming Lunar Renaissance campaign to focus national attention on future space exploration by bringing Mercury, Gemini and Apollo pioneers together for several commemorative events that will be webcast through live Interactive TV. The Emmys webcast will include interviews with industry leaders attending the Emmy Awards ceremony and CES on the latest products, technologies, issues and news from the television and advanced media sectors. Technology support from JVC HD cameras, NewTek Tricaster, Limelight Networks and Abacast Hybrid CDN Services will be featured during the production of the webcast.

Macrovision and CinemaNow have integrated their technologies to enable consumers to acquire premium video content and download it directly from CinemaNow to a Macrovision-enabled consumer electronics devices such as digital television sets, set-top boxes, and network attached storage devices.

With this technology integration, consumers can expect to register their Macrovision-enabled hardware at CinemaNow.com, allowing them to watch one of the largest online selections of movies, TV shows and music videos on their television by using the selected device. Macrovision’s technology will also enable the devices to find, stream and playback other personal content stored anywhere on the home network.

Hughes has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Helius. The acquisition is expected to be completed on or about February 4, 2008. Upon completion of the acquisition, Helius will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes and will operate closely with Hughes' North America and International enterprise businesses.

Micronas has decided to discontinue its activities in the area of set top boxes for IPTV. This restructuring measure forms part of the announced streamlining of the product portfolio in the Consumer division. The restructuring will affect around 100 employees in Santa Clara, USA, and around 20 employees in Shanghai, China.

Most of the discontinuation activities are expected to be completed during the first quarter 2008. The respective costs have already been taken into account in the announced projected restructuring expenses.

Truveo's index has exceeded 100 million online videos. By way of illustration, if each of these were a DVD and stacked one atop the other, the pile would reach nearly 75 miles high. Based on current growth rates, Truveo expects the online video universe to reach one billion searchable videos by 2009.

For the past four years, Truveo has operated one of the largest and most comprehensive video search engines on the Internet. During this time, the Truveo search engine has been continuously scouring the Web, tracking videos that have become available online.