TVU Networks has been granted exclusive broadband distribution rights for the "NetJets Showdown" tennis exhibition, a match between all-time Grand Slam champion and International Tennis Hall of Famer Peter Sampras, and young Swiss sensation Roger Federer, ranked #1 in the world by ATP.

The NetJets Showdown, produced by StarGames in association with The Marquis Jet Card and Men's Vogue magazine, will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 10, 2008.

Dubbed "A Battle for Tennis History", the NetJets Showdown will mark the first time in eight years that tennis has been played at Madison Square Garden, a venue known as "the world's most famous arena". This historic match will mark the fourth meeting between these renowned players, and their first meeting in the U.S.

IPTV service revenues will approach $14 billion in 2012, growing from $694 million in 2007, according to “US IPTV Forecast and Outlook,” a report just released by Strategy Analytics. Although there are numerous IPTV providers of all shapes and sizes in the US, the landscape is largely dominated by the two incumbents: AT&T and Verizon, each of which has a different approach in terms of technology and investment.

“2007 was a watershed year for IPTV in the US market,” said Ben Piper, Director of the Strategy Analytics Broadband Network Strategies service. “The two major US players reached critical mass in terms of subscriptions. The onus is now on service providers to quantify and articulate the benefits of IPTV against ‘traditional’ Pay TV media, such as cable and satellite.”

Alcatel-Lucent demonstrates an interactive IPTV portal that will be implemented as a field trial in the city of Friedrichshafen within Deutsche Telekom´s “T-City” project within the next months.

The IPTV portal enables integration of local content, such as video and news. Additionally, the portal enables IPTV users to interact with local content, by rating videos, participating in games and receiving information by clicking on advertising banners.

The CeBIT demonstration and Friedrichshafen deployment are based on Alcatel-Lucent’s 5930 Interactive Media Manager and the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform.

JumpTV had recorded its best viewer numbers ever in December 2007. In December 2007, comScore reports showed the company recording 85.5 minutes per viewer in the United States ranking it the #1 most engaging website among those in the online sports video category.

"This report confirms what we have been saying all along. Our users are some of the most engaged on the Internet," said Nada Usina, President of JumpTV. Usina continued, "As video continues to be of increasing interest to advertisers, we are well positioned to be one of the leaders in this space."

According to comScore reports, JumpTV viewers watched 39 million minutes in the U.S. in December ranking it #3 in the Sports Video sites category overall.

TidalTV announces the closing of $15 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates and Valhalla Partners. This funding will enable the company to accelerate the development of the TidalTV platform and expand and enhance its available programming. TidalTV offers consumers free and instant access to professionally produced online video programming via its streaming, browser-based platform.

TidalTV’s seed financing was provided by Scott Ferber, co-founder of AOL’s Advertising.com and current chairman of TidalTV. TidalTV’s executive staff also includes Chief Executive Officer Mollie Spilman, former chief sales and marketing officer of Advertising.com; Chief Revenue Officer Brad Elders, former senior vice president of North American sales for Internet television provider Joost, and Chief Content Officer Bob Quicksilver, former president of network distribution at FOX Broadcast Company.

Swarmcast has joined the Microsoft Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program that creates a universal language for media applications. The Swarmcast open video platform integrates seamlessly with rich-media platforms such as Silverlight to enable high quality, cost-effective video delivery over the Internet. Swarmcast is joining the Initiative to further its mission of providing content providers and rich-media developers with the tools to engage global audiences with high-quality video.

The Silverlight platform enhances user experience with interactive Web applications by enabling content providers to combine video and animation, while helping control costs. The offering also provides extended Web audio and video streaming and playback capabilities via Microsoft Windows Media technologies.

Calix announces the wide deployment of Calix 700G GPON Optical Network Terminals across the state of Minnesota, providing advanced information, communication, and entertainment services over fiber to the premises networks. Service providers deploying the 700G line of ONTs for residential and business use include Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative, Garden Valley Telephone Co., and Consolidated Telecommunications Co.

Taking advantage of Gigabit Ethernet subscriber interfaces on each 700G ONT and a shared 2.5 gigabits per seconds across each gigabit passive optical network implemented on the Calix C7 multiservice access platform, these service providers are offering their customers bandwidth-intensive IPTV services, including HDTV, as well as massive data capacity and lifeline POTS services over their fiber infrastructures.

AT&T added more High Definition channels to the U-verse IPTV channel lineup in the New Haven and Hartford areas. The new channels include: WCTX HD (My Network), WNET HD (PBS) and WTXX HD (CW). With these additions, local U-verse IPTV customers with the HD service option have access to a lineup of 44 HD channels — more HD channels than local cable providers offer.

HD service is available for an additional $10 a month with any U-verse TV programming package. All U-verse TV packages include HD-ready equipment, and most include an HD-capable DVR.