Downloading TV programs, watching online videos and making online phone calls posted the biggest year-to-year percent increase among adult Internet users, according to new data from Mediamark Research & Intelligence.

E-mail, news gathering and paying bills online continue to be among the most widely used Internet activities by U.S. consumers ages 18+, the MRI data show.

According to responses from MRI's just released Fall 2008 Survey of the American Consumer, 3.2% of adults said they had downloaded a TV program in the last 30 days. That represents a year-to-year increase of 141.4%. The number of adults who reported they watched online video increased 35.4% during the same period, to a total of 23.3% of the adult population, while 4.0% of respondents reported they had made an online phone call, an increase of 32.0%.

Team Lightbulb trade show and event management organization is accepting proposals for telecom technical papers and IPTV sessions for Telecom2009: Broadband and Beyond. Telecom2009, produced by Team Lightbulb, features sessions on the Business of IPTV and Telecom Technology. Team Lightbulb will also offer again the popular exhibit tours that connect the sessions with the technology on the NAB Show floor, including a dedicated IPTV Pavilion.

Amino has signed a sales and purchase agreement for the acquisition of Tilgin AB's IPTV STB division. The purchase of Tilgin IPTV, which offers a range of H.264 HD IPTV STBs within its "Mood" product line, will further enhance Amino's award-winning product portfolio and add new software functionality across its entire range.

ZeeVee has selected Inforonics for localcasting online video and other computer content to any HDTV in a consumer’s home, to provide extended hours of customer support for its innovative home media solution. ZeeVee’s ZvBox is a groundbreaking home media device designed to allow consumers to view or access any Internet TV, online video, music, computer application, or other content on all HDTVs in their homes. Under the agreement, Inforonics will seamlessly augment ZeeVee’s customer support operation with experienced, tier-one technical support Monday through Friday and Saturdays. ZeeVee selected Inforonics based on its reputation as a trusted and proven resource for the outsourcing of tier one end-user support.

Metacafe launches the Metacafe Music Channel. The channel features established artists and up-and-coming acts in the genres of Pop, Rock, R&B, Hip Hop, Country and Latin. Metacafe’s more than 38 million unique monthly viewers1 are now invited to watch, comment on and share their favorite music videos.

Music videos are among the most popular online video content, with 36 percent of respondents to this year’s Magid Media Futures study reporting that they frequently watch music videos online – only comedy videos, with 37 percent reporting watching frequently, proved more popular.

PermissionTV and Move Networks announce a strategic reseller and integration partnership. Under the agreement, both companies will offer an integrated platform, which enables the rapid creation and deployment of rich, interactive, HD-quality video applications, such as those successfully implemented by their initial joint customers, Fox On Demand and the Metropolitan Opera.

The global market for set-top boxes will grow gradually over the next few years, then will peak at around 110 million shipments in 2012, according to a new report from ABI Research. Thereafter STB unit volumes for all platforms – DTT), IPTV, DBS, and CATV – will begin a gradual decline.

STB revenues show a different pattern. According to ABI Research principal analyst Robert Clark, “STB revenues for all platforms have declined significantly between 2007 and 2009, but will recover by 2010 and remain relatively stable through at least 2013.”

Revision3 will begin syndicating its entire catalogue of shows including Tekzilla, Diggnation, and The Totally Rad Show on RADUS, the web’s newest way to experience digital-rich media across leading computer and social networking services, including Facebook and MySpace.

Both RADUS and Revision3 are committed to delivering innovative programming that is provided free to consumers and designed to take advantage of RADUS’s streamlined navigation and media search capabilities. Revision3 will make each show accessible in multiple, high-audio-and-visual quality formats. The shows can also be viewed at Revision3 and on each show’s individual site.

In this new IPTV study of the IPTV market, kindly supported by Nokia Siemens Networks, thebrainbehind assesses the most relevant IPTV rollouts around the globe as well as a number of the most interesting video streaming websites. In both cases business models have been analysed in terms of product offer, ease of use and the range of available content, as well as the usability of the services.

MLB.com and Adobe announce a two-year agreement in which MLB.com has selected the Adobe Flash Platform to deliver all of its live and on-demand video offerings beginning in 2009. In addition, MLB.com will provide a downloadable rich Internet application built using Adobe AIR, so baseball fans can access additional features outside the Web browser.

MLB.com streams live every Major League spring training, regular season and postseason game, more than 2,500 annually, via its out-of-market subscription product, which has seen more than 1.5 million total subscribers since its debut on Opening Day 2003. Since that time, fans have accessed more than 1.8 billion streams of live and on-demand multimedia offerings on MLB.com, representing nearly 200 million hours of participation. By the end of 2008, MLB.com will once again stream nearly 12,000 live video events, including Major League Baseball games and thousands of events for its various business partners.

Global IPTV deployments to date would suggest that a half-hearted approach to IPTV services has not been effective. Many service providers feel the urge to launch IPTV services as a defensive strategy to increase their "n-play" offerings with one more service.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, IPTV Business Case, reveals that the IPTV subscriber base in Asia-Pacific -- covering 13 countries -- reached 4.1 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach 22.4 million by end-2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 32.7 percent (2007-2013).

IBM’s second global online survey of consumer digital media and entertainment habits revealed that consumers are adopting digital content services -- such as social networking and videos -- on mobile phones and personal computers at an accelerated pace, and it is impacting traditional consumption habits.

The survey, which was conducted with 2,800 people in six countries -- Australia, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. -- also shows that people are willing to get personal with advertisers by sharing information about themselves if it results in targeted incentives that match their lifestyle. This presents companies with significant advertising revenue opportunities among today’s informed and empowered consumers.

Actiontec Electronics has selected Intellon’s powerline technology for a new home gateway that provides connection to the WAN using ADSL+ technology and adds very fast powerline networking to standard Ethernet and wireless options for in-home distribution. By adding HomePlug AV-based (200 Mbps PHY-rate) powerline networking, the home’s existing electrical wiring – the “hidden network” – becomes a fast and reliable wired network to move bandwidth-intensive content from room to room.

Bright House Networks expanded its VOD services with the launch of a new online destination where consumers can download to own or rent thousands of titles from Hollywood studios and across many cable and television networks. The online video store service, entitled Road Runner Video Store.

The Road Runner Video Store combines great content with an easy to use interface to give consumers options to enjoy their favorite digital content and the ability to explore and discover new video services with ease. The search functionality allows consumers to search by title, actor, studio, genre, and can easily filter according to movies or TV.

As the worldwide economic woes increase, suppliers in the consumer electronics and digital TV markets are expecting a difficult but by no means catastrophic 2009. IMS Research is forecasting that, setting aside the US DTV converter box program, that set-top box revenues in the region will decline 5% from 2008 to 2009 and that volumes will actually rise, albeit at a relatively weak 9.3% annual rate over the same period. Globally, IMS Research is forecasting a 2% decline in revenues from 2008 to 2009 on 5% volume growth.