AT&T announces the launch of AT&T U-verse IPTV in parts of the Colchester, Portland and Salem areas, including AT&T U-verse TV, AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet and AT&T U-verse Voice. The introduction of these new services is part of an ongoing expansion of AT&T U-verse availability across Connecticut, where AT&T U-verse launched in December 2006

Network with Parks Associates' analysts and hear insights from key executives focused on new video services and IPTV, digital media and distribution, and customer support services. What can communications and broadband service providers do to acquire and retain subscribers, differentiate their services, and create new revenue streams?

Roger Pitton, Program Director, TV Business, Microsoft Corporation will present the Keynote: IPTV and the keys to keeping customers. Also hear from executives from Thomson, Radialpoint, ActiveVideo Networks, Pace. Macrovision, Valens Semiconductor and more. A new white paper from CONNECTIONS Europe, The Future of Networked Devices & Digital Content, addresses the advancement of the network concept, beyond it's traditional and practical applications, including entertainment services, mobile devices, and control scenarios. Read it today!

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The Associated Press has prepared a comprehensive multiplatform reporting effort for the 81st Annual Academy Awards on Sunday. A centerpiece of AP Entertainment’s effort is an online Oscars interactive, which includes live video, photos, stories and blogger feeds. Look for access details on the home page of the corporate Internet site. The interactive, which went live on Feb. 15, features seven days of pre-Oscars coverage, leading up to the festivities in Los Angeles on Feb. 22, when live video, photos and blogger coverage will originate from the red carpet.

OVGuide.com has received $5 million in venture capital funding from Baroda Ventures LLC, one of Los Angeles' leading VC firms. In addition, OVGuide.com in January 2009 saw its first operational month as a profit-making entity. The funding will be invested in engineering resources to further develop the Web's most powerful search engine for both short- and long-form online video. OVGuide.com has served hundreds of millions of searches, directing millions of users to thousands of online video sites such as South Park Studios, theWB.com, Fancast, ESPN, Funny or Die and Hulu.

Optibase released the new MGW FlashStreamer encoding and streaming platform, which integrates Adobe Flash technology and is compatible with Adobe Flash Player software. MGW FlashStreamer is an “all-in-one” compact appliance for broadcasting live and on-demand video over the Internet and private networks that incorporates a real-time video encoder, integrated storage for recording and storing thousands of hours of content and Adobe Flash Media Server software for streaming. It is compatible with the Adobe Flash Platform to ensure out-of-the-box performance with the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player software, already installed on 98 percent of computers worldwide.

Demand for professionally produced and distributed online video continued unabated in 2008, with cumulative volume advancing 24.3% to 41.6 billion views, according to an annual report published by AccuStream iMedia Research. The report, Pro Online Video Views 1998 – 2012 compiles, sorts, correlates and provides analytical perspective to extensive data chronicling a decade of double and triple-digit year-over-year growth. What began as a jerky, postage stamp-sized picture window has transformed into a full-screen broadband publishing medium.

CBSSports.com announces that NCAA March Madness on Demand will have an additional, high-definition quality video player available for users when action from the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship begins on Thursday, March 19. CBSSports.com has selected Microsoft Silverlight to power its new high-quality player to deliver the enhanced video stream. By downloading the new Silverlight high-quality player, users can upgrade their NCAA March Madness on Demand experience from the standard player (approx. 550 kb/s) to one delivering up to 1.5 mb/s of enhanced video action from the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Envivio launched a new Mobile Streaming Trade-Up Program aimed at helping companies who pioneered mobile video streaming deliver more successful mobile TV services. From now through May 31, 2009, Envivio is offering discounts of up to 35 percent to mobile operators, content aggregators and others who replace their existing software video encoders, such as Helix Mobile Producer and pvAuthor, with the award-winning Envivio 4Caster C4 hardware encoding platform.

Parks Associates announces the topics and preliminary list of speakers for CONNECTIONS Europe Summit, March 31, 2009, in Nice, France. This executive event addresses the new strategies for service and technology providers, media companies, and manufacturers in creating new entertainment and communications solutions.

Microsoft and Netflix announce that 1 million Xbox LIVE Gold members have downloaded and activated the groundbreaking Xbox LIVE application from Netflix since the alliance launched last November. In less than three months the Xbox LIVE community has watched instantly 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes.

The Netflix application offers Xbox LIVE Gold members the ability to instantly watch movies and TV episodes from Netflix on a television via the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. Xbox 360 is the only gaming and entertainment console that lets viewers instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix. Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix unlimited members can watch movies and TV episodes streamed instantly from Netflix on Xbox LIVE for no additional fee.

AT&T is reportedly working on a U-Verse IPTV box with Femtocell capabilities, claims an employee. This unit will cover TV, telephone, internet and improve your cellular reception. Being the owner of a iPhone with fairly weak AT&T reception in portions of my apartment complex, I'm excited to hear any news on Femtocell's to help improve my cell phone coverage.

The all-in-one box is supposed to come in 2010, while U-Verse continues to expand throughout the U.S. However, in addition to this news comes the 3G Microcell, AT&T's stand alone Femtocell pictured (right), is confirmed to be out in Q2 of 2009.

The Boulder International Film Festival will have a new sponsor this year - AmericaFree.TV of northern Virginia. BIFF will screen 55 films emerging from 31 filmmakers over Valentine's Weekend, Feb. 12-15, in Boulder, Colo. AmericaFree.TV will be an exclusive Internet broadcaster for BIFF and films shown live at the fest may also be posted to a global audience of 5 million.

OVGuide has compiled a playlist of the most helpful online videos to help anyone make the most out of Valentine's Day. The site also has thousands of links to useful online videos in areas such as food and wine, lifestyle and travel, family and kids. For Valentine's Day, the OVGuide.com team sifted through numerous videos to compile its top 20 list, which covers practically every topic for a successful holiday.

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative will hold rates for its Expanded Basic programming package for IPTV at 2008 levels. In addition to its Expanded Basic offering, NRTC provides programming packages for residential and consumer accounts, including schools, hotels, restaurants, small business offices and multiple-dwelling units. NRTC provides full contract management services and support to its members. As new services become available, members can sign up easily using NRTC's password protected online contract management system, which provides real-time access to contracts and allows members to monitor the progress of contracts approvals. The contract management system is contained in NRTC's proprietary business center that houses easy access to a wide range of programmer promotion, business reports and information.

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