ANT announces that Humax has launched its new TV Portal using the ANT Galio Platform. An automatic over-the-air update ran from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th February to all Humax HDR-FOX T2 Freeview+ HD set-top boxes in the UK. This update included the addition of the ANT Galio Platform to facilitate the new TV Portal, which enables viewers to enjoy a wealth of new digital content at the touch of button.

The Humax TV Portal launched with a range of on-demand and internet services including Flickr, BBC iPlayer, Wiki@TV and internet radio. It will continue to grow with the addition of Sky Player in a matter of weeks, also provided by ANT and built using the ANT Galio Platform. Once the Humax box is connected to a broadband connection, consumers will be able to access on-demand content, seamlessly integrated with traditional broadcast content, through the easy to use interface. The TV Portal will also be made available on Humax HD-FOX T2 set-top boxes.

RightsFlow announces an agreement with YouTube to assist with music rights management. The deal allows YouTube to enlist RightsFlow's help in processing and managing music rights.

David G. King, YouTube Product Manager responsible for rights management, said, "We are excited to be working with RightsFlow to help address the complexities around music rights management."

Patrick Sullivan, RightsFlow President/CEO, added, "We are pleased to be working with the premier online video community to expedite rights administration and drive royalty revenues for publishers and songwriters. Our agile technology platform and skilled staff enable us to effectively manage the accelerating traffic flow through YouTube's intersection of content and commerce."

Multimedia content, such as Netflix streaming services, and popular games with online components, such as Call of Duty and Madden NFL, are driving households to connect their game consoles and creating a new foundation for future growth in online video, according to international research firm Parks Associates. The firm's new report Connected Game Console Update finds 64% of U.S. broadband households with an Internet-connectable game console have it hooked to the Internet, a major increase from 2007, when only 25% had their next-gen console connected.

"PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have higher connectivity rates among the current generation of consoles, showing the power of multimedia offerings and popular game franchises in getting gamers online," said Pietro Macchiarella, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Despite the Wii's wireless capabilities, it has been less successful in getting users online due to less compelling online games and multimedia content. However, with its large installed base, it still is a significant player."

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Asia Pacific IPTV Market

This study provides key insights on the IPTV market in Asia Pacific. The top 15 markets of the Asia Pacific for IPTV service are: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. IPTV has now become a mainstream Pay TV service in markets like France and Hong Kong, which have been early adopters of the technology. In Asia Pacific, telecom providers in the developed markets as well as the developing markets have launched IPTV service to reinvigorate their fixed / broadband lines.

The Asia-Pacific region will lead worldwide set-top box market growth for the next five years, according to new data from ABI Research. Asia-Pacific’s share of the market will approach 50% of all set-top boxes sold worldwide in 2013-2015 before declining slightly.

“This trend towards Asia-Pacific STB uptake is driven by the completion of digital transitions in North America and Western Europe, coupled with the digitization of cable systems in China occurring through 2015-2016,” says practice director Jason Blackwell, “Subscriber growth in India is strong too, although no clear timeline for digitization has been established, which hampers digital STB growth.”

Flouting the recession, the world iPTV market posted encouraging growth at a time when most other industry sectors were preoccupied with paranoid risk aversion and sensitivity over declining consumer spends. As the change in consumer TV viewing habits continue unabated, with the average time spent on watching TV shows over the Internet increasing by the year, iPTV market has successfully emerged into a recession buster. Value of iPTV subscriptions and volume of subscribers continued to grow during the period 2007 through 2010. Sturdy demand for iPTV services not surprisingly translated into sturdier gains in the iPTV systems market with sales of Set-Top Boxes, Access Systems, Video Headend Equipment, and Middleware, among others posting gains. Few of the factors widely opined to have shielded the iPTV market from the downturn is the level of broadband penetration and the scale of innovative yet affordable service bundling strategies, creative service offerings including on-demand services and channel diversity. Broadband penetration especially has helped the market sustain its growth despite the recession, which ironically pushed up broadband penetration rates, especially in the United States.

Managing LIVE HD video delivery to set top boxes has been a challenge to media producers, broadcasting networks and corporations worldwide. Eyepartner has developed a low cost iPTV middleware that delivers HD Live, VOD, and Channel Lineups directly to the affordable ROKU set top box. TikiLIVE makes it easy for anyone to setup a channel and broadcast their stream in full HD, with a simple to use click-and-go interface. The user can quickly arrange a playlist of pre-recorded video as well as offer it on a pay per view basis.

UFC and NeuLion announce a partnership to launch a brand new service for UFC offering the most interactive, far-reaching digital experience yet.

The new service, UFC.tv : will be available for this Saturday's UFC 126: SILVA vs. BELFORT Pay-Per-View event. The new online tool gives fans the ability to control audio and video feeds of UFC Pay-Per-View events, as well as other unique features such as quad view, picture-in-picture, video quality up to broadcast quality, live chat and live scoring by fans.

Europe’s cable industry announces a leap forward with 102 million separate Revenue Generating Units deployed among European consumers and businesses, according to Screen Digest figures pre-released prior to Cable Congress 2011.

The rapid growth in RGUs demonstrates that Europe’s households are continuing to opt for the wide range of high quality services offered by cable companies through their fibre-powered networks.

The shortlist for the 2011 IP&TV Industry Awards has been announced today ahead of the Gala Dinner Awards ceremony to be held at Madame Tussaud’s, London next month.

The 2011 Awards - which recognise both service providers and solution providers for their innovation, excellence and achievement in the IP&TV industry - have been expanded to reflect both the growing range of service providers implementing IP broadcast and the growing range of IP-based TV services.

This year the shortlist includes an impressive array of service providers including AT&T, Vodafone, Lovefilm, Deutsche Telekom, BesTV (China), Swisscom, Korea Telecom, Saudi Telecom & the BBC, highlighting the diverse global success of IP-based TV deployments.

ISE will this year provide a forum for Cabletime to launch a comprehensive Partner Programme targeting resellers whose customers will benefit from IPTV, digital video and HD quality products.

Cabletime already works with an established network of audio visual specialist integrators, but with the growth of digital content delivery across LAN/WAN and 3G networks, the company is keen to extend its programme to a broader channel audience.

Edgeware has been chosen by KPN to deploy its distributed video delivery architecture and products as a part of a solution provided by Nokia Siemens Network.

Nokia Siemens Networks has selected and implemented Edgeware as a key element of its overall advanced on-demand TV and video offering and specifically its market leading Ubiquity Multiscreen TVT solution at a global level. Using this solution, NSN will replace KPN's existing platforms with Edgeware's Orbit-2X and WebTV servers.

Opera Software announces a collaboration with IMAQLIQ to provide the latest technology to consumers using IPTV. IMAQLIQ, a Russian developer of telecommunications equipment with a broad international footprint, will integrate Opera on its line of devices for interactive TV.

Technology, coupled with strong industry partnerships, makes the Opera Devices Software Development Kit the ideal solution for IPTV deployments. It is easy to integrate with streaming media players, conditional access systems, and personal video recorders/applications and can be used to create and render middleware portals.

blinkx announces the launch of a TV API. The API is designed to provide partners in the fast-growing Connected TV ecosystem – from box makers and TV manufacturers, to app developers and game consoles – access to blinkx's index of over 35 million hours of online video.

The TV API draws from the wealth of video content across the entire web – but automatically filters results based on the capabilities of the user's device – such as the video formats it supports – so that the user is always offered compatible clips. For partners, blinkx's TV API offers both efficient access to a deep, diverse source of online content from top broadcasters and media companies, and can also help solve the navigation challenge that is inherent in the lean-back experience of Connected TV.

Revision3 announces its growth results for 2010. Total views across the network increased nearly 165% year over year, with more than 42 million views in the month of December. The company reached profitability in Q4 of 2010 and grew its revenue 80% Y-0-Y, while increasing its blue-chip roster of advertising sponsors to more than 60, including Fortune 500 companies such as Verizon, Ford, HP, EA, Sony, HP and Old Spice.