Broadband has passed another major milestone, according to the latest figures published by the Broadband Forum and prepared by broadband industry analysts Point Topic. The global total of broadband subscribers soared to over 600 million in the first quarter of 2012, indicating a further acceleration in growth as over 100 million new lines were added (20% of the total) in less than 18 months.

Globally, the growth in broadband during Q1 of 2012 was estimated at 16,118,210 lines, up from just over 14 million in the last quarter of 2011. This represents a quarterly rise of 2.7% and an annual increase of 11.48%. Announced during CommunicAsia in Singapore, the figures also highlight again the dominant position of Asia, led in both broadband and in IPTV by China.

KyLinTV announced its upcoming launch of a revolutionary platform and service, "KyLinTV Everywhere" in all its global markets, including North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific, on June 25, 2012. Through partnership with industry leaders, Google TV, Apple and Panasonic, "KyLinTV Everywhere" offers both Chinese and English TV programming subscription service with over 100 live streaming TV channels and 30,000 hours of VOD content through a variety of Internet-connected devices, including Smart TV, tablet and PC, in addition to KyLinTV's own proprietary Set-top Box.

TelVue launches full support of automated Electronic Program Guide data publishing and transfers between the TelVue Princeton and HyperCaster line of digital broadcast servers and the Minerva iTVFusion 5.3 TVoIP platform.

The automation of EPG data publishing and transfers gives local origination and leased access channels timely and updated entries in the program guide, making it easier to promote local programming and make it more accessible to DVR recording. Lack of programming information has been a common obstacle to attracting viewers to local content.

The TelVue automated EPG data publishing and transfer feature eliminates the need to enter program guide data manually. Operators can also import this EPG data directly to the Minerva platform without incurring any additional fees, such as custom data charges, from their primary EPG data provider.

Ooyala has raised $35 million in new capital to aggressively standardize digital video experiences provided by multi-service operators and TV programmers worldwide on the Ooyala video streaming, monetization and discovery platform. Telstra Applications and Ventures Group, a subsidiary of Australia’s largest telecommunications and information services company Telstra, led the Series E round, with prior investors Sierra Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners and CID Group participating in addition to other strategic investors.

In addition to leading the investment round, Telstra and Ooyala are working on a commercial agreement that, once finalized, will mean Telstra will also become a major Ooyala customer and reseller, deploying Ooyala software, analytics and service offerings throughout Australia, where they will work with content owners to transition from traditional video delivery to IP-based distribution.

Exterity and Cilutions announced a partnership that will make Cilution’s signage applications available on Exterity’s range of receivers. The partnership will enable Exterity customers to easily include comprehensive digital signage into their existing IPTV solutions. The integrated offering will be demonstrated for the first time at Infocomm in Las Vegas from 13th – 15th June on Exterity’s booth: N1755.

Cilution’s software offers users a feature rich, fully configurable digital signage solution that can be used for everything from meeting room signs and menu board displays in restaurants, to advertising and security messaging in airports and public venues. These features can now be easily integrated with Exterity’s range of receivers by simply plugging a flash drive loaded with the Cilutions software into the receiver’s USB port. No other equipment apart from the Exterity head-end solution is needed, meaning it can be deployed easily, takes up very little space and requires almost no maintenance.

UTStarcom has won a contract from Sri Lanka Telecom to supply set-top boxes for the telecom operator's IPTV system expansion. UTStarcom's set-top boxes, which are part of the Company's RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution, will enable SLT to provide a number of interactive media services, including Live HDTV, Time Shift TV and Video-on-Demand, to its customers.

"This contract is our second big win in the Sri Lankan market in the last eight months," said UTStarcom's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jack Lu. Mr. Lu continued, "it reinforces our leading presence in Sri Lanka and enhances our market position in the Asia-Pacific region. We have provided IPTV solutions to SLT since 2008 and, under this contract, will further support the client's IPTV system expansion. Our cost-effective set-top boxes will allow SLT to deliver a rich and diverse range of interactive media services across a number of devices, which we believe will attract new IPTV users and expand SLT's customer base."

IPTV subscriptions worldwide will grow at 70% from 2012 to 2017 with 100% growth in the Asia-Pacific off a large base of 28.5 million subscribers. Global pay-TV subscribers will reach 853.5 million at the end of 2012, with 116 million IPTV subscribers

Worldwide, cable operators are investing heavily in the digitization of their networks to compete with satellite and IPTV platforms. “Satellite and IPTV networks have been able to deliver better channel selection and higher quality signals than analog TV platforms. When faced with technology changes – including digital terrestrial transitions and cable digitization requiring a set-top box, customers are likely to consider satellite and IPTV alternatives,” notes Sam Rosen, practice director, TV & video.

blinkx announces that a blinkx app is now available on Popcorn Hour and PopBox, the Internet TV platforms from Syabas Technologyc. The app, now available in the Syabas Apps Market, allows customers to search, discover and watch high quality videos from blinkx's extensive index of professionally produced content, all from the comfort of their couch.

The Popcorn Hour and PopBox set-top boxes offer not only your own locally stored media like DVDs and Blu-Rays, but also access to the best sports, movies, videos and music the Internet has to offer. With seamless integration to movie information on the web, as well as HD and 3D capabilities, Syabas is able to create a truly immersive entertainment experience every time you turn on your TV. Through the Syabas Apps Market users can find and download apps from the most popular video, music, photo, and social networking services, including Facebook, Twitter, SHOUTcast Radio, YouTube, Flickr and now blinkx!

In order to combat the emerging threat of malware infections on Smart TVs, Ocean Blue Software has partnered with IT security leader Sophos to develop a cloud-based antivirus solution that can be shipped either as part of the Ocean Blue middleware or as a stand-alone client for solutions with their own middleware.

According to Futuresource Consulting, by 2015 over 80 percent of new televisions and set-top boxes will be Internet-ready. As many of these products will be based on either Linux or Android, they will be capable of downloading and running remote applications. While this connectivity brings many new features, it also exposes these devices to potential viruses and other malware, making antivirus protection essential.

Western Digital introduced a variety of new entertainment options for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub media players. Current and new users can now enjoy Red Bull TV, ABC iview (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Acetrax, Maxdome, the BILD TV-App, and the AOL On Network. They can also watch live and recorded TV with the new SlingPlayer app and save their premium HD movies to the WD TV Live Hub's internal storage with VUDU.

WD's new entertainment choices add to the WD TV media player family's prodigious ability to play personal content such as videos, photos and music by supporting a wide range of media formats. Users can watch content located on any networked PC or Mac computer in the home, from a network drive such as WD's My Book Live personal cloud storage, and from any directly connected digital camcorder, camera, or USB drive. WD TV Live Hub owners can also save and share pictures and videos from outside the home, using the WD Photos app for iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices.

Harmonic announces that Belgian telecom operator Alpha Networks has launched its Billi IPTV and OTT services, as well as hosted service offerings for international operators, based on a full complement of Harmonic video processing, server, and storage solutions. Utilizing an integrated and unified framework, Harmonic's video platforms enable Alpha Networks to deliver high-quality HD video services cost-effectively to multiple viewing devices, including connected TVs, PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

Alpha Networks' headend relies on a combination of Harmonic's video processing solutions to manage the complexity of IPTV and OTT applications and deliver high-quality SD and HD, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video with a reduced footprint. For live IPTV encoding, ProStream 1000 with ACE high-density stream processers transcode up to 60 SD or 20 HD broadcast services per RU - while reducing Alpha Networks' energy costs with no more than 10 watts per channel. ProMedia Live carrier-grade transcoding and ProMedia Package adaptive streaming preparation systems transcode and package multiple H.264 video streams for adaptive bitrate delivery of live multiscreen OTT content.

KyLinTV and NeuLion announced they have reached an agreement to enable KyLinTV to exclusively market and service four ethnic IPTV networks from NeuLion. As part of the agreement, KyLinTV will integrate JumpTV International, JumpTV Latino, Talfazat and TV Desi networks into a new global ethnic IPTV business division, which will have a variety of customized subscriber packages, drawing from a combined 125 ethnic channels originating from more than 30 countries in 6 language groups.

Launched in 2009, TV-Desi is an internet television network enabling displaced South Asian communities around the world to access Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani content live and on-demand. Currently, TV-Desi broadcasts 40 live channels delivered in Bangladeshi, Hindi and Urdu languages.

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