The Glowria IPTV Blog

iSuppli Reports: All Technology Roads Lead to Digital Media

The proliferation of high-speed connections has irrevocably altered the landscape for both the tech and telecom industries. The focus is no longer just on providing access. To remain competitive, companies are  shifting focus to providing high-value applications and content that capitalize on these faster-access networks.

The implication? All technology markets are being driven by digital media distribution. For example, as IPTV growth continues, with an estimated 65 million subscribers by 2010, semiconductor sales for IPTV will grow to more than $7.8 billion.

The report concludes that all levels of the value chain must respond to consumer expectations of "Any Content, Any Device, Any Time."

The full release can be accessed here.

(Thanks to Tekrati)

It's Not Just Speed: Broadband Beating Dial-up on Price

Silicon.com's Jo Best reported today that UK rates for broadband internet connections are now actually less expensive than their narrow-band cousins.

An analysis conducted by price comparison and switching service SimplySwitch.com revealed,

"Whether a customer pays for their dial-up per minute, or pays a monthly fee for ‘unlimited access’, they are now almost certain to make savings by switching to broadband. With over 40% of households now connected to broadband, and many more expected to subscribe this year, dial-up services are effectively being priced out of the market."

The high-speed price drops are largely a result of increasing competition, including the recent "free broadband" offers from Sky and Carphone Warehouse. Of course, you often get what you pay for, and Best warns that customer service for the free services often leaves a lot to be desired, plus free plans may still be less-than-top speed and can even restrict data usage.

Venice Project launches as Joost

TechCrunch broke the news, and now it's official - Skype's "Venice Project" is now live, and is hereby known as Joost™. The website promises:

"Joost is a new way to watch TV, free of the schedules and restrictions that come with traditional television. Combining the best of TV with the best of the internet, Joost™ gives you more control and freedom than ever before - control over what you watch, and freedom to watch it whenever you like."

While they're likely being overrun with requests, you can apply to be a beta tester here. 

XBox 360 IPTV, Apple TV: What's New in Digital Content-to-TV Devices

Between product launches at CES and the debut of Apple TV at MacWorld, devices that help consumers get their digital content via their televisions are clearly one of the hottest trends for 2007.

GigaOm's NewTeeVee blog has some great coverage of Apple TV, including a comparison against other new products like Sony's BRAVIA Internet Video Link Box, NetGear's Digital Entertainer HD, and Sling Media's SlingCatcher. 

At CES, Microsoft unveiled their new solution, which brings together the Xbox 360™ gaming console and the Microsoft® TV IPTV Edition software platform. Gizmodo has a great piece that clears up confusion about what exactly the XBox adds to the IPTV equation. The conclusion:

"it is essentially the same as the standard Microsoft IPTV software, it's simply running on a 360. Both deploying the service AND the available content is up to the providers, however, and who will be rolling out the service is still to be determined."

The devices will be available at different points in 2007, and it remains to be seen which will catch on  with consumers. Certainly availability of content, price, and variety of applicable formats will play a large part in any device's success.

(Thanks to GigaOm, engadget  and  Arstechnica)

France is #1 in IPTV

Market researcher Dittberner ranks France as number one in the IPTV market based on the market of subscribers with almost 900,000 subscribers.  The report highlights the Wester Europe region as a whole as leading this market with 68% of global IPTV subscribers.

Here at Glowria we're proud to see this not only as a French company, but as a company working hard to deliver video on demand via broadband and specific IPTV over DSL offerings throughout France.

It's also worth reading the Telephone Online article where the US market ranking is adjusted to count small providers - a point which moves the US higher in rankings.