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What HiFi: We’ve just come from Loewe’s press conference, where the company has announced a whole raft of new products and services for the end of 2010 and first quarter of 2011. We’ll be going hands-on with the kit tomorrow, so will add updates (including pricing, with any luck) then, but scroll down now for the early details and pics.

The big news is that Loewe is introducing its first 3D TV, ingeniously titled ‘Loewe 3D TV’. This will be an active shutter model with 400Hz and LED backlighting. It will also be available with an integrated hard disk recorder, which will be compatible with 3D content.

The 3D TV is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2011, along with the 3D Blu-ray player in the picture above.

Interestingly, the company is also doing previews of glassless 3D – more on that later.

The Art range of tellies is also being updated to Art LED, with the biggest new feature being, you guessed it, LED backlighting. As the name suggests, the Art TVs are designed to be very stylish, so edge lighting keeps the profile slim, and there’s a new ‘Mocha’ colour option, as you can see from the pic.

The Art LED will be available in 32in and 40in sizes later this year, with a 46in version following in early 2011. The 40in and 46in models have 200Hz processing, and all have USB inputs for accessing videos, pictures and music via the MediaHome menu. You can also specify a DR+ version, which will add hard disk recording and MediaNet (more on that later).

As with the Art range, the Connect models are also being upgraded to Connect LED. Again, these are edge-lit models, and are available in 32in and 40in sizes, with the bigger of the two getting 200Hz processing. DR+ is standard here, and as well as recording TV, the Connect LED can act as a network server and client, distributing and accessing media right through the home.

Finally on the telly front is news that the Individual range is being expanded with the addition of 32in and 55in models, which flank the current 40in and 46in options. LED backlighting again features here, and while the 32in model has ‘just’ 100Hz processing, the 55in ‘Individual Compose’ boasts 400Hz.

The 55in comes with the 250GB DR+ hard disk, which can also be specified as an optional extra on the 32in, and there are loads of colour options (including custom colour matching for the insets) for you to configure your new telly.

Loewe is also going big on internet content with its MediaNet service, which has been developed in collaboration with Philips and Sharp. The web portal will contain a selection of internet sites that have been edited and optimised for large screens with CE-HTML.

You can expect video on demand (including BBC iPlayer), internet radio and information services to be included, and you can also access the full-fat internet using the Opera internet browser. MediaNet launches in November.

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BBC: The BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, has given a provisional go-ahead for a project which could kick-start demand for internet TV.

Project Canvas is a partnership between the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk to develop a so-called Internet Protocol Television standard.

It would see a range of set-top boxes available to access on-demand TV services such as iPlayer and ITVplayer.

Set-top boxes, expected to cost around £200, could be available next year.

The Trust reached its provisional conclusions following more than 800 written responses. It is proposing some conditions on the BBC’s participation in the venture and will have a further period of consultation, lasting until February.

The Trust ruled that Canvas would have a series of positive impacts, including furthering the growth of on-demand TV and increasing the opportunities for internet service providers to develop so called triple play – phone/TV/broadband – services.

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DigiTimes: After more than a dozen years of failing to live up to its promise, web access on the TV is finally ready for prime time, with retail sales of Internet-enabled TVs (IETVs) set to rise by a factor of six by 2013, according to iSuppli.

Worldwide sales of IETVs will rise to 87.6 million units by 2013, up from 14.7 million in 2009. iSuppli defines an IETV as a set that has the capability to connect to the Internet either with a wired link or wirelessly, and provides sufficient system resources to support thin-client applications such as Yahoo Connected TV widgets or the Adobe Flash Platform for the digital home.

“With the flat-panel TV market being driven by declining prices, brands are looking at ways to differentiate their TV lines from the competition,” said Randy Lawson, senior analyst for DTV and display electronics for iSuppli.

“Adding new features helps not only with differentiation but also increases the possibility of charging a premium for a step-up model. While TV brands in recent years have focused on features like faster refresh rates, LED backlighting, improved dark levels and power savings, Internet connectivity now is emerging as new key feature.”

Beyond the differentiation factor, the addition of Internet capabilities to TV sets by leading TV OEMs represents a unique opportunity for these companies to finally have direct access, and thus additional potential revenue channels, to their end customers. On the consumer side, iSuppli believes that IETV will emerge as one of the key features that consumers will demand in the coming years.

With strong interest among both TV buyers and sellers, IETVs are entering the market in droves. Already in 2009, iSuppli counts more than 85 IETV models being offered at retail in the US alone. The start of the IETV boom comes 12 years after Microsoft rocked the technology world with its purchase of WebTV Networks. WebTV, now called MSN TV, promised to bring Internet access to the massive installed base of TVs.

“WebTV has been a product and service that never quite lived up to its hype,” Lawson said. “Because of this some might be wondering if IETV is simply a case of déjà vu all over again. However, there are significant differences between the technology landscape of the mid-90s and the state-of-the-art Digital TVs (DTV), modems and broadband services of 2009.”

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BusinessWire: Demand for Internet-enabled televisions is growing rapidly, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

The study, Net-Enabled Video: Early Adopters Only?, found that about half of prospective TV buyers say they are likely to purchase an Internet-connected TV.

The study reveals numerous ways consumers would use an Internet-enabled TV. Nearly half (48 percent) of U.S. online adults would use their web-enabled TV to find out more information on upcoming shows and identify a song that played during the show. Forty-four percent also would use the web to find out more information about the actors featured on-screen.

Having anytime-access to content, and accessing the Internet and television broadcasts together were the top benefits of an Internet-enabled TV, according to consumers. “As we saw at the 2009 International CES, Internet-enabled devices are taking the consumer technology experience to the next level, and nowhere is this more pronounced than with television,” said Shawn DuBravac, CEA’s economist and director of research.

“Consumers want more from their TV experience and marrying traditional television with Internet access is providing the next frontier of the television experience.” The study also found that most adults are already online while watching TV.

Almost a third of online adults (30 percent) say they always or usually surf the Internet while watching television and another third (32 percent) say they sometimes do. Consumers are increasingly willing to shift online activities to the TV. Watching online video has the highest potential conversion rate (62 percent) followed by weather updates (59 percent) and playing online games (57 percent).

“Consumers are already using the Internet while they watch TV. The next frontier is to create a seamless experience bringing the two together,” said DuBravac. “Consumers want a variety of content that they can access anytime. An Internet-enabled TV is perfectly positioned to provide consumers with exactly what they are looking for in their next television experience.”

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TGDaily: With the US presidential inauguration, major awards shows, X-Games and other major events occurring recently it is no shock that users took to YouTube to catch up on things missed and to check out the videos they want to see again.

It’s even less surprising that YouTube has much to be excited about, as the company surpassed the 100 million viewer mark in the United States alone, making them the #3 most visited website on the the Internet (and also #3 in U.S.), and #3 in most traffic, accounting for around 17% of all Internet traffic world-wide.

This gives an idea as to the demand and growth of the online video industry. When Google acquired the video site in 2006, they obviously made a great decision as the site now ranks as the most popular provider of online video in the United States.

In January alone about 6.4 billion videos were viewed, this is the equivalent of 43 percent of the video market in the United States.

The figures released from comScore reveal that web surfers in the United States alone sat down to watch over 15 billion videos each month over many different video sites, however YouTube is the site drawing the most attention and the majority of users.  At one point, YouTube accounted for over 20% of all Internet traffic (May/June, 2008).

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NewLaunches.com: Philips has unveiled its internet based TV service, NET TV, for the customers in the United Kingdom.

Initially it will be targeting the high-end TV lineups enabling partnered internet contents to be displayed and browsed through a user-friendly and a simplified web-TV layout.

Currently it includes, You Tube, Tom Tom, eBay, MetreoGroup, Funspot, MyAlbum and Netlog.

Contents from these are optimized with Philips-friendly web-TV app and are accessible via remote control on a home-network wired LAN (8000 series) or a wireless connectivity (9000 series).

The Net TV is said to be live from April.

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EngadgetHD:Given just how few Europeans are actually biting on pay-HDTV, we suppose we’re not too surprised to see the results from Parks Associates Research’s latest study.

In looking at a number of European nations, the firm found that some 80 percent of broadband households “prefer a more traditional option for viewing video, including going to the cinema or watching a DVD.”

John Barrett, director of research at the company, noted that it “will be difficult for companies to sell video streams and downloads to consumers in Europe when there is this undercurrent of reluctance.”

Of course, we’re not sure we believe all this doom and gloom — surely it’s just a matter of time before Euro cable companies are pulling the same trick as Comcast and TWC are looking to do. Or, so we hope.

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PC Retailer: Global internet protocol television (IPTV) services are set to reach 19.6 million subscriptions this year, an increase of 64.1 per cent over last year, according to Gartner.

Furthermore, projected revenues of $4.5 billion (3.1 billion Euro) for 2008 represent a 93.5 per cent increase in income over 2007.

Western Europe currently represents the largest proportion of IPTV subscribers with 8.2 million expected this year.

“The biggest change since 2007 is the rapid advent of new entrants making inroads in consumer video consumption and placing greater demands on IPTV operators to innovate,” said Gartner’s research director Elroy Jopling.

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