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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: The global Internet protocol television (IPTV) market withstood the worst of the worldwide economic storm during the last six months, putting it on track to achieve more than 50% subscriber growth in 2009, according to iSuppli Corp.

In the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, IPTV added 2.5 million and 2.3 million subscribers worldwide, respectively.

Global IPTV subscribers are set to rise to 33.3 million subscribers at the end of 2009, up 56% from 21.3 million in 2008.

“With the economy in the dumps and revenue growth from voice services having evaporated, global telcos are turning to IPTV to drive their growth,” said Lee Ratliff, senior analyst for broadband and digital home at iSuppli.

“The good news is that this strategy is paying off, with IPTV subscribers and revenue rising.” In 2010, IPTV subscribers will rise another 56% to reach 52 million. By 2013, the number of subscribers will double, reaching 115.6 million.

“With the huge numbers of subscribers signing on during the next five years, telcos are rapidly gearing up for IPTV and triple-play services, as well as working on how they can make them more attractive to current and future subscribers,”

Ratliff added. IPTV revenue is growing even faster than subscribers thanks to increasing average revenue per user (ARPU). Revenues are expected to increase to US$58.2 billion by 2013, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 44.4% from just US$9.3 billion in 2008, iSuppli said.

At the end of the first quarter of 2009, nearly half of global IPTV subscribers, or 49%, were located in Europe. Other regions, including North America and Asia Pacific, are relatively far along in their IPTV deployment, but the subscriber growth opportunity is huge because these regions – including Europe – have an IPTV penetration of the telco broadband subscriber base of less than 15%.

This means there are ample opportunities for telcos to expand their business for the next five years and beyond. But the next great IPTV frontier may be in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, India, Russia and Latin America, where IPTV’s penetration of the telco broadband subscriber base is less than 1%. These regions will be slower to ramp up their subscribers due to limited broadband infrastructures and, in some case, regulatory issues

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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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TechRadar: After the announcement from Intel that it was joining forces with Yahoo, the first fruits of this partnership look set to debut.

Using the widget channel unveiled at the Intel Developers Forum, which allows developers to make bits and bobs for the set, the company will unveil the new viewing experience at CES next January.

Intel is apparently expected to announce more partnerships with service and content to bring content to the TV at the same time, likely similar to the deal with Eurosport Panasonic announced at IFA earlier this year.

The plan to break the poisoned chalice that comes with the label IPTV is to integrate it more squarely into the set, making it part of the TV rather than a separate application like a web browser.

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HD News: Manufacturers have long recognized the value of some form of integration between the internet and their flat panel TV’s; this integration is now taking shape.

The technology has been around for a while and the likes of Samsung, Panasonic and Sony now believe that consumers are ready to embrace the internet through a medium they previously reserved for TV programmes or movies.

These IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) enabled screens will eventually offer a whole host of streaming services over the internet and will arrive in Europe in Spring 2009.

IPTV is similar to ‘Internet TV’ but there are some subtle differences. Both use IP (Internet Protocol) to deliver their services, but Internet TV makes use of the global internet to deliver services while IPTV is delivered over a private managed network.

The Digital Living Network Alliance protocol offers another route to internet content on the TV. DLNA members share a vision of wired and wireless interoperable networks where digital content such as photos, music, and videos can be shared by compliant products from any manufacturer. DLNA offers the promise of a more generic method of bringing the internet to our TV screens.

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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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PR-inside: www.companiesandmarkets.com has added a new report – The Future of TV – The evolving landscape of HDTV, IPTV and mobile TV. 

Some key findings from this report:

• There has been a significant reduction in traditional media use since 2005, with the largest audience declines in TV, falling by 17% and national newspapers by 14%.
• The key driver of European digital TV uptake to 2010 is expected to be digital-to-terrestrial services. It will to drive uptake to 109m by the end of 2010, compared to 78m in the US.
• Digital cable will drive growth in the US by 2010, closely followed by digital satellite. Unlike Europe, digital terrestrial is not expected to be a significant digital TV plat form in the US.
• Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for mobile TV subscriptions with around 76.3 million subscribers by 2012, representing a CAGR of 51.7%.
• A key reason for companies to invest in IPTV solutions is to increase the revenue they get from each subscriber. Providing a broader range of services to which custome rs can be cross-sold increases revenue potential.

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C21media: UK telecoms company BT will become the first of Microsoft’s IPTV customers to offer consumers Xbox 360 games consoles fitted with technology that turns them into a set-top box.

The firm launched its BT Vision IPTV service using Microsoft’s Mediaroom platform in December 2006, a month before Bill Gates announced at last year’s CES that Mediaroom would be integrated within the Xbox.

While some have speculated that the plan had stalled, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, Robbie Bach, announced on Tuesday the first deployment of Mediaroom IPTV-enabled Xboxes via BT.

“You’ll be able to buy an Xbox 360 through BT, use it as a gaming console as well as a set-top box on your TV,” said Bach.

BT will start offering the console to consumers from the middle of this year. The move means those that choose to take up the offer will have access to digital terrestrial channels, plus BT’s array of on-demand content through the Xbox.

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AV zombie: Bill Gates, speaking at Microsoft’s Strategic Account Summit in Seattle, claimed that IPTV technology will make traditional TV broadcasting obsolete, and predicted that it was only a matter of time before the TV advertising industry goes “completely online.”

The Microsoft Chairman argues that the advertising industry will be unable to resist the lure of IPTV, because it will allow them to tailor advertising to specific viewers.

Joost, the high-quality IPTV service currently in Beta testing, has secured 45 million dollars in funding from CBS and Viacom. The level of interest in the service is attracting the attention of the big studios. Warner is the latest to pledge programming. It will begin netcasting on two ad-supported channels later this year.

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