EU Chooses DVB-H Mobile TV Standard
December 2007
The European Commission said it is endorsing DVB-H as the official mobile TV standard. This is a blow to MediaFLO, a standard developed by Qualcomm. All 27 member states will be required to support the use of DVB-H for mobile television.
Viviane Reding, the commissioner for the information society and media, welcomed the endorsement by a majority of member states. “This shows that political resolve and market developments are in tune to ensure this potentially multi-billion Euro market is on the right track by mid-2008,” she said.
“I welcome the support received today for the Commission’s mobile TV strategy and, by a strong majority of member states, also for DVB-H. At the same time, I call also on the minority of governments who are still reluctant, partly for internal reasons, to endorse DVB-H as a European standard to join the majority quickly.”
For more information, consult our: MRG, Inc., December 2007 IPTV Bulletin
Mobile TV: Global Standards Review & Forecast for Infrastrucuture & Handsets - 2007 to 2011
December 2007
This report assesses the spectrum allocation, trials, technology usage & development, content strategies, deployments, business models and global forecasts for the mobile TV subscription growth and the infrastrucuture build-out for five major regions and over seventy Operators. The report also projects which technologies will prevail and in what regions; and shows how "co-operation" between Cellular Operators and broadcasters plays out over the next five years.
For more information, consult our Mobile TV – April 2007 report.
MRG's Top 10 IPTV Drivers for 2007
December 2007
Compiled by IPTV Analysts: Jose Alvear, Len Feldman, Steve Hawley and Gary Schultz
#10.
2007 was the year that the first Service Provider (Free) reached 1 million IPTV subscribers. (We're counting actual IPTV users, not customers who can't receive IPTV [due to distance], or who choose not to.) There's also still a chance that either Orange France Telecom and Verizon (or both) will reach the 1 million subscriber mark before the end of the year.
#9. 2007 was the year where IPTV vendor consolidation began in earnest:
- The Alcatel-Lucent merger closed this year, as did the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks.
- Motorola became number one in live encoders, thanks to its acquisitions of Tut and Modulus.
- Ericsson acquired TANDBERG Television.
- Cavalier acquired SecureMedia.
#8. In 2007, Microsoft's Service Providers started deploying IPTV to their customers in quantity. While we still have concerns about the mass deployability of the Microsoft Mediaroom solution, it's clear that systems built on Microsoft's middleware have commercial viability.
#7. 2007 was the year that the first IPTV deployments (albeit small) began in India. Meantime, Korea’s on-demand (VOD) IPTV service is skyrocketing, due partially to Korea being the most broadband-equipped country in the world (with virtually 100% broadband penetration), with the majority of homes receiving 100 Mbps.
#6. In 2007, PCCW was passed as the world's largest IPTV Operator by both Free and Orange France Telecom. As a result, France became the world's largest IPTV market (although PCCW also continues to grow).
#5. For the first time, major Cable Operators like Comcast are publicly expressing concerns that the Telcos' IPTV efforts are starting to eat away at their subscriber bases - and that is impacting shareholders.
#4. When IPTV was an "early adopter phenomenon," making it work was an exercise in creative engineering and the Operator's engineers were driving the train. Now, more than ever, concerns over cost containment, breakeven and profitability have engaged the business side of the house. This has resulted in a rising interest in advertising and content.
#3. From an infrastructure perspective, IPTV turned a corner this year. Operators no longer question whether IPTV can be made to work as a business. Instead, the attention has moved toward refining the consumer’s experience, and therefore toward investing in test, measurement and monitoring.
#2. Now that U.S. Tier-1’s (Verizon and AT&T) are growing their subscribers, the U.S. is being seen as finally starting to catch up with the rest of the IPTV world. However the perception that the U.S. and Canada are "behind" the rest of the world is somewhat inaccurate because smaller North American Operators have been doing IPTV for as long as a decade.
#1. MPEG-4 AVC set-top boxes are shipping in volume, making it the first time that the promises of MPEG-4 AVC could be realized after many years of waiting.
And here's a "top ten stay tuned in 2008" item: "Convergence" is coming, but it isn't here yet. Operators, middleware, security and other infrastructure suppliers are working together to enable and test multi-service use-cases, but there is still some uncertainty as to which ones will reward them with added revenues.
For more information, consult our: MRG, Inc., December 2007 IPTV Bulletin
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