OpenTV’s Tracy Geist talks about the gap between TV and Web

As we get closer to IBC 2009 on Friday, we are seeing telling signs that traditional and legacy IPTV companies that paved the way nearly a decade ago for IPTV, are at it again. We are beginning to see technology from companies like OpenTV, ActiveVideo Networks and NDS that speak  Web 2.0 infuse their technology with social media elements, interactive and user generated content, widgets, etc. This means operators are now (or still) looking for ways to keep consumers at their TVs and we will see more and more deployments with these social media elements.

Tracy Geist, senior VP, Biz Dev, talks about the closing the gap between TV and the Web.

She says that it’s a dynamic market for digital TV operators right now who need to introduce new services while keeping the service on and smoothly running. The growing competition, new content platforms embraced by viewers, and technological advancements, all drive the introduction of new services, which transform traditional TV viewing into an interactive social experience. These new services focus on creating a whole experience for viewers, such as enabling them to browse through video titles and pick content based on suggestions, recommendations, key-words or related topics across multiple resources.

Geist says that our entertainment at home is no longer ‘one way’. We have all gotten used to searching and sharing content with family and friends through the Web. Users today are looking for the same experience when they retrieve content via the TV at home.

“If I just finished watching Nigella Lawson’s program, I want to be able to let my friends know in real time that Nigella is making the best Chocolate Mousse tonight through messaging or recommending the program or even get the recipe to make it myself,” said Geist.  ”This is just one example of what next generation TV should easily enable as it becomes an extension to the lives of those who watch it.”

According to Geist, operators already have the infrastructure to allow access to resources that would enable this functionality. What is needed on top of this infrastructure is the next gen digital TV platform that would enable those advanced services and bridge the gap between TV and the Internet, providing a unified and seamless viewing experience to the user, while allowing operators to cost-effectively differentiate their offering and remain ahead of the game.

For a full view of Tracy’s thoughts and other news on IPTV, visit Videonet.

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Tags: IBC, Interactive, IPTV, OpenTV, Tracy Geist

Those are some big numbers

ZDNet Asia reported today that the APAC region will see 8.7 million users by 2012.

Hong Kong’s PCCW as everyone knows, is the best performer based on subscriber numbers. According to Gartner, the carrier has 758,000 registered users for its “nowTV” service and is expected to serve at least 40% of the 2.3 million households in Hong Kong.

By region, Western Europe has the highest number of subscribers, with a forecast of 8.2 million in 2008 and 18.8 million in 2012.

But this is the juicy part – the report also says that new competitors like YouTube and Joost and other social networking sites (Facebook -rah!) will be eating into those numbers. They also claim that device manufacturers are offering their own Web-based offerings, such as AppleTV and some broadcasters are going to the consumer direct via that wacky Internet. Feel the convergence now?

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Mantra is for people who don’t like change

Image via Wikipedia

We always smirk when we hear folks in the Telco industry talk about which companies are going after Tier 1 operators and which ones aren’t – rather shouldn’t. So this brief news blurb about Alcatel-Lucent being chosen by a “US electrical power distributer” (sounds so very Carlyle Group to us) to provide IPTV solution that will offer TV and other IP-based services to customers in the greater Chattanooga area, well we really get to smirking. (that is Tennessee folks, the STATE of Tennessee and not even the biggest town in the state of Tennessee)

Now, here’s the fun part. All these big companies – Alcatel-Lucent, Thomson, Microsoft, Tandberg and their buddy Ericsson and event the “Laten’s IPTV ecosystem” are all posturing in a very old school establishment kind of way that it’s only the Tier 1′s that they are going after – but in reality, the game is still on. If you look to smaller or rather more independent companies that aren’t trying to offer the kitchen sink, you will see that those companies have been quietly bringing more and more to the table in terms of features that consumers use in their daily lives on the Internet into the IPTV ecosystem (we all that innovation) and they have been pushing the line of business forward to emerging markets in Eastern Europe and for sometime, have been targeting utility companies (Denmark, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, US) around the world because that is where the innovation and adoption lies – and where adoption lies means cash money. And, isn’t it better to get your stuff out into the market than wait until a Tier 1 makes up his mind or hires enough early 30-somethings that know a thing or two about what tomorrow’s consumer will want?

It’s all fair game now.

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Denmark Scores again

This story has been all over the place, but Alan Harten from IPTV-Watch filled us in clearly — and he used some cool words like “big time” we which think is sorely missing from our vernacular these days. Anyway,  Danish utility company giant, TRE-FOR wanted HD IPTV and now they will get it via Tilgin and Nordija.  Their union will create a solution that is designed purely for TRE-FOR’s needs in the delivery of HD IPTV to its customers cause that is what we all want right? I am not even sure that most consumers even know what HD is or stands for, other than they now want it, therefore, they need it.

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Trillion is a fun word to say

Dan O’Shea from Fierce Telecom reported today that total telecom revenue including the super hip and cool mobile services aspect of telecom (yes you have to remember they are part of that industry IPTV people) will reach $2 trillion by the end of this year – that is in four months. And most of this is and will be from mobile  – why ? Cause its welded to our hands, we sleep with it and its a part of our lives more than ever before. This was from a new report by Gartner that was published in Network World. The report also said that, and this is no surprise, that the biggest growth areas will be Middle East and Asia. But you all knew we were going to say that didn’t you? Oh and the hacker story below, we just liked it.

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Amazon into VOD?

Today, Forbes ran an article about Amazon getting into the VOD business by letting customers watch shows and find cast interviews for about 500 TV shows. And, in my all time favorite obvious quote – the VP of TV for Amazon, Peter Faricy ( I didn’t realize that Amazon had a VP of TV or a TV department) said, “The way people watch TV has changed dramatically in recent years.” Wow! Really? Amazing statements from a company that sells stuff.

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What in the IPTV world is going on?

Okay – so each day there seems to be a shake up out there and the shock waves are getting more frequent. Variety reported today that France’s Iliad who won Gallic (what a cool name!) broadband TV operator Free, Europe’s biggest IPTV operator, will pull down a syndicated loan for around Euros 1 billion ($1.6 billion), mostly to buy Alice, Italia Telecom’s rival Internet TV player in France. Did you follow that? Essentially this pretty much makes France the world’s biggest broadband TV market.

Now, this is on the heels of PCCW‘S announcement that they will now offer out of the box IPTV – they feel they have been so successful at it that they will just package up what they know (and got from others) and just push that right into the market.

The winds of change are coming – there is a storm coming and in this case, survival may not be about anything that anyone can predict.

Day 1 – IPTV World Forum London – Part 2

Forgot to add this – a lot of “same old, same old” conversation taking place at the show – except this year instead of the crazed conversation about ” who will take the tier on operators” we are getting the “why can’t the set top box guys make a box that will actually do something resembling anything that embraces next generation technology” Uh – yea — check out AirTies – wireless video – 70% marketshare in Turkey – moving rapidly into countries with infrastructure that is about the future -(Eastern Europe, Russia, Middle East) not legacy build outs – simple, easy for an operator to deploy and delivers high QOS. Trialing now in Russia. Just because the STB guys say it can’t be done, doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It is being done – believe it and know that a company like AirTies is going to pioneer the adoption of this technology. Let’s get some edge back into IPTV

IBC 2007

Yup – its here again and this year we decided to use this venue to brag a bit about our IPTV clients who are truly leading the way. Tune in tomorrow for a few more — Optibase and Dreampark.

BitBand, Stand 5.329. BitBand provides video content delivery solutions over IP broadband networks for Telcos. One of the only two-time winners of Red Herring’s Hot 100 Tech companies, their CEO, Ervin Leibovici is known as the hardest working man in the IPTV business (we have to attribute that to Gerry Kaufhold, principal anlayst at In-Stat).

UDcast, showcasing in the Mobile Zone – M285- is a 2007 winner of Red Herring’s Hot 100 – is the definative source for mobile TV – why? Well because they were the company that worked with Nokia to develop the DVB-H standard which you need for mobileTV for starters. Also because they are are in 70% of the worlds DVB-H mobileTV trials and now – they are a part of the worlds first commercial MobileTV deployments in Finland, the Philippines, Vietnam, Italy. They are also working with Alcatel to develop and bring to market the DVB-SH standard. I want my mobileTV? Thats because of UDcast.