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April 10, 2007
This weekly e-mail newsletter covers everything related to Telco-IP Television.
AT&T Offers Year of Free HD to Fight Cable
The nation’s largest telephone company will offer new video customers one year of free HD programming -- an attempt to convert cable subscribers to its U-Verse TV service or the satellite services it resells from DirecTV and EchoStar Communications. In a promotion scheduled to run for a few months, AT&T said it will provide more than 25 channels of HD programming, including those of local broadcast affiliates, free to new U-verse TV subscribers.
AT&T regularly charges $10 per month for HD service with U-verse TV, which is now available in parts of 15 metro areas. Most cable operators also charge an additional monthly fee, about $10 to $15, for a tier of HD channels.
"Free access to HD programming for a year gives consumers yet another reason to select AT&T over the competition," AT&T chief marketing officer for consumer marketing Rick Welday said in announcing the deal.
In areas where U-verse TV is unavailable, AT&T will offer free HD service -- up to 31 channels -- to customers who sign up for direct-broadcast satellite service from DirecTV or EchoStar’s Dish Network.
AT&T said the free-HD offer through Dish will be available until May 31 and through DirecTV until June 26. The U-verse TV offer is available through June 30.
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Verizon Has a Date with Eisner’s Prom Queen
Verizon Communications will carry the first production from Vuguru, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's new-media studio, across all of its platforms.
Prom Queen -- which was created specifically for the wireless and broadband platforms -- will be carried on Verizon Wireless’ V CAST, via the telco’s high-speed-Internet service and on its FiOS TV video service.
Verizon said Prom Queen is currently available via V CAST video and will be added to broadband and FiOS TV customers’ lineup “soon.”
According to Vuguru, “Prom Queen is a scripted, serialized mystery told over 80 episodes, each running 90 seconds long. Set against the final two months of the school year, Prom Queen has a blend of love, gossip, and betrayal -- all of the twists and turns of high school leading up to the biggest night of any senior's life: prom night.”
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Motorola Ships IPTV Set-Top No. 1M
Motorola announced that it has shipped its millionth IPTV set-top -- although the technology is still a small part of its business, representing less than 2% of digital-cable set-tops the company has sold.
In February 2006, Motorola bought Kreatel Communications, a Swedish developer of IP-based digital set-tops primarily sold to European telecommunications operators and Internet-service providers. Kreatel shipped its first IP set-top in May 2001.
Last October, Motorola said it had shipped 50 million set-tops to date, including those dating back to the days of General Instrument, which Motorola acquired in 2000.
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FiOS TV Adds NESN HD
Verizon Communications said it will offer HD broadcasts of Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball and Bruins National Hockey League games, and other programming carried by New England Sports Network, to FiOS TV subscribers in the Boston market. NESN HD will be available on FiOS TV channel 829 at no additional charge. Verizon currently offers FiOS TV, which carries 24 other HD channels, to more than 270,000 households in 40 Massachusetts communities.
NESN is owned by the Red Sox and the Bruins.
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SES Americom, Home2US Team Up on International Fare
SES Americom and Home2US announced a joint marketing agreement to deliver international programming across a variety of media.
The two companies also announced the addition of Korean News Network, YTN, Ethiopian TV Network and Kenya Live TV to the Home2US lineup, which is currently delivered to ethnic direct-broadcast satellite audiences over SES Americom's AMC-4 satellite.
SES Americom's IP PRIME IPTV-distribution system delivers hundreds of standard-definition and HD channels to any screen on any media platform.
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• Oklahoma-based Pioneer Telephone Cooperative will use Comtrend's CT-5621 multiport ADSL2+ router as the key residential premises equipment to support its deployment of IPTV and broadband services to its more than 140,000 customers in 30 counties in the state.
• A leading hospitality-solutions provider reached an agreement to place a series of purchase orders with Eagle Broadband for its MediaPro IP3000HD IPTV set-top.
• According to a new report from Infonetics Research, “IPTV Equipment, Services, Subscribers, and Capex,” IPTV-equipment sales, service revenue, subscribers and service-provider capital expenditures all posted “phenomenal” growth in 2006 and are expected to continue surging through 2010.
• iSuppli predicted that total global IPTV subscribers will rise to 103 million in 2011, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 92.5%, up from 3.9 million in 2006.
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