Tuesday, February 26, 2002
Sweden’s B2 deal with BBC Prime
Sweden’s B2 Bredband has signed a deal with BBC Prime to enable their 70k subscribers to watch it through their PC. This is the first deal that BBC Prime has signed and it's good to see BBC Worldwide becoming adventurous with the way they deliver their content.
BT ADSL wholesale price drops to £14.75
Ben Verwaayen, CEO of BT announced the reduction in the wholesale price of ADSL from 1 April to 14.75ukp this morning.
They've set a target of one million ADSL user by summer 2003 and pledged to improve network performance and quality of service, which is needed.
Monday, February 25, 2002
Film deal for the first Canadian VOD trial
Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution are to provide films for the first Canadian VOD trial. 1,000 customer of Toronto-based Rogers Cable will take part in the trial.
Details of BT ADSL price cuts
Reports in the UK Sunday Times that BT will cut its wholesale price to 20ukp, which should lead to retail prices of around 30ukp from the current 40ukp. I've heard from someone who is close to top BT management that they might half the price. We'll should get to know the facts on Tuesday.
Wednesday, February 20, 2002
Italian broadcaster RAI to stream TV
Alcatel and Italian broadcaster RAI have announced they will be streaming their 24hr news channel, RAI News 24 over 3G at 384 kbit/s during the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes. I'm looking forward to reports on its results.
Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Broadband connected TV from Panasonic
Another broadband connected device, this time a TV from Panasonic. It will also have a dial-up modem and is reported as being able to download content at off-peak hours ready for viewing later, so I assume PVR functions.
Ultra Wideband murmurs
Ultra Wideband (UWB) - its civilian use has been talked about for a while (the military been using it for about twenty years) and now the US FCC has revised some of its rules to enable be used commercially.Its major advantages are low-cost implementations and low-power consumption - leading to one example of it use being to tagging goods to track them on a dock-side or in a ship. Civilian uses are currently less clear but with single devices peaking at over 50Mbps over 10m, distribution of high-quality video over short distance would be possible.
Intertainer get rights to MGM films
MGM have agreed to have their movies distributed by Intertainer. This adds to the deal they did last year with Universal. Viewers will be able to watch the movies on-demand (VOD). Intertainer currently only distribute their content to users who live in a number of region in the US and have at least a 580kbps connection. Not a great deal of chance of them distributing in the UK as the base BT ADSL service offers UPTO 500k - even if they could sort out movie distribution deals.
Friday, February 15, 2002
SightSound Technologies claim distribution patents
An initial ruling by a US federal magistrate on patents held by SightSound Technologies states they cover the distribution of audio and video content over all telco networks, including the Internet. The ramification of this could be that all online music and movie venture will have to pay a license fee to SightSound.
Thursday, February 14, 2002
Bredbandsbolaget raise charges
Bredbandsbolaget the Swedish broadband operator is raising its monthly charge from EU21 to EU35. They say the higher than expected costs of installing the fibre and the current lack of income from content have lead them to not be able to cover costs with their current charge.
Capital Radio and UBC Media form JV in DAB
An exciting area that hasn't arrived on most people radar is DAB. Most people aren't aware that it can be used to broadcast pure data, making it an interesting way of getting content to a lot of people for a fixed cost. Today Capital Radio and UBC Media announced they are forming a Joint Venture to develop data over DAB.
Broadband merger talks halt in Korea
The number two and three provider of broadband in Korea have suspended merger talks. The feeling is that both Hanaro Telecom and Thrunet are concerned about current levels of their individual debts.
BT to roll out satellite broadband across Scotland
After a tiny trial of twelve companies, BT is now rolling out their satellite delivered broadband across Scotland.The fact that there's satellites footprint over the area gives them 100% coverage, no matter how remote the location. Sadly the service is significantly more expensive to install (a minimum of nearly £900) and use than ADSL, so to get things moving government bodies are subsidising it.
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Sony to launch Broadband PlayStation 2
Sony will be launching its PlayStation 2 on Broadband service in Japan in April. Through recent deals it now has access to 70% of Broadband users and is talking about offering general entertainment (music, films, etc) as well as downloading and playing games.
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Liberty Media interested in NTL
Rumours are circulating that Liberty Media is in talks with debt-laden NTL about buying a stake of between 25-51%. Interestingly Liberty already own 25% of Telewest and would try to merge the two. Given they are the biggest two cable companies in the UK by far, I would imagine it may be investigated by the Mergers and Monopolies commission but given the fragile nature of the cable business in the UK, they just might pass it.
Digeo announce 'broadband media center'
A potentially interesting clash of old friends is brewing. Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft and over the last five years has bought a large number of cable companies that he amalgamated into Charter Communications, making it the fourth largest cable provider in the USA with around seven million customers.He also has a company called digeo which has just announced with Motorola. their 'broadband media center'. It's comprehensively equipped with PVR, photo, music, games and telephony facilities. Using an interesting approach, it will initially be an add-on box that works with Motorola's widely used DCT2000 set-top box, later moving to one box that performs all of the functions. I imagine it will have a period of exclusivity on Charter, then be sold into the large number of other cable companies that run on Motorola hardware - leading to a pretty formidable platform.
We await its launch in May with interest and look forward to the ensuring battle.
Sunday, February 10, 2002
Sega innovating in gaming
Having now got out of the console market, Sega are innovating in gaming again. They are providing content and equipment to enable the distribution of games and PC software between ISP and their Broadband customers, thus avoiding any bottleneck their may be over the Internet.
Thursday, February 07, 2002
Microsoft wants d-cinema
Microsoft announce their intention to be involved with d-cinema.
Monday, February 04, 2002
Korea roll-out wireless
Is there no stopping South Korea? A number of companies have now announced the roll-out of wireless services up to 11Mbps. Prices of the service vary with provider but current subscribers to Korea Telecom broadband service pay an extra just under £20 uk pound per month. KT aim to have 10,000 sites functioning by the end of the year.
Korea upgrade connection speeds
Once again, it's encouraging to see how much ambition South Korea have as they announced their intention to keep themselves at the forefront on Internet connections by upgrading to fibre they hope to get 1Gb connections. They intent to invest 50m UKP of government money, matched by the same from private companies, over a five year period. It's interesting to see they predict the value of exports this will bring at over $5bn by 2006.
BT rumoured to slash the cost of broadband
Can it be true? Rumors that BT will slash the cost of broadband, possibly up to 50% off the wholesale price. Its chairman is going to dragged over the coals in front of a committee of MPs this week and the new CEO is to announce the third-quarter results on Thursday. If it's true, it would be a great entrance for the CEO.
Saturday, February 02, 2002
ADSL users to exceed CATV in Japan
As of the end of January this year there are now more ADSL than CATV Internet subscribers in Japan.
Friday, February 01, 2002
SONICblue to retail in store
SONICblue announce that they are going to start selling their DVR's through the retail market, rather than just direct.
