Blog articles from 03/2010

With The Wall Street Journal today reporting a Google test of a service to allow consumers to search for both broadcast and broadband content, and TiVo's announcement from last week regarding TiVo® Premiere and TiVo® Premiere XL box experiences , I do think that the battle for TV-based search, discovery, and recommendations is on in full-force. From Rovi , to DivX , and others, this is going to be a really hot space to watch.

Technicolor today announced that its mp3HD format, introduced in 2009, is featured in the Samsung “IceTouch,” the company’s first mp3HD portable player, which was recently unveiled at CES 2010 . The mp3HD format offers lossless audio compression as well as compatibility with the widely-used mp3 standard. mp3HD enables content creators, the music industry and consumers to benefit from the ultimate audio quality experience with the same ease of use as the mp3 format. For...

Parks Associates is hosting a Advances in Television Advertising on Thursday, March 25th at 1 PM Central. Major pay TV service providers have identified advanced TV advertising as a key revenue opportunity for 2010 and beyond. Ad budgets and consumer video viewing are shifting to the Internet, and emerging digital media platforms are threatening the traditional television advertising business. Even so, cable TV operators continue to ramp up their investment in advanced advertising...

Today the European cable industry spent the afternoon at its Cable Congress in Brussels discussing the impact of OTT content. Through a number of spokespeople, the message was clear: cable is ready and anxious to play a role in over-the-top. Some key points include the following: Set top box maker ADB reminded the audience that the brand in the hand is the brand that wins. That is, cable companies must provide remote controls which support the set top boxes that support the features...

We've been pleased to have Mitch Singer from Sony Pictures and the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) coalition speak at our recent CONNECTIONS events and speak about the potential of "digital locker" services. Roughly defined, these would be services that could authenticate and manage a wide variety of user-owned content in a virtual environment. One key element of the digital locker is widely agreed-upon digital rights management protocols, where multiple...

While the European cable industry is enjoying itself in Brussels at the Cable Congress 2010 , they also look to be making us look pretty prescient, too (so, thanks for the chocolates and the validation). Just two days ago, I had mused about whether we're going to see the "uber-box" emerge for the cable guys - this is the single point of convergence for data and video services and would replace the separate set-top box and residential gateway. Liberty Global is...

Remember the lavish, luxurious corporate functions frequently hosted by technology companies in the roaring 90’s? Tonight the European cable industry celebrated a solid year of nearly 10% growth (at least Telenet enjoyed nearly 10% growth) in an otherwise lackluster economy. The party, hosted by Telenet for delegates of the European Cable Congress in Brussels, felt more like a coming out party. The IT industry’s fascination with IPTV has finally quieted as IPTV growth has slowed over...

The U.S. government’s recent EMR (electronic medical records) incentive will trickle down to benefit personal health record (PHR) providers over the next few years, raising awareness among consumers and pushing total number of PHR users over 100 million by 2014, according to Electronic Health Records: Information Center of Connected Care. This new industry report from international research firm Parks Associates notes that the $19 billion financial incentive from the U.S. federal...