Blog articles from 09/2010

I'm at the CTAM EuroSummit'10 in Budapest, and had the chance to talk about some urban legends and myths on a panel session titled “TV Retakes Center Stage.” My job was to discuss five urban myths and the truths as it relates to TV service and the cable operator’s role: 1. Urban Legend 1: “Online Video Cannibalizes Traditional TV Viewing” – not true according to our data, and the speaker from Liberty Global and Virgin Media had their own data that showed an increase in...

Kiosk manufacturers NCR Corp. and MOD Systems Sept. 20 said they have installed machines in 12 U.S. airports that allow consumers for the first time to rent and buy movies downloaded to a secure digital (SD) card (the press release from MOD Systems is here and an article from Home Media Magazine is here ). Considered by many as a successor to the DVD, SD cards and USB chips allow users to play movie files on portable media devices. The Download2Go kiosks are deployed at 20...

In my introductory post to ivi TV, I had noted that ivi TV's model of redistributing broadcast TV over the Internet was likely to face legal challenges. The company has received cease and desist orders from NBC-Universal, CBS, Disney, ABC, The CW Television Stations, Inc., Fox Television, Major League Baseball, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, WGBH, WNET.org, and Fisher Communications. In addition, The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) filed a legal challenge earlier...

Parks Associates’ Director of Home Systems Research, Bill Ablondi will lead and moderate the keynote panel session “The Future of Energy Management” during the CEDIA Expo on Friday, September 24 in Atlanta, GA. Leaders in consumer technology, energy management, and smart grid technology will deliver the state of the union as it relates to energy management and the electronic systems industry during this keynote panel. Speakers include: Control4 Energy Systems, Direct Energy,...

Parks Associates is supporting the 2010 Digital Hollywood Fall in Santa Monica, California. Heather Way , Research Analyst, Parks Associates will be moderating the session, "A dvertising on Tablets and SmartPhones - the Immersive Commerce and Communication Experienc e" on Thursday, October 21 from 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM. Digital Hollywood is the premier entertainment and technology conference in the country. For more information about this event, click here .

We're in London for the Connected Home World Summit , and I chaired yesterday's sessions. The operators in attendance are from a wide spread of European markets - everywhere from Greenland, Estonia, Italy, Germany, France, Russia, and countries in between. I was furiously writing notes during the keynotes and the panels, and came away with the following takeaways:   * There are very different takes on the economics of deploying the "God Box"/über-box, which...

Maybe Google TV will get everyone thinking about having keyboards in the living room. Motorola certainly thinks this. At IBC,Motorola announced the NYXboard , which combines the traditional remote control form with a full keyboard to create a more intuitive navigational experience for sophisticated interactive TV services as well as traditional linear TV. Able to control both the set-top and television set, the NYXboard has sensors to recognise which side of the remote is being used in...

ANT, a provider of software and services for the delivery of digital TV, announced that Humax, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of digital set-top boxes, has selected ANT to deliver a Sky Player implementation for use with its Freeview HD products. ANT’s implementation of the Sky Player TV specification has been developed in collaboration with BSkyB and benefits from the full capabilities of the ANT Galio Platform. Humax offers two products for the UK’s Freeview HD...