Archive for March, 2010

In 2005 SmartHouse tipped that Telstra would launch iPTV in Australia and asked would it revolutionise the way we watch movies.

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) either heralds a revolution in the way we’ll watch TV or it’s been outrageously over-hyped and could be a big flop. However I am tipping that it will be slow to kick off and when Telstra launch their new 3G Network the service will really take off.

To put things in perspective, USA Today has called IPTV an ‘infant, unproven technology with a geeky name’. But the ability to pipe TV content over broadband has the potential to turn the broadcasting world upside-down.

IPTV shouldn’t be confused with Internet video. It has nothing to do with P2P file-sharing or watching a downloaded DivX rip of Lost on your PC. Nor does it describe watching a low-resolution QuickTime or Windows Media clip in a tiny web-window. Instead, IPTV is all about providing high-quality multi-channel television and streamed/downloadable video, all delivered via the web’s IP protocols and displayed on the TV set in your living room. IPTV is happening now. France Telecom’s MaLigne TV has been providing live TV and Video on Demand (VoD) since 2004 and FastWeb is doing the same in Italy. There are big plans for IPTV in the US, where SBC is betting $4 billion on the hope that the technology will bigger than big.

SBC hopes to have 18 million homes hooked up to its service (project ‘Lightspeed’) by 2007. Motorola and Scientific Atlanta which was purchased by Cisco last week will build the set-top boxes, while Microsoft will provide the IPTV Edition software. SBC’s rival, Verizon, hopes to have around three million homes connected to its own service by the end of 2005.

In the UK, Video Networks has been running its HomeChoice service in London for the past five years, offering a quadruple-play package of broadband internet access, a basic package of IPTV channels, video on demand and telephony. The technology works. But HomeChoice has been slow to gather followers. Despite a five-year head start in the UK, the service only has 25,000-30,000 subscribers and is restricted to the capital. Telstra could well offer the service to it’s 2.3 million Foxtel pay-TV subscribers. What is interesting is that 75 per cent of Foxtel’s and Austar’s subscribers have already ditched the analogue system, electing to take up digital technology, which delivers more than double the number of channels and interactive services. They also have a broadband connection and are a perfect audience for iPTV. The move to launch iPTV comes as the Federal government starts to crank up the move to digital TV. (See seperate story on digital TV) Only about 13 per cent of the 15.2 million televisions in Australian homes are now tuned to digital services, prompting free-to-air networks to push to delay switching over their audiences for several more years. Foxtel has said that almost 6 per cent of subscribers now had Foxtel’s iQ interactive service, which enables them to rewind live TV and record two programs at once. A portable viewing service, called iQ to Go, would be released within 18 months. This is Foxtels version of iPTV.

Foxtel has also announced that it will be converting all of its subscribers to digital and switching off its analogue service by March 2007. Foxtel CEO Kim Williams and Austar CEO John Porter also say they hope to launch at least two 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week composite high-definition channels by 2008. Free-to-air channels already broadcast many programs in HD. Foxtel’s commitment to two HD channels will be made possible by extra bandwidth available on the Optus D2 satellite. Its next generation of digital set-top boxes will also have MPEG-4 chips to handle the higher-resolution video signal.

“There’s nothing new about the concept of Internet Protocol Television” explains media analyst Graham Lovelace. “But early examples have been a poor experience and downloading content has just taken too long. Bandwidth and the cost of servers conspired to limit the growth of IPTV. That’s now no longer the case, thanks to rising broadband speeds and more efficient compression.” Faster broadband is key and this is why Telstra are spending $3.5 billion dollars building a bew 3G wireless network.
Telstra are confident that they can deliver a 12Mbps services which is ample for an iPTV service. As for compression, MPEG-2 is the most widely supported video codec in the TV industry, but it isn’t the most efficient for IPTV. The services running today have proved that MPEG-2 can be delivered over broadband. But providers like Telstra will deliver the service over MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) or Microsoft’s Windows Media Video 9 codec. These dramatically reduce the bandwidth requirements, enabling IPTV systems to carry more standard definition channels or potentially HDTV programming in the future.

“IPTV is entering a crucial stage in its development,” says Adam Thomas, author of the report ‘IPTV: A Global Analysis’ for Informa Telecoms and Media. “It is moving away from a technology under trial, into full commercial deployment.”

Thomas’ research suggests that although there are barely 2.5 million IPTV subscribers globally today, there will be around 25 million by 2010. The report highlights China as the leading candidate for IPTV growth (4.9 million subscribers), followed by the US (3.4 million), France (2.5 million), Germany (2 million), Italy (1.6 million), the UK (1.5 million) and Spain (777,000). But considering that broadband penetration in Europe and the US is expected to rocket to 290 million homes by 2008, these numbers are still small.

IPTV is inevitable, but companies will approach it in different ways. Big ISPs such as Telstra and Optus when they launch there service will see it as an additional revenue stream, especially as this year’s broadband war has seen prices fall but broadband speeds double. Foxtel will be able to offer the true on-demand and interactive applications that satellite technology lacks. Foxtel already has a broadband TV application in the works, and because of there 50% ownership by Telstra they are in a perfect position to capatalise on the iPTV service.

In Australia free to air broadcasters are watching what is happening in the UK where broadcasters have also been quick to spot the new opportunities that broadband TV can deliver. The BBC has been running the second of its Interactive Media Player trials (iMP), enabling users to download TV and radio shows after broadcast; ITV too has taken the broadband TV plunge – its pilot service includes local news and weather, an entertainment guide and community video.

Telstra has found their businesses threatened by mobile telephony and VoIP, but now with the new network they have an opportunity to reinvent themselves as media giant while also delivering communication and entertainment services.

Ultimately, while there’s a great deal of excitement about IPTV, services are likely to complement rather than replace today’s delivery mechanisms. What it will do is cause TV viewing to fragment even further. In an IPTV world, your TV screen acts as a web browser and programmes are searched by customised guides containing video search abilities. It’s no wonder that Google and Yahoo! see video as a big part of our online future.

We may find that streaming services take a back seat to the sort of video download service that’s being pioneered by people like Telstra. The recent launch of Apple’s video-capable iPod and, more importantly, the availability of five TV shows via iTunes, is an indication that the TV landscape across the world is about to change. We could be on the verge of a revolution that sees video on demand (VOD) truly take off.

This is what the digital SmartHouse is all about.

Source: Smarthouse – Telstra’s iPTV What Does It Mean
By David Richards & Dean Evans | Sunday | 20/11/2005

Australian ISP iiNet could still lose their landmark case up against the giants of the movie industry, despite a favourable decision in an Australian court earlier today.

In a landmark ruling, Federal Court judge Justice Dennis Cowdroy, today found iiNet was not responsible for the infringements of its users and that they should not be held responsible for what their users send over the internet.

“It is impossible to conclude that iiNet has authorised copyright infringement. (it) did not have relevant power to prevent infringements occurring,” Justice Cowdroy said in his judgment.

Justice Cowdroy recommended the application be dismissed and that AFACT pay the court costs.

Insiders are saying that the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft Group, who bought the action against iiNet on behalf of some of the biggest of Hollywood studios including Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as the Seven Network had had already decided prior to today that if they lost the case that they would urge their legal team to find a way to appeal.

If this appeal is granted the issue could end up in the High Court in a similar situation to the recent IceTV Vs Channel Nine case.

In that copyright action Ice TV won the first case in the NSW Supreme Court an appeal was lodged which they lost. The case was then taken to the Australian High Court in Canberra where 6 judges ruled in IceTV’s favour.

Colin O’Brien the CEO of IceTV said “I doubt that the iiNet case is over. I believe that there will be an appeal and this case and could go on for another 12 months. This will result in a lot of uncertainty in the content market in Australia which is already suffering from a lack of content from major studios”.

For several years, content providers such as movie and TV studios have tried to control the distribution of content over the internet and after failing to control consumers they decided in early 2008b to try and control the carrier of the content with an action bought against small Australian ISP iiNet.

The action which was funded by AFACT members was bought in an effort to establish a ruling that would prevent large ISP’s such as BigPond and Optus from openly allowing their customers to transmit from one point to another point content such as music or movies which AFACT members deemed as being illegal and unpaid downloads.

Today the consortium of content providers, lost their case with Justice Cowdroy, ruling that all iiNet did was to provide an Internet service for consumer and that they should not be held responsible for the carriage of copyrighted content.

The consortium deliberately and some say with malice, chose to take on iiNet and not the likes of BigPond or Optus because iiNet was small and would struggle to fund their legal team.

If AFACT had won, providers would most likely have been forced to penalise or disconnect users who illegally downloaded copyrighted material such as movies and songs.

Justice Cowdroy recommended the application be dismissed and that AFACT pay the court costs.

Source: Smarthouse – iiNet Could Still Lose Copyright Case Say Experts
By David Richards | Thursday | 04/02/2010