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Today's Top Stories
1. AT&T uses CES to reaffirm U-verse commitment
2. Verizon, Motorola team up on FiOS TV media server
3. Broadcom chips in to drive Comcast into IP space
4. Google's Motorola Home set-top box biz goes to Arris for $2.35B
5. Sony said to be mulling own pay TV service in U.S. Editor's Corner: Waking up to a changed 2013 Also Noted: Spotlight On... IPTV seen cutting into cable, satellite in Canada
Broadcom goes 5G with new IPTV box platform; China hits 23M IPTV subscriber mark and much more... CESLive 2013
 The Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas, is the biggest electronics trade show in the United States. And it's no surprise that mobile technology has taken a central role at the event during the past several years. And this year looks to be no exception. Mobile heavyweights Qualcomm, Samsung, Verizon and others are scheduled to make major appearances. As in past years, Fierce will be out in force at this year's CES. Phil Goldstein, Sue Marek and Mike Dano will be on the ground during the show covering all the major news. Stay tuned to this page for complete coverage of this year's Consumer Electronics Show.  Follow @FierceIPTV on Twitter!
News From the Fierce Network:
1. Dish Network launches 'Explorer' remote control app for iPad
2. Washington Post to launch online political channel this summer
3. Clearwire investor Crest to urge FCC to block Sprint/Clearwire deal
More headlines...
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Waking up to a changed 2013
 It took Rip Van Winkle 20 years of sleeping to experience massive societal changes, according to the Washington Irving story. It took FierceIPTV only about two weeks--fewer than 20 days--to do the same.
When this publication settled in for its mid-winter nap, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) was still trying to sell off its Motorola business and the leading contender appeared to be Pace Plc (LSE: PIC.L), with Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) playing the role of the dark horse. Today, if all goes as expected, Motorola, with a lineage that traces back to the foundations of the cable TV industry, will be part of Arris (Nasdaq: ARRS), another company with deep coaxial roots. In late December, it seemed likely that AT&T (NYSE: T) would not follow the route being plowed by its telco TV competitor Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and would instead continue to emphasize growth for its U-verse IPTV service. In early January, it's obvious from the noise the carrier is making at CES in Las Vegas that AT&T is committed to U-verse and IPTV along with its other wireline-based broadband businesses. And for those watching the changing vendor climate, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), formerly associated with cable TV, is a big part of the new AT&T telco TV model. And speaking of Verizon, there's no change in the FiOS rollback--or status quo situation. The carrier said it's finished pushing FiOS into new markets (despite running ads on local television begging people to sign up). It's not, however, finished innovating products for the service, as evidenced by its own CES splash with Motorola on a new media server/set-top box combo. It's interesting to note that Moto made the announcement about the new product on the Verizon Web site while standing alone in Vegas. It's also interesting that Moto, long considered a leading cable TV supplier, presented itself a telco TV supplier at CES... Continued  Read more
Read more about: Verizon, CES2013
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* General ad info: Click here | Today's Top News 1. AT&T uses CES to reaffirm U-verse commitment
AT&T (NYSE: T) seems to be pretty committed to its U-verse IPTV service. The carrier used a series of CES 2013 announcements to demonstrate that it's expanding, not contracting, its IP-based video and other service offerings. AT&T unveiled a $5-per-month video-on-demand TV Everywhere service, Screen Pack; a Digital Life home security/home automation play, for which Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) is providing a control panel, back office provisioning and applications life cycle management system; and two more apps, Twonky Beam and Pix & Flix, for its U-verse applications suite. The Screen Pack service is available to customers as part of a free preview running through Jan. 13, giving them access to a library of movies that can be watched on TV and the U-verse app for tablets and smartphones. This service leverages the U-verse video service as well as the IP-based TV Everywhere package and is an apparent answer to competitive OTT providers like Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) that have been eating away at MVPD video subscriber bases. Digital Life, which will be commercially available in eight markets in March and an additional 50 markets throughout the year, is an offering that reflects AT&T's broadband service and its wireless commitment as well as the wider-reaching U-verse service. It offers "all-digital, wireless-based home security and automation," AT&T said, so customers can control homes via smartphone, tablet or PC. "The home security and automation market is about to expand significantly. As the capabilities and usability of home automation solutions are dramatically improving, installation becoming easier, the value proposition is becoming a lot more attractive to consumers," said Roger Entner, founder and lead analyst of Recon Analytics, in an AT&T press release. Digital Life customers will have access to a bunch of wirelessly enabled devices such as cameras, window/door sensors, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, motion and glass break sensors, door locks, thermostats, moisture detection with water shut-off and the ability to control appliances and lighting. "The unique combination of wireless technologies working together for Digital Life represents the future of in-home communications," said Joe Chow, vice president and general manager of connected devices with the Cisco Service Provider Video Technology Group. The base package is smart security, but customers can add a video package that delivers live video from inside and outside the home and an energy package to control appliances, lighting and HVAC. "Combined with AT&T's wireless network and unparalleled distribution channels, Digital Life will offer exciting new innovation," promised Kevin Petersen, senior vice president of AT&T Digital Life. Finally, the carrier added the Twonky Beam app to let customers send compatible Internet video clips from mobile devices to the U-verse receiver to watch on a TV screen, among other functions, and Pix & Flix, an AT&T Labs creation, that lets customers use their broadband network to "throw" photos stored on mobile devices to the TV. "These apps make it easier than ever to share your favorite photos and videos on a screen that's easy for everyone to gather around and watch," said Jeff Weber, president of content and advertising sales for AT&T Home Solutions. For more:
- AT&T issued this press release
- and this press release
- and this press release
- Cisco issued this press release Year in Review 2012: Year-in-Review 2012: AT&T commits billions to wireline, plots U-verse IPTV apps Related articles:
AT&T unveils 'beyond TV' U-verse initiatives Read more about: home security, Cisco
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2. Verizon, Motorola team up on FiOS TV media server
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) may have put the brakes on further FiOS expansion but, at least according to an announcement coming from CES 2013 in Las Vegas, it hasn't put the kibosh on features expansion. And Motorola, a Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) unit for now, may have been acquired by Arris (Nasdaq: ARRS) just before the holidays, but, again according to its CES presence, hasn't left the vendor space. Thus, the two companies combined to demonstrate their continuing viability and working relationship with an announcement introducing a new media server, Motorola Medios+ VMS1100, and IP-based set-top box, Motorola Medios+ IPCS1100, for FiOS subscribers. The new server is "the centerpiece" of Motorola's new platform that can support up to five clients on separate TVs, Rob McLaughlin, senior vice president and general manager of global sales, marketing and ops for the Motorola Home business unit, wrote in a blog that appeared on the Verizon website. The bottom line, McLaughlin wrote, is that "everyone in the house can watch what they want, at the same time." The server also offers a terabyte of storage that equates to 100 hours of HD content or "weeks of SD programming." The set-top "taps into all that goodness via coax, from a sleek box the size of a paperback novel," he said. Verizon had been talking about the new media server for a while--as had subscribers who felt constrained by the limits older technology was placing on their TV Everywhere experience--and had been expected to introduce something during 2012. That the product announcement fell into 2013 is probably a result of the spotlight available at CES and the FCC's ongoing effort to develop home networking standards, which the agency expected to issue in 2013 but has since pushed back to 2014. This bit of leeway was enough, apparently, for Verizon and Motorola to take the wraps off the media server and its adjacent set-top. For more:
- Verizon carried this Motorola blog Editor's Corner: Cable grows as FTTH slows Related articles:
Verizon says 39% of its subscribers are 'borderless'
Cox, Cisco to unveil new 'second screen experience' at CES Read more about: Motorola, Verizon FiOS
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3. Broadcom chips in to drive Comcast into IP space
Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) will probably never be identified as an IPTV provider, but that doesn't mean the country's biggest cable operator won't be more IP than cable sometime in the near future. "Comcast is on the road to an all IP-based set-top box," predicted Aaron Schmidt, digital/social coordinator at Broadcom, in a blog posted in conjunction with CES 2013 in Las Vegas, noting that IPTV and cloud-based storage (both IP-based functions) have "generated lots of buzz lately." Broadcom's interest in this move is strictly business: It's supplying the system-on-a-chip (SoC) foundation on which the Comcast Device Software Reference Design Kit is based, Schmidt said. "The chipset will be going into Comcast's RNG-150 set-top box, which is set to offer customers a slew of upgrades and options by being the first to fully integrate Internet connectivity with standard digital cable," he wrote. "Broadcom makes all the fancy new features play nicely together in one box." Those features include a full standard DOCSIS cable modem; an HDTV decoder; MoCA connectivity; 3D graphics; and 1 GHz tuners. "Cable operators like Comcast are hoping to thrill subscribers with new offerings that go beyond the typical 'triple play' broadband package," wrote Schmidt. "For Comcast customers, [the new set-top box] translates to the ability to stream both IP and broadcast cable content to any device in any room with all of the cutting edge innovation that a single (set-top) box can hold." For more:
- Broadcom carried this blog Related articles:
Broadcom reaches $2B quarterly revenue milestone
Comcast to launch Xfinity app on Samsung TVs Read more about: SoC, CES2013
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4. Google's Motorola Home set-top box biz goes to Arris for $2.35B
Arris (Nasdaq: ARRS) was the top bidder for Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Motorola Home business unit, and will pay $2.35 billion to effectively combine two of the industry's legacy equipment vendors. Google acquired the business unit when it purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion earlier this year; the business also makes Motorola's line of smartphones. The search engine giant had made it clear throughout the past few months that it didn't want to be in the telecommunications equipment business and was willing to sell off the Motorola Home unit, which traces its roots back to the earliest cable TV equipment vendor, Jerrold Electronics. It was believed that Pace Plc (LSE: PIC.L), which also said it was bidding on the unit, would be the leading contender in an effort to add Moto's set-top boxes to its product lineup, but Suwanee, Ga.-based Arris swooped in to complete what Chairman-CEO Bob Stanzione described as a "transformational combination of two complementary business (that) will create a leading end-to-end provider of today's video, data and voice products and tomorrow's next-generation IP-based broadband products." While there are a ton of redundancies in the two companies' product lines, including headend gear and cable modem products, Arris is grabbing a new foothold in the set-top box business for IPTV and cable operators. Arris will also acquire "engineering expertise to accelerate best-in-class end-to-end solutions to a broader customer base," Stanzione said. The combined company is expected to generate between $100 million and $125 million in annual cost synergies, Arris said. "Our Home business has been a vibrant part of Motorola Mobility's portfolio, innovating while delivering strong financial performance," said Dennis Woodside, Motorola Mobility CEO. "The industry faces its biggest technology transformation and together Arris and Motorola will be able to accelerate related innovations such as the introduction of the IP connected home environments that service providers need and that their customers crave." Google had placed former Charter Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR) CTO Marwan Fawaz in charge of Motorola Home, in part to calm nervous telecom service providers about the direction the overall company was taking. The combination with Arris, he said, "promises to transform how service providers deliver the smart, simple connected home to consumers throughout the world." If all goes well, the transaction will close by the second quarter of 2013. For more:
- Arris issued this press release Related articles:
Pace says it wants Motorola
Pace, Arris reportedly leading bidders for Moto cable business
The not-so-secret revealed: Google doesn't love Motorola Read more about: Google, Pace
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5. Sony said to be mulling own pay TV service in U.S.
Even as cable operators continue to leak video subscribers and IPTV providers tread water in the pay TV space, it appears that yet another player--Sony, of all companies--thinks there's money to be made in selling television. According to a story in Variety, the consumer electronics giant is "in active negotiations with at least two major content companies" about increasing the number of channels they would provide for a package that "could roll out in the U.S. later this year." The situation is tenuous, as evidenced by the fact that Sony will not be announcing it--as far as anyone knows--at next week's CES in Las Vegas and a Sony spokesman told the publication he would not comment on "rumors or speculation." That speculation includes the belief that the service would be a package of linear channels similar to what other MVPDs provide, but it would, of course, be delivered via a broadband connection, no doubt making use of Sony Bravia smart TVs, PlayStation 3 gaming devices and Blu-ray players. In this regard, Sony is apparently thinking along the same lines as Intel, which is also said to be developing a pay TV service and accompanying hardware, according to multiple reports. In Sony's case, the service would be what's often called a "virtual MSO," mirroring the cable TV model but without the need to build infrastructure to residential customers who would, instead, leverage their cable/telco-provided broadband connections. The service might just be a reaction to a space where Sony competitors like Nintendo and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) are making inroads with MVPDs and their gaming devices. On top of that, there are also the never-ending sagas of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) TV, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) TV and, more recently, the aforementioned Intel. Still, as any MVPD can tell you, it costs money to get and aggregate content, and even a company with pockets as deep as Sony might be cowed into submission. "[T]here is some skepticism that the conglom will make it to market, but so far it has been as serious as any other partner at the negotiation table," the Variety piece reported. Sony has one thing going for it: Sony Pictures Entertainment, which now runs the Sony Movie Channel and Crackle. Whether that's enough or not will undoubtedly be the subject of a story that could conceivably run until CES 2014. For more:
- Variety has this story Special report: 2012 Year In Review: Cable embraces connected TVs and the second screen Related articles:
Epix to launch Sony PlayStation apps
Intel threatening to enter set-top box business Read more about: Microsoft
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Also Noted SPOTLIGHT ON... IPTV seen cutting into cable, satellite in Canada While news about IPTV growth in the United States is generally muted (with the exception of new players like Sony and Intel trying to get into the space), things are a little hotter north of the border. A report by IHS Screen Digest Television Intelligence reports "IPTV is rapidly gaining momentum at the expense of incumbent cable and satellite services" in Canada, where OTT is having a tougher time getting a toehold. The report noted that 9.6 percent of Canadian pay TV subscriptions were with IPTV providers in the third quarter--a 3 percent climb over the 6.6 percent who were signed on to IPTV services in the third quarter of 2011 and a huge jump from the 1.6 percent of Canadians who had IPTV in the third quarter of 2007. Read more More IPTV news from around the World Wide Web... > Broadcom has developed what it calls the "industry's first 5G Wi-Fi connected IPTV set-top box platform" to accelerate residential wireless device connectivity. Press release > Even with a huge base from which to draw, it's impressive to note that China now has 23 million IPTV subscribers. Story > Accedo said it has pre-integrated its TV Everywhere (TVE) solution with thePlatform's mpx publishing system. Press release > IPTV is expanding in Canada, where Colba.Net Telecom said it would widen service in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, no doubt feeding demand for NHL hockey when it resumes. Press release > Bosnia's BH Telecom ended 2012 with 67,000 IPTV subscribers. Story Online Video News > Jason Kilar says he is leaving Hulu. The company's CEO, long rumored to be going elsewhere but previously cemented in place at the online video streaming service, e-mailed employees and then posted a blog calling the decision "one of the toughest I've ever made." Story Cable News > Time Warner Cable said Monday that subscribers who buy streaming video devices from Roku will soon be able to watch 300 cable networks without using a cable set-top. Story Telecom News > CenturyLink announced that it has realigned its management structure by combining its network services business sales and operations teams under one common organization reporting to COO Karen Puckett. Story And finally… Lest you think all IPTV happenings are in Las Vegas, let it be noted that Belarusian provider Beltelecom has introduced a TV banking service for its IPTV subscribers. Story News From the Fierce Network:
> Dish's new Hopper with Sling pushes DVR content to mobile devices Post > Globalstar's New "Wi-Fi" Super Highway - Tuesday, January 22nd, 11:00am EST/8:00 am PST This webinar will discuss the innovative technology, public benefits, and regulatory outlook of providing a new 22 MHz channel under the existing 802.11 IEEE standard. Join to learn technical aspects of TLPS deployment and the outlook for near-term relief from the FCC. Register Now! > Capitalizing SON – How to Implement SON for LTE to reduce OPEX and Increase Revenue - Tuesday, January 29th, 11am ET / 8am PT LTE is the fastest growing communication technology of all time. In this webinar our experts will discuss how Network Equipment Manufacturers can leverage the concept of Self Organizing Networks (SON) to not only manage highly complex LTE networks but also reduce operational expenditures and enhance customer satisfaction. Register Today!
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| > Whitepaper: Market Trends and Strategic Considerations For Video Service Providers As more bandwidth becomes available to our homes the Internet is transforming one media industry after another. The television industry is no exception. What does this mean for the video service provider? Learn about the future of TV services by examining four potential scenarios. Download this Report Today.
| > Public Safety DAS Engineer - Houston, TX - Connectivity Wireless Solutions Connectivity Wireless Solutions delivers best in class consulting, engineering, project management, installation, and staffing services to wireless carrier and enterprise customers. The Public Safety DAS Engineer is tasked with collecting and analyzing RF data typically with tools such as test phones and needs analysis equipment such as ZK Celltest and spectrum analyzers. Learn More! > Field Technician I Job - Portland, OR, USA – Yoh Yoh has a contract opportunity for a Field Technician I to join our client in Portland, OR. Responsibilities include developing proficiency in primary skills of customer relations, basic electricity, basic electronics, basic telephony, radio principles for CDMA and iDEN, and basic principles of digital transmission, fiber communication, data communication, telephony terminology, industry standards, and on-line network control/maintenance systems. Two to five (2-5) years of basic microwave experience required...Learn more. > FSO Telecom Field Technician I Job - New Orleans, LA, USA – Yoh Yoh has a contract opportunity for a FSO Telecom Field Technician to join our client in Knoxville, TN. Responsibilties include developing proficiency in primary skills of customer relations, basic electricity, basic electronics, basic telephony, radio principles for CDMA and iDEN, and basic principles of digital transmission, fiber communication, data communication, telephony terminology, industry standards, and on-line network control / maintenance systems. Travel required...Learn more. > Telecommunications Field Technician Job - Spokane, WA, USA – Yoh Yoh has a six (6) plus month contract opportunity for a Telecommunications Field Technician to join our client in Spokane, WA. This role requires reliable transportation, and successful background, driving record and drug test prior to employment. Ability to lift and carry up to 50 lbs. is required...Learn more. > Telecommunications Project Controls Analyst Job - Bellevue, WA, USA – Yoh Yoh has a five (5) plus month contract opportunity for a Telecommunications Core Project Controls Analyst to join our client Bellevue, WA. Resonsonibilties include to assist with Core Network Order Fulfillment (CNOF) by working directly with Supply Chain, Warehouse, Shipping and Procurement departments, as well as Ericsson organizations. Candidate must have five (5) plus years of relevant experience...Learn more. > Need a job? Need to hire? Visit FierceWirelessJobs | ©2012 FierceMarkets This email was sent to ignoble.experiment@arconati.us as part of the FierceIPTV email list which is administered by FierceMarkets, 1900 L Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 628-8778.
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