Today's Top Stories
1. Ericsson buys Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV unit
2. Midcontinent deploys TiVo whole home experience in South Dakota
3. AT&T could be setting up subs for online streaming service
4. Verizon: FiOS Flex View on demand service is a retention tool
5. Warner Properties Communications using VDSL2 to boost bandwidth Editor's Corner:  Mediaroom purchase gives Ericsson the foundation to change IPTV into IP video Also Noted: Spotlight On... NAB Show keeps broadcasters relevant in an IP world
AT&T expands U-verse-Disney relationship; Ericsson beefs up Telus' Optik IPTV and much more... Special Report:
 The battle for union contracts: AT&T, Hawaiian Telcom, others hash out wireline benefits
As the major telcos migrate toward IP-based services and their legacy wireline voice service revenues decline, it has cut into revenues that would be used to pay for union health and retirement benefits--leading to sometimes-acrimonious negotiations between the two sides. Where do carriers and wireline unions stand in the latest contract negotiations? Read more
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News From the Fierce Network:
1. OTT video: power users dominating video viewing
2. Sony's Berger: 30% of Crackle users don't pay for TV
3. Charter converting to all-digital platform in Wisconsin
More headlines...
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Mediaroom purchase gives Ericsson the foundation to change IPTV into IP video
By acquiring Microsoft's Mediaroom platform for an undisclosed amount, Ericsson finally made the move into IPTV everyone was anticipating. But, perhaps it made that move in a way no one within the wireline space thought would happen. The conventional wisdom was that Ericsson would move into IPTV as yet another wireline vendor, adding its technology to a mix that already including Motorola Mobility--soon to be Arris--Cisco and Pace. But, Ericsson, coming from the wireless side, has taken a different approach. In fact, there were some who were convinced that it would be Ericsson, not Arris that snatched Motorola Mobility from Google. Instead, the international vendor has gone in another direction, acquiring a TV platform that has been pretty much rooted in the traditional wireline space and stating right upfront that it's going to turn it into a less-than-traditional offering that taps into the growing demand for video across all devices. "We see it as being very complementary to TV Everywhere, the multiscreen TV, the mobility aspects the industry (is) moving towards," Simon Frost, Ericsson's head of TV marketing told me in a phone conversation about the acquisition.  Continue reading this Editor's Corner online
Read more about: Microsoft
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Today's Top News 1. Ericsson buys Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV unit
Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) officially purchased Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Mediaroom IPTV platform today, without disclosing a price. The move allows the software giant to dedicate its TV resources to its Xbox gaming platform and gives Ericsson a market share "of over 25 percent" of IPTV and multi-room solutions, the two companies said. For Ericsson, Mediaroom is an important piece of an end-to-end television delivery fabric that will also include the company's mobile LTE products, said Simon Frost, head of TV Marketing for Ericsson. Mediaroom, he said, is "the world's most successful IP video platform" with "the greatest market share and the greatest penetration and they've done a very good job of pioneering some great technology and some early advancements to the IPTV space" which makes the acquisition "extremely complementary to the TV Everywhere, the multiscreen, the mobility aspects now that we see the shift of the industry moving towards." Ericsson, he said, will tap into "the ability of IP video experience of Mediaroom with the mobility expertise of Ericsson and the services organization" but will not concentrate on either wireless or wireline services. "If we look at what's happening in the fixed TV environment before we called everything multiscreen TV, when we were really only addressing a single screen in the home, we were predominantly using RF networks to deliver the video," Frost said of the shifting environment. "Increasingly now, with IPTV we saw pure IP delivery of video to the home. And now we're seeing that every TV platform in the future in the home is going to have to leverage IP in there somewhere." Mediaroom's biggest U.S. customer is AT&T (NYSE: T) U-verse. Internationally, the platform is used by Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telus Optik TV and Swisscom. Offloading Mediaroom, which recently lost BT (NYSE: BT) as a customer to Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) thePlatform, will allow Microsoft to concentrate on its "continued mission to make (Xbox) the premium entertainment service that delivers all the games and entertainment consumers want," Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of marketing, strategy and business for Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment business wrote in a corporate blog. "With 76 million Xbox 360 consoles around the world with 46 million Xbox live members, this is a mission that gets us out of bed in the morning," he wrote. It's likely that Microsoft and Ericsson will continue their relationship on a different scale once the deal passes through regulatory and other approvals and Mediaroom is incorporated into the Ericsson Business Unit Support Solutions group. "We want to partner with the industry to deliver the next wave of innovation in games and consumer entertainment. We will partner with content creators, studios, labels, networks, content aggregators, operators and distributors to make this happen," he continued. "We believe the future of home entertainment is one where TV becomes more simple, tailored and intelligent." Ericsson, on the other hand, believes that the future of TV is connected to IPTV, estimating market growth to reach 76 million subscribers this year and 105 million by 2015. "Mediaroom is the leading platform for video distribution deployed with the world's largest IPTV operators," Per Borgklint, senior vice president and head of Business Unit Support solutions at Ericsson said in a press release. "This strategic acquisition positions Ericsson as an industry leader thanks to the skills and experiences of the talented people of Mediaroom combined with Ericsson's end-to-end service capabilities." Mediaroom, which employs about 400 people, is based in Mountain View, Calif. Ericsson also has a base in nearby San Jose and has yet made a decision on what facilities might be combined or used, said Frost. For more:
- Ericsson issued this press release
- and Microsoft has this blog post Related articles:
It's official: Ericsson to acquire Microsoft's IPTV business
Ericsson reportedly in line to buy Microsoft's IPTV biz
BT moves onto thePlatform to drive its IPTV services Read more about: Mediaroom
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2. Midcontinent deploys TiVo whole home experience in South Dakota
Midcontinent Communications has begun deploying a "whole-home next generation TV experience" with TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO), the two companies have announced. According to a jointly issued press release, Midcontinent, which offers service across the upper Midwest, will first deploy the TiVo offering in Rapid City and the Northern Black Hills, in South Dakota, before expanding to Minnesota, North Dakota and remaining South Dakota markets in coming months. The plan is to have a TiVo DVR posted as the "entertainment hub for the home" where subscribers can tap into TiVo's competitive offerings, including a TiVo Mini companion low-cost IP set-top that extends and TiVo Stream, which allows customers to stream live and recorded programming from a TiVo DVR to multiple tablets, smartphones or other connected devices and take pre-recorded shows to view anywhere. "The whole-home experience powered by TiVo will give Midcontinent subscribers the ability to access all the content they want on any screen within the home, including secondary televisions, tablets and smartphones, through the same easy-to-use TiVo interface," said Midcontinent Technology Vice President Jon Pederson. Midcontinent, meanwhile, provides an excellent platform for TiVo, said David Sandford, vice president and general manager for TiVo's Service Provider business. "Since we began working with Midcontinent we've admired how acutely attuned they are to the competitive landscape around them," Sandford said in the news release. "As a result, they have made it an immediate priority to provide their subscribers with the very best whole-home advanced television experience by turning to TiVo." For more:
- Midcontinent and TiVo issued this press release Related articles:
Cable ONE will use TiVo to boost its IP-connected experience
Midcontinent to market TiVo DVRs Read more about: TiVo
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3. AT&T could be setting up subs for online streaming service
AT&T (NYSE: T) could be looking at a way to add some form of online streaming to its U-verse IPTV service. And it wouldn't necessarily be the carrier's creation. According to a report in Variety, the carrier sent a survey to U-verse subscribers querying whether they'd have any interest--including potentially signing up--in a "new video and Internet service" that would, among other things, remove the set-top box from the equation but offer video streams of local broadcast channels, "popular sports and entertainment" subscription channels, and a streaming service such as Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) or Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) to "customers' own devices." All would be offered with better picture quality and shorter streaming wait times, the story continued. "We regularly survey U-verse customers to get their input on a variety of topics," an AT&T spokesperson told FierceIPTV. While the service could be seen to compete with, or perhaps even cannibalize U-verse within the AT&T U-verse footprint, it would make sense outside AT&T coverage areas or even in areas where the carrier could work with "any broadband provider, not necessarily AT&T," as the survey noted. While AT&T has repeatedly said it will jack up the U-verse broadband speeds to be more competitive with DOCSIS 3.0-based cable operators and Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) fiber-to-the-home FiOS service, the carrier is still lagging in broadband coverage and thus a bit restrained on what it can offer over its networks. A streaming competition, which, the survey suggested, would include a Wi-Fi router and 6 Mbps Internet, would allow broadband subscribers to stream content to tablets, phones, TVs and other connected devices without necessarily buying into--or having available--the entire U-verse experience. For more:
- Variety has this story Related articles:
AT&T excludes U-verse data users from data caps
AT&T, Verizon offer the best triple, quad-play service bundles, says Consumer Reports Read more about: Amazon
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4. Verizon: FiOS Flex View on demand service is a retention tool
LAS VEGAS--Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) views its Flex View on demand service as a necessary piece of its FiOS offering because it keeps customers from churning. In fact, a Verizon executive said that FiOS customers who use Flex View on demand are three times less likely to churn than customers who do not use the mobile service. Speaking at the National Association of Broadcasters conference panel on TV Everywhere held here, Maitreyi Krishnaswarmy, director, interactive video services at Verizon FiOS TV said that people who view Verizon FiOS content on the iPad or other mobile devices average 47 minutes of engagement per session. Likewise, customers who view content on Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Xbox average 58 minutes per session. "Engagement is high," Krishnaswarmy said. Krishnaswarmy noted that this compares to the average household, which views about 4 hours of TV per day. However, she said that it's hard to measure whether that statistic is meaningful engagement because many households have the TV on even if no one is watching it. She said that tablet or smartphone viewing is considered engaged viewing because these devices are more personal. SNL Kagan Senior Analyst Ian Olgeirson noted that while many companies are offering TV Everywhere services such as Verizon's Flex View service because it strengthens the relationship with the content provider and the customer, progress has been slow and revenue models are uncertain. But at the same time, programming costs are rising, and that's creating tension in the market. "Operators expect a 10 percent or more increase year over year in content costs, especially sports," Olgeirson said. "There are these rising programming costs but operators are not seeing widespread introduction of incremental revenue models." Krishnaswarmy said that operators such as Verizon believe the content does drive revenue in that it prevents churn. However, for content providers, finding a sustainable revenue model is more critical. "For content companies to have an incentive for multiscreen rights they need to see new revenue stream. We care about getting the right content to a customer and not giving them a dead end," she added. Related articles:
Samsung, Verizon expand FiOS TV app
Verizon's $549 million Calif. investments target Comcast, CLECs
Verizon's Shammo: We'll convert 300,000 homes to fiber in 2013
Verizon's Shammo: 50 Mbps is FiOS' sweet speed spot
Verizon FiOS lifts wireline consumer revenues to $14 billion in 2012 Read more about: FiOS
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5. Warner Properties Communications using VDSL2 to boost bandwidth
Twin Cities, Minn.-based Warner Properties Communications will use VDSL2 technology to deliver a triple play of voice, video and high-speed data services using equipment supplied by Zhone Technologies. The service is expected to reach more than 15,000 subscribers over existing copper lines, although it won't be for everyone in the Warner Properties customer base. "Warner Properties Communications needed a solution for buildings not wired with category five cables or better and thus could not use Ethernet," said Chase Rydberg, the service provider's director of network operations in a press release. "Coax solutions such as DOCSIS were too expensive and not suitable for a deployment this size." On the other hand, he said, Zhone's technology allows the carrier to have a "symmetrical last-mile solution for every building we provide with Internet access." Zhone, in fact, believes its VDSL2 technology will actually let Warner Properties deliver cost-effective "fiber-like speed over copper." It will also allow the service provider to "meet immediate challenges with a comprehensive solution while preparing their networks for imminent and eventual switch to a complete FTTH network," the vendor said in the news release. "The solution is cost-effective and customers will benefit from increased reliability and efficiency," Brian Caskey, Zhone's chief marketing officer said. Zhone provide VDSL2 technology with symmetrical access to mirror capabilities already in place where Ethernet has been deployed, the two companies said. For more:
- see this press release Related articles:
North State uses Zhone to drive FTTH IPTV deployment
ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent, others participate in VDSL2 plugfest at Univ. of New Hampshire Read more about: Vdsl2
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Also Noted SPOTLIGHT ON... NAB Show keeps broadcasters relevant in an IP world  Broadcasters are still extremely relevant to the IPTV space, and video entertainment in particular, and are becoming more so as they adapt to a changing TV Everywhere environment. That's why Fierce editors Steve Donohue and Sue Marek are on hand at their gathering--the NAB Show in Las Vegas--with coverage of the most important news. Get the latest updates here
More news bytes from around the World Wide Web: @FierceIPTV RT ADVAOptical via @broadbandtrends: A Video Conversation with my Future Self. Article | Follow @FierceIPTV > AT&T U-verse customers can now access three Disney-branded products on iOS and Kindle Fire devices, as well as online. Press release > Ericsson has provided MPEG-4 AVC HD compression technology to Telus' Optik TV IPTV service. Story > Consolidation is expected to continue in the TV middleware market, according to data compiled by ABI Research. Press release > ZTE will construct, operate and maintain a low bitrate IPTV network for Telkom Indonesia as part of a four-year construction deal the two companies signed. Story > Russian telecom Rostelecom doubled its IPTV subscriber base in the last year and now stands a 1.4 million subs. Story > Thomson Video Networks has integrated Zixi to help transport high quality video over unmanaged IP links. Press release Online Video News > TV viewers with second-screen capabilities are not especially keen on using the devices to interact directly with apps that accompany TV programs they're watching, research indicates. Article Cable News > News Corp. has threatened to turn the Fox broadcast network into a pay cable TV network rather than see its signal continue to be tapped by Aereo. Article And finally … Asian markets are leading the way as managed IPTV services continue to add subscribers in the face of all competition. Story. News From the Fierce Network:
> Shaw to acquire business ISP ENMAX Envision Post
> TDS Telecom begins new broadband stimulus projects in Kentucky, Mississippi Post
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