HomePNA Blog

IPTV Grows Worldwide

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

Market analysts MRG released their Global IPTV Market Leaders Report — March 2009 that describes some interesting trends around the world. Among the most notable, the report cites global growth and most specifically in China where strong gains have been for Access, video on demand, set-top boxes, middleware and content protection. “This kind of a regional category-take-over is unprecedented,” states Jose Alvear, IPTV Analyst at MRG. “Larger regional vendors (and service providers) are starting to ‘pull out all the stops’ on their regional strategies, on the belief that the economic contraction is offering unique opportunities to move aggressively into un-served markets.” We’re not surprised by the report’s revelation – in fact, we expected to see worldwide growth particularly in the Asian countries and South America where our own business interests continue to build.

"Here take it All! But Please Don't Take my Cable Service"

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

In the obnoxious theme of "we told you so," our fellow Americans still seem to be doing exactly what we said they would be doing during the recession – going home for their entertainment. A survey from Amplitude Research said 70 percent of 600 respondents said they plan to keep current cable and satellite television service this year. On the flipside, only two of the 600 said they plan to drop their multichannel video service to cut household expenses; however, 15 percent said they intended to downgrade to a lower-priced video subscription service.

Also interesting, the study found that a "substantial number" said they are turning to the Web to watch video and about 32 percent said they "regularly watch video from Web sites such as Hulu, YouTube and iTunes."

We think we can safely say that with the vast majority continuing to keep their home entertainment service despite what's going on with their pocketbooks, the home entertainment industry will not be taking any real hits in 2009 and will grow at a steady, even pace. We also think the economic environment may be accelerating the move away from the traditional cable model and toward an on-demand model that relies more and more on over-the-top Web content delivered to your TV over IPTV and a home network.

Digital TV Transition Delayed

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

In what seemed like an obvious turn of events, the switch from analog to digital television has been delayed to June 12. No surprise! Rumblings began a month ago that a delay was likely given that some two million viewers had been put on the "list" to receive their coupon to purchase the converter box. You can't shut off the supply without ensuring all your constituents have a solution – or you can and cause uproar in proportion to a major riot. Americans love their TV! Or "don't take my TV away from me!" If the coupons had gone out in the appropriate timeframe the transition probably would have taken place as projected. Now the government has a few more months to get caught up and send out those coupons. Here in HomePNA land where member AT&T offers a digital solution in the form of U-verse, we feel confident all of those subscribers would have calmly watched the riots – on TV!

IPTV Making Serious "Noise" in the TV Market

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director HomePNA marketing and PR

All you cable couch potatoes who think 500 channels and a stagnant TV watching experience is spud heaven, we have news for you. Now you can add sour cream, bacon bits and onions to your potato, as bi-directional IPTV challenges traditional uni-directional television in a potato bakeoff. Recent statistics indicated that while traditional cable and pay-TV platforms still have a stronghold, according to ABI Research, IPTV will grow by an estimated 32 percent annually over the next six years to nearly 79 million subscribers globally by 2014. That's a big glob of sour cream and some cheese on the side too for you potato lovers. Certainly recent statistics regarding AT&T's U-verse indicate that the full-on spud winner could end up being IPTV as traditional television slowly phases out. And if the laws of any new technology apply, we think the potato recipe for the future is definitely IPTV – which makes for very happy HomePNA members whose services and products are included on that recipe list!

Just how mainstream is IPTV?

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

Once closet technology familiar among only geeks, gurus and techies IPTV has hit main street to become more commonly known among the "folks."  What evidence do we have to support our announcement? Just look at a recently launched video contest sponsored by Actiontec. Actiontec invited users to create a short video to show why they love their broadband connection. Videos can depict among others thing IPTV or connecting your home entertainment center to the Internet. Wait! Did they use the word IPTV undefined and business as usual in a consumer invitation? Yes, I believe they did. How exciting is that? And what does this mean for HomePNA technology that enables distribution of triple-play service including IPTV throughout the home? It means consumers are becoming aware of it and will not only ask for IPTV to be included in their service provider bundled packages but DEMAND it be included. Service providers not ahead of the demand will be forced to forge ahead to meet that demand by developing and delivering IPTV capabilities as a part of their standard offerings. We here at HomePNA welcome and encourage service providers in need of assistance to join our growing organizations and get a leg up on meeting the forthcoming demand.

"Wolf! Wolf"

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA marketing and PR

The headlines are overweight with serial proclamations that the "sky is falling" and quick! Run for cover. So I guess television viewers took heed and ran for cover all the way into the safety of their homes and straight for a comfortable couch and a great enhanced IPTV experience. They are apparently using their HD televisions to project rays of bright, exceptionally clear light to ward off stray pieces of falling sky. All the while enjoying their high-definition channels and multi-room DVR, which a few Chicken Little analysts suggested they would not do to save a dollar or two during these tough economic times. Turns out Chicken Little is really The Boy Who Cried Wolf!

News from competitor Verizon suggests Chicken Little might want to pack his bags and head for Toon Town. Verizon conducted a survey that found 57 percent of 1,026 adults will save a few dollars by staying home and watching not just more TV but enhanced TV. Imagine that! Escapist behavior when the world looks not so bright. And hey! While you're watching TV, why not beef it up a little? Makes sense to us. Certainly, recent announcements out of HomePNA member AT&T about their U-Verse subscriber increases support the survey results. So, the sky is not falling unless you're watching a show on the Disaster Channel on your fabulous IPTV!

One Million U-Verse Viewers – No Problem!

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and Public Relations

Right on the heels of our recent announcement that AT&T expects to hit the 1 million mark for U-verse subscribers by year's end, recent news reports about Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform support our projections. Microsoft announced that 2 million customers now use Mediaroom IPTV platform globally, with AT&T driving much of the growth.

 According to Telephony Online, "What we are seeing is a real shift from companies coming out and building and testing IPTV to real deployment and adoption that is driving momentum for the services," said Paula Reinman, director of outbound marketing for Microsoft Mediaroom. "The ramp is really good news and the interesting part of it is why that is happening and the indicators are that growth is coming not just from new customers and deployments but from customers being able to leverage new capabilities in the platform."

 Are we surprised by the increasing interest in IPTV? No, we've been watching the momentum grow over the last year; slowly building into the expected wave of adoption. AT&T certainly seems to believe it's not just about to happen but is happening.  AT&T also launched U-verse Total Home Digital Video Recorders services using Mediaroom DVR Anywhere technology and continues to differentiate its offering on features. For both AT&T and Microsoft we expect deployments to continue to grow strongly. For all you prospective HomePNA members out there, I hope you're paying attention to the obvious synergy between IPTV home networking and IPTV middleware technologies.

The More Bandwidth the Merrier

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, Director, HomePNA Marketing

More HomePNAmembers companies are integrating components and devising ways to increase throughput speeds to make the IP based home entertainment experience even better. Take for example, Actiontec Electronics’ announcement of its new line of triple-play VDSL2/ADSL2+ Universal DSL Wireless Gateways, which include support for HomePNA and MOCA in addition to Ethernet and WiFi, and are designed to fuel the next generation of high-speed data, HDTV, and Voice over IP services. The advanced gateway offers throughput speeds up to 100 Mbps upstream and downstream over existing copper access lines -- enabling carriers to deploy ultra-broadband service via any access architecture including CO-based DSLAM, remote DSLAM, or FTTx and any access protocol (ATM or PTM).  With guaranteed QoS and a data rate of 320 megabits per second, HomePNA 3 can provide over 200 megabits per second of user throughput, enough speed to really make use of the high performance DSL interface.

What does this mean to the average consumer—more bandwidth to accommodate the rise of social media and IPTV where video and audio files suck up bandwidth faster than you can download. New products like the Universal DSL Wireless Gateway increase speeds and capabilities enabling the user to have the capability for an uninterrupted, video-rich entertainment experiences without objectionable glitches. So as the proliferation of social media continues to rise and IPTV becomes a common household entertainment experience, the end user can expect it will all happen without their knowledge or need to know. Now isn't that cool? We certainly think so.

U-Verse Rocks and HomePNA Rolls!!

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, Marketing Director, HomePNA Alliance

We couldn't have bought better press than the article recently published in Screen Plays titled "AT&T U-verse Shows Strength with New Features, High Consumer Satisfaction." The article not only describes the numerous successes of AT&T's U-verse in the HD DVR market, citing the addition of 232,000 new U-verse subscribers added to the roster last quarter, but also acknowledges high customer satisfaction from those who have U-verse.

The report says, "The latest J.D. Power results, based on a survey of 18,938 residential TV service customers nationwide, rated U-verse first in all three regions where the service was factored into the survey, including the South, Southwest and North Central. The survey, conducted as U-verse approaches the one million subscriber mark, signaled the growing impact the IP-based service is having after a long launch period during which competitors suggested they saw little reason for concern."

The report goes on to cite the numerous benefits of U-Verse. Along with offering about 45 HD channels in most markets and the Total Home DVR service, U-verse now includes:

• Mobile Remote Access to DVR, which lets subscribers schedule and manage DVR recordings from any compatible mobile phone;
• AT&T Online Photos from Flickr, which lets customers browse photos they've uploaded to flickr.com and watch slide shows on U-verse TV;
• AT&T U-bar, which brings customizable weather, stock, sports and traffic information to the U-verse TV screen, without interrupting the current program;
• Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football, which allows customers to track the progress of fantasy teams, including current team matchups and league standings;
• YELLOWPAGES.COM TV, enabling searches to find local businesses and other information via the TV screen;
• AT&T Yahoo! Games, which brings online games – including Sudoku, Solitaire, JT's
• Blocks, Mah-jongg Tiles and Chess -- to the TV screen.

Since U-verse uses the HomePNA standard to distribute home entertainment over phone line and coax, we couldn't be happier about this news. As U-Verse deployment hits the one million mark, which all indicators show it will within months, our members can expect to enjoy similar success. We are quite certain the writing is on the wall for our competitors. HomePNA will ultimately become the number one choice for IPTV.

Don't miss out. We encourage all services providers, OEMs, and silicon providers to join now. The time is ripe! Take advantage of the obvious market growth.

AT&T to Surpass One Million U-Verse Subscribers

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing

We recently announced that AT&T had reached 650,000 subscribers last quarter. Not satisfied with so many new subscribers, AT&T has targeted a goal of one million subscribers by the end of the 2008. You might think that is a lofty goal but guess what? AT&T has bigger plans. AT&T has now announced plans to plans to go straight through the big retails chains, Wal-mart and Circuit City, which is an interesting and bold move since most IPTV operators do not sell services through retail chains. It also seems a natural move for a company that sells a good number of cell phones and mobile service plans through those same retailers. In our opinion, this marks an aggressive marketing position that will help increase awareness of IPTV with the general consumer. Right now, most U-verse subscribers are blissfully unaware that they are on the cutting edge using IPTV. Now that about 600 stores (located in areas where U-verse is available) will market IPTV, expect the public's interest to be piqued, which we here at HomePNA couldn't be more pleased about. AT&T's U-verse uses the HomePNA standard. As AT&T becomes more aggressive all we can do is sit back, watch the fun, and enjoy the results.