HomePNA Blog

Global IPTV Growth Reported and U-verse adds features

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Check out the latest press release on the Broadband Forum’s website announcing the results of a new market study. Predictably the report, which was prepared for the Forum by Point Topic, shows great growth in broadband worldwide in the midst of a severe economic downturn. What thrilled (but didn’t surprise) us was the even greater growth of IPTV with North America number two behind Western Europe in total IPTV deployments but growing twice as fast – is it that compelling IPTV value proposition?

And don’t forget, IPTV is young and the technology is evolving daily. Industry groups like the Broadband Forum continue to develop and refine guidelines which leverage home networking technology to allow service providers to offer IPTV. We like the Broadband Forum and their standards. Any technology that simplifies, standardizes, or enhances a service provider’s ability to provide broadband and IPTV services is good for our members.

In related news (note the smooth segue), our favorite son AT&T announced enhancements to its U-verse services. Chief among those is a new DVR feature “the company believes is unique: the ability to schedule and manage recordings from any U-verse receiver in a multi-room DVR installation (instead of from the DVR receiver room only)”. The new feature is a software upgrade that will be enabled while you sleep. In the words of Jeff Weber, vice president of video services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, “with AT&T U-verse, you’re getting DVR capabilities you can’t find from any cable providers … we’re giving you an advanced entertainment experience, and this is still only the beginning.”

Service Providers Driving Home Network Shipments

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Well, I admit it. I like good news. Especially the kind that supports trends we’ve been predicting and reporting (ever notice how similar brag is to blog?).

A new report from market analyst Joyce Putcher at In-Stat entitled “2Wire, Huawei, and Thomson Make Major Gains across Broadband CPE Market Share Segments” provides more evidence that the basic dynamics of the home networking equipment market is changing.  Or is the correct term “maturing”?

Is it competition from TelcoTV service providers? Is it telecom evolving into a three network (hint to the Adult ADD crowd, the home network is the third) network? Is it home networks enabling service providers to add new customers and increase ARPU (a smutty sounding acronym for Average Revenue Per Customer) with new features like whole-home DVRs and remote diagnostics or new services like home technical support? Are other parts of the home networking equipment market saturating? Is it because music downloads and other popular “traditional” applications run pretty well on older Wi-Fi home networks?

In the words of a friend from one of the headline companies “Thanks! Now we just have to keep it up, but it just goes to show that the Telcos will win the home networking war in the long run”. And need we mention; they will need to have a fast and robust home network like HomePNA in the boxes.

New Home Networking Market Report

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Like any good marketing dweeb (yes there are many definitions of “dweeb, none of them complimentary) I read the announcement of a new home networking market study by In-Stat analyst Joyce Putscher with both interest and fear. Interest because she may have succeeded in distilling a few nuggets of wisdom from the hype we marketing types throw at her; and fear that she gave sweeter ink to the competition (and also joy that she didn’t spell out the HomePNA acronym – we’ve been trying squelch it since the turn of the century when it became apparent that the initial interest driving the use of HomePNA in North America was COAX and then phone wires in that order).

“Over the next few years, service providers will drive the growth of in-home networks” and “Two segregated home networks (HN) have been evolving – a service provider-centric network, and a PC-centric network. Each is leveraging different business models and technologies” caught my eye. I believe the first – and not just because it gives my life meaning. The second, I’m not so sure.

As I blogged last week, trade groups focused on the transmission media, such as HomePNA, MOCA, HomePlug, and Wi-Fi (often referred to as the PHY for Physical Interface layer) and industry groups focused on higher layers such as the Broadband Forum and DLNA often work together and may share representatives driving a lot of information sharing. And remember, those representatives are employees of stakeholders -- communication companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, and other interested parties. 

Given that a home network such as HomePNA incorporates guaranteed quality of service which, as discussed many blogs ago, is designed for triple-play and can transport a variety of data types without degrading time sensitive revenue bearing services like IPTV and VoIP, the technology is there waiting for those cross-pollinating standards people to build the usage models and recommendations to simplify your networked life.  And going on it is, but that doesn't mean it will be adopted.  So, my take is an assertive maybe. 

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.

“Social-Media-Ize”

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

Now we could be going out on a limb with this one … but the growth of IPTV and the rapid explosion of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In) has us wondering how it will all tie together? And it mostly certainly will. You can’t have to two popular and somehow connected media that don’t converge together. So, we’re going to be futurists here and suggest that in the next five to 10 years as IPTV proliferates and social media continues to explode, a merge of the two can’t be far behind. We’ve already mentioned our expectation that digital broadcast television and the Internet will somehow find themselves coupled like a yin-yang marriage where the opposites have learned to not only coexist but do so with an energetic harmony that somehow makes sense. Now toss in the obsession that has become social media and you have the makings for a new generation of ultra social couch spuds ready to launch into cyberspace and meet all of the people they may have only said “hi” to once in an elevator. We are curiously on the verge of something truly interesting that will impact society and culture in some unexpected ways. And HomePNA intends to be right in the middle of it as the potato soup du jour providing the necessary standard to distribute all of this wonderful home entertainment to every room in the house. So, here’s to your “social” spud lives!

Quadruple-Play Ready

A new study released from Compete Inc., a Web analytics company, suggests consumers are ready for quadruple play services (voice, data, video and IPTV) and details telecom companies positioned best to take advantage of the emerging opportunities. It also reported that consumers are driven first by bundled pricing and convenience (no surprise there) and are less concerned about which services are in the bundle -- however they are more interested in bundling broadband access with phone and TV over cellular service somewhat offsetting the advantage of telcos with cellular offerings.  Marketing the offerings is critical. 

We don't find the information particularly revelatory as much as it confirms our observations of the rapidly growing market place where consumers seem to be eating up AT&T's U-Verse service. As we reported in several blogs, U-Verse subscriptions picked up at a dramatic pace in the last two quarters of 2008. While this building momentum may be moderated somewhat (in their last quarter results, AT&T announced that it will slow U-verse deployments slightly and plan to pass 30M homes in 2010 rather than 2009), deployments don't appear to be eclipsed by recent economic woes so we really don't expect to see any abysmal numbers reported in the near future. In fact, we are encouraging service providers to join HomePNA as soon as possible. By becoming a member you will be taking the first steps to dodge the economic bullet. The home networking market in general seems to be a good place to be "playing" if you want to set your sights on higher ground and survive the economic storm.

 

 

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!

The Golden Age of Home Networking

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

We've been discussing the windfall that the home networking industry is experiencing directly tied into our recession (yes, all indicators show we can unfortunately use that word). We are not the only ones noticing the amazing uptick in the home networking market as the economy takes a downward turn. Advance Television.com recently publicized a report that in the United Kingdom an upsurge in HD television has come as an unexpected turn of events during the recent credit crunch. Their report supports other theories that users are running for cover straight into their homes and noticing their television maybe isn't sexy enough. If you're not going to partake in your favorite pastime (a.k.a., shopping) then why not spend a little extra on your home entertainment? We mentioned this same thing happened during the Great Depression – only it became the Golden Age of Cinema and produced one of the first true movie stars, Charlie Chaplin. So, the good news – home networking may end up being one of the few industries to "grow" this year!!

Always be Reliable!

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

Interesting turn of events in terms of consumer behavior and expectations we think is applicable to home networking. CDNetworks, a content delivery network based in Seoul, South Korea, announced 300 percent growth in revenue during its first full year of operation in the U.S. market. The kicker: the company claims that "flexible operations, responsiveness to customer needs and 'service reliability' are the most important factors for clients when choosing a content delivery network." The interesting part that doesn't align with our theories: the customers will choose essentially QoS over commoditization of service, which would essentially keep prices down. Here at HomePNA, we know QoS matters but our expectation would be that bundled services would drive down prices and drive up interest in adding triple-play services. Very interesting … where will these kind of results impact our industry? We shall see.