Newsclip Service

January 2003 

These news-clips have been collated from various news sources because they are considered possibly relevant to Interactive TV learning developments.

29 January 2003    

(USA) Federal Government favours inbuilt tuners for DTV rollout

For the transition to digital television, the US Federal Government has decided to look inbuilt tuners instead of using set-top boxes.  The public broadcaster SBS says inbuilt tuners alone are not going to solve the problem of how to roll out digital TV. But the Communications Minister said he is not closing off any options for pay or free-to-air operators. (Source: ABC News) (see press article)

28 January 2003

(Italy) Cost of DTV may hinder switchover

According to a study by the Gartner Group, Italy will not achieve a complete switchover from analogue to digital TV until the year 2014. This is based on survey results, which found that 84 % said a digital box with a 200 Euro price tag was too expensive, whilst 34 % considered 50 Euro as too much to pay.  (Source: Europemedia) (see press article)

(USA) Copycats could push TiVo & ReplayTV out of the market  

TiVo and ReplayTV were the pioneers of personal video recording but their future is looking grim as almost every maker of consumer electronics are incorporating PVRs as an add-on features for other consumer electronics. In addition, the up-front costs will come down over time and there are no real subscription fees. (Source: Red Herring) (see press release)

23 January 2003 

(USA) Set-top boxes – the central hub for the living room?

According to Allied Business Intelligence, the residential gateway-enabled set-top box is set to be the key application in the living room. Features such as PVRs, VOD and video networking make set-top boxes more complex devices for the living room. By 2008, the research predicts that 68& of the Set Top Boxes shipped will have PVR capabilities, compared with 11 percent in 2002. (Source: allNetDevices) (see press release) 

21 January 2003 

(UK) Freeview available in 1-2 million homes

The amount of Freeview’s digital TV adapters sold means that according to some industry estimates, the service is now available in around 2 million homes, however Barb estimates the figure is closer to 1 million. Around 1.4 million homes receive Freeview through their old ITV Digital set-top boxes and 300,000 homes have bought integrated digital TV sets. (Source: MediaGuadian.co.uk) (see press release)

15 January 2003

(USA) US Broadband hits 33.6 million

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, home Broadband is becoming increasingly more popular in the US, with access growing 59% to 33.6 million in December 2002. Their figures indicate that broadband users spend more time online and view more pages than dial-up users. The result also showed that fastest growing segment for broadband usage is the older age users whilst the figures for teenagers aged 12-17 rose 66% in December to nearly 4.2 million and kids aged 2-11 jumped 62% since last year. (Source: Nielsen//NetRatings) (see press release)

14 January 2003

(Spain) ONO and Auna Cable to launch digital TV in Spain

ONO and Auna Cable have announced plans to launch digital TV this year, offering near VOD, iTV applications, SMS messaging. Both operators will be able to distribute up to 100 channels through their networks. This digital launch will increase the competition for Spain's digital TV market as Canal Satellite Digital and Via Digital, finalise the terms of their Government-approved merger. (Source: Digital TV Group) (see article)

13 January 2003

(France) 590 million Worldwide Internet users in 2002

Worldwide Internet users grew from 474.3 million in 2001 to 590 million in 2002, IDATE reports. In South Korea, broadband Internet access for ADSL users increased from 2.35 million in December 2000 to over 5 million in September 2002, an increase of around 113%. In Western Europe the number of broadband subscribers grew by around 76% in one year to total 12.5 million in December 2002. (Source: IDATE) (see press release)

(UK) Viewers ask for easy-to-use Digital TV 

The future success of digital television will depend upon how easy the service is to use, suggests a report from the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Consumers’ Association. Suggestions put forward by users of digital services included more user-friendly manuals, unambiguous menus on on-screen displays and standardisation between remote control buttons and on-screen requests. (Source: ITC) (see press release)

10 January 2003

(USA) Microsoft and Sony compete for an independent iTV Solution

In this article for Forbes, Victoria Murphy looks at the competition between Microsoft and Sony to come up with their own iTV solution.  As software and hardware will be the main elements for iTV, the two biggest manufacturers would benefit from working together. However, Sony have just launched software that allows viewers to see PC content through their televisions and Microsoft, are planning for the central broadband hub to be the PC. (Source: Forbes) (see press release)

9 January 2003 

(USA) TiVo Launches Home Networking Software

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, TiVo announced a new service option that will transform the DVR into a home entertainment network. The “Home Media Option” will enable subscribers to stream MP3 music files and photos stored on their PC directly to the TV. Video can also be streamed from one TiVo to another in the home. It will cost a one-off fee of $99 for the first Series 2 unit, and $49 for each additional unit. (Source: TiVo) (see press release)

(The Netherlands) Legislation hampers Netherlands’ ADSL deployment

According to telecom operator KPN, legislation has hampered their deployment of ADSL. This legislation has focused more on rules and less on customers and stimulation of market demands. KPN believes this to be the main reason for the company falling below the targets for ADSL Penetration in Europe.  The Netherlands are currently on fifth place with 4.8 percent penetration of ADSL. Belgium is first with 9.4 percent, Germany 8.2 percent. Denmark: 8.1 percent; Sweden: 5.3 percent. (Source: Telecom Paper.com)

(USA) Sony view TV as a non-PC champion

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony Corp President Kunitake Ando said that "TV, the champion of the non-PC world, is about to be reborn as the centre of broadband entertainment," He also showed off CoCoon, a broadband jukebox for audio and video, and RoomLink, which acts as a wireless server for pulling media recorded on a PC to a television. (Source: Techzonez) (see press release)

8 January 2003

(Australia) OPTUS abandons iTV Project

According to an article in The Australian, OPTUS plan to discontinue their $200 million interactive television project and turn to high-speed Internet services instead. The article states, “While many of the iTV offerings proved popular, the business model failed to work”. The company wants to have a residential DSL service available mid-2003. (Source: News.com.au) (see press release)

7 January 2003

(USA) Microsoft Windows Media opens up to developers

Microsoft has announced that their flagship streaming media software “Windows Media 9 Series.” will be licensed at lower prices and opened up to enable developers to create software that could run on non-Windows systems. This places the software in direct competition with MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 (Source: Internetnews.com) (see press article)

2 January 2003

(USA) There is still a long way to go for Internet Video

Despite the increasing content and wider access, real-time and downloadable video accessible over the Internet is still not seen as a direct competitor to the traditional video service, according to new Federal Communications Commission report, “Ninth Annual Report on Competition in Video Markets”. The report indicated that only a handful of Americans use their Internet connection to access video services. (Source: dc.internet.com) (see press article)

(USA) Microchip improves reception of digital-TV signal

Fox Group and Philips Research have announced a new microchip that will improve the reception of Digital TV through indoor antennas. After three years of research into digital TV reception, the result showed that the shortcomings were in the digital TV receivers inside people's homes. Researchers have found that up to 40 percent of all viewers get some television through an antenna. (Source: The Seattle Times) (see press article

 

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Last updated 30 April 2004