Open IPTV Forum adds new members, including BBC

December 22, 2008 - The Open IPTV Forum, a pan-industry initiative established to produce end-to-end specifications for the continued development of IPTV services worldwide, has "significantly" increased its membership with eight new signees, bringing the total to 52.

Israeli telco Bezeq to start IPTV tests

December 22, 2008 - Israeli telco Bezeq does not plan to wait for a ruling by the Antitrust Council on whether it can increase its stake in satellite broadcaster YES before moving forward with its IPTV platform, according to local news portal Globes.

KPN and Reggefiber receive green light for FTTH project

December 22, 2008 - Dutch incumbent telco KPN and local fibre-optics provider Reggefiber have received approval from the Dutch Competition Authority (NMA) for their fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) joint venture, which will specialise in the construction and operation of a new FTTH network.

Orange to invest in production of French content

December 19, 2008 - French telco Orange has signed an agreement with the national producers' associations to invest 6% of revenues from its new premium film and TV package Orange Cinema Series in financing domestic productions, a figure expected to reach between €10mn and €15mn per year.

Brasil Telecom to launch residential FTTH services

December 19, 2008 - Brasil Telecom is expanding its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in five Brazilian cities with the intention of launching residential services over the network this month, offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Pixelmetrix wins order from European operator

December 19, 2008 - Pixelmetrix, a Singapore-headquartered specialist in preventive monitoring for digital television and IPTV networks, has received its first order for the Electronic Couch Potato (ECP) probe and ECP Consolidator from a "major" IPTV operator based in Europe.

Firecomms OptoLock selected for IPTV set-top box reference design by STMicroelectronics

December 19, 2008 - Geneva-headquartered semiconductor firm STMicroelectronics has selected OptoLock interconnect technology from Irish company Firecomms for the STMicroelectronics STi7105 reference design for an IPTV set-top box.

French operators sign agreement on FTTH rollout

December 19, 2008 - French telcos Orange, SFR and Numericable have signed an agreement setting out the conditions for sharing fibre-optic cables installed in buildings by any of them in order to maximise existing infrastructure and enable residents in all buildings involved to choose from amongst the three operators.

Sonaecom delivers early Christmas present to Clix SmarTV subscribers

December 18, 2008 - Portuguese telco Sonaecom is to offer all subscribers to its IPTV service 'Clix SmarTV' free access to all channels on the platform, irrespective of service package, between December 22nd and 28th.

Interview with Geert Kelchtermans, Product Line Manager, Belgacom TV

Ericsson selected to build Nigerian FTTH network

December 18, 2008 - Ericsson has been chosen by Nigerian telecoms company 21st Century Technologies to supply, build and systems integrate a nationwide residential fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to enable the delivery of advanced services including high-speed broadband, IPTV and VoIP by the telco.

Otto Group to market products via PCCW's Now TV

December 18, 2008 - The Otto Group, headquartered in Hamburg, is to start marketing its products in Hong Kong via local telco PCCW's IPTV service 'Now TV', the largest pay-TV operation in the territory.

Portugal Telecom exceeds 300k subs for Meo

December 18, 2008 - Portugal Telecom has surpassed 300,000 subscribers for its pay-TV service 'Meo', accounting for 43% of its ADSL customers and 11% of its fixed-line customers, according to the company.

Deutsche Telekom boosts on-demand library, holds firm with year-end subs target

December 18, 2008 - Deutsche Telekom has expanded the amount of content available from the VOD library of its IPTV service 'T-Home Entertain' to over 5,000 titles, as well as confirming that it is still aiming to reach 500,000 subscribers for the service by the end of this year.