_default _116_pages.indd - TELE-satellite International Magazine
_default _116_pages.indd - TELE-satellite International Magazine
_default _116_pages.indd - TELE-satellite International Magazine
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LITHUANIA<br />
ALPHA LINKS WITH WIDEVINE FOR KAVA IPTV SERVICE<br />
Digital rights management company Widewine has been selected by<br />
IPTV operator Alpha komunikacijos to provide its Widevine Cypher<br />
for the secure delivery of premium broadcast and video-on-demand<br />
content for its Kava IPTV service. Alpha komunikacijos chose Widevine<br />
because of its established record of securing Hollywood and European<br />
content on STBs as well as PVRs, PCs and Macs. Kava offers a full<br />
range of TV, VOD and interactive services to their subscribers with plans<br />
to grow their service to more than 80,000 households in Lithuania.<br />
IBM AND WIDEWINE HELP SKYNET TO<br />
PROVIDE PREMIUM CONTENT<br />
IBM and Widevine Technologies are helping ISP Skynet (owned by the<br />
Penki Kontinentai group) to provide premium TV content to all 25,000<br />
Skynet users in Lithuania. Skynet will launch a new service later this<br />
year, with basic and premium television channels to compete with mainstream<br />
cable, <strong>satellite</strong> and other IPTV providers in the region. Skynet<br />
will deliver pay-TV services to set top boxes at their ‘PenkiTV’ subscribers<br />
and are planning to expand service delivery to PCs in the very near<br />
future. IBM will manage design, delivery and maintenance for the digital<br />
video head end from Cisco and content protection from Widevine.<br />
PORTUGAL<br />
SONAECOM AND ERICSSON TRIAL IPTV MIDDLEWARE<br />
Ericsson is providing Portuguese triple play operator Sonaecom<br />
to provide and integrate its open, standards-based, end-to-end<br />
IPTV solution, including Ericsson’s new IMS-based IPTV (Internet<br />
Protocol Television) middleware that enables operators to<br />
deliver personalized and interactive TV experiences to its subscribers.<br />
The Ericsson IPTV ecosystem is based on open standards,<br />
designed to comply with the Open IPTV Forum specifications.<br />
PORTUGAL <strong>TELE</strong>COM WITH 200.000 IPTV SUBSCRIBERS<br />
Portugal Telecom has reached 200,000 subscribers for its Meo<br />
pay-TV service, delivered via IPTV and <strong>satellite</strong>, a target which<br />
was previously expected to be reached at the end of the year.<br />
Meo’s 200,000 subscribers are estimated by the telco to represent<br />
30% of its ADSL clients and 7% of its fixed-line clients.<br />
RUSSIA<br />
COMSTAR EXPANDS IPTV WITH TANDBERG<br />
Comstar-Direct, Russia’s leading provider of broadband Internet access<br />
services, is expanding its IPTV head-end with Tandberg Television<br />
to support MPEG-4 AVC encoding and transcoding. The addition of<br />
Tandberg’s single module iPlex transcoding means the operator can<br />
ingest widely available MPEG-2 feeds and convert them to MPEG-4<br />
AVC without the need to decode and re-encode. This one-step approach<br />
to transcoding is cost-effective, helps preserve picture quality and<br />
makes it considerably easier to re-synchronize video with subtitles.<br />
BCC SELECTS BITBAND IP VIDEO DELIVERY SOLUTION<br />
BitBand’s Content Delivery Network has been chosen by Russian<br />
systems integrator BCC as an IP video delivery solution to be supplied<br />
to Russian operator UTK, the main fixed-line service provider<br />
in the Southern Federal District. BitBand’s Maestro content distribution<br />
and management suite and Vision VOD & TVOD appliance<br />
servers were also selected for the deployment, based on UTK’s<br />
requirements for scalability and growth scenarios. Once deployed<br />
the platform will support services including video on demand, network<br />
personal video recording, time-shift TV and programme restart.<br />
COMSTAR WITH 146.000 IPTV SUBSCRIBERS<br />
Comstar reached 146,000 Moscow-based subscribers for its doubleplay<br />
service of broadband and IPTV in the second quarter of this year,<br />
up 44% from the same period of 2007, while average revenue per user<br />
for the period reached US$ 21.40. The operator also reported that<br />
its pay-TV subscriber base across all Russian regions it operates in<br />
rose by 32% between April and June this year to reach 142,000.<br />
RUSSIAN HDTV PLATFORM SELECTS EUROBIRD 9 SATELLITE<br />
The new Russian HDTV platform, Platforma HD, has selected the Eurobird<br />
9 <strong>satellite</strong> operated by Eutelsat to deliver new HD content across western<br />
parts of Russia to the Urals. Platforma HD has signed a contract with Eutelsat<br />
for a full transponder and this capacity is already broadcasting the new<br />
platform’s initial offer of four HD channels (Eurosport HD, National Geographic<br />
HD, HD Life and Kinopokaz HD). Platforma HD has selected DRE