Online Reporter Digital Media News, Research and Insight

Headlines – Issue No. 781 (May 11-17, 2012)

The Online Reporter 781
May 11-17, 2012

HEADLINES
HomeGrid Aims at Telcos & Powerline Markets
LG’s Google TV Coming May 21
LG Launches Cloud TV as Smart TV Makers Struggle over Delivery
Cablecos Lead Telcos in Broadband Home Network Technologies
Walmart’s Disc-to-Digital Venture — Episode II
Sony Promises No More Losses after Last Year’s $5.7b Loss
The Schism between Free-to-Air and Free-to-Online Deepens
Tivo Lowers Subscription Rate by 25%

BROADBAND BEAT
BT’s Fiber/Fiber-Copper Passes 10m Homes

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
Macmillan’s Tom Doherty Associates Drops DRM for Its eBooks
Qualcomm Sets Out Its Stall for ‘Internet of Things’

HOME NETWORKING
Marvell Lays Out Its Strategy for HomeGrid (G.hn)
Suttle Says: Telcos Are Asking for HomeGrid (G.hn)
AT&T Uses HomePlug in Home Automation System
No Accident that HomeGrid Plugfest Was in Taiwan

iPAD & THE MANY OTHER TABLETS
AT&T Predicts End of Wi-Fi Only Tablets

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
iPad Market Share Increases to 68% from 55%
Apple Accounts for 95% of Web Traffic on Tablets
Nielsen: OTT & DVR Viewing Increases
Tablet Touch Gives Satisfaction
Apple Dominates in the Mobile Gaming War
LRG: Smart TV Use on the Rise
Viacom CEO Dauman Talks OTT, Tablets & Original Content
Juniper Research: Streaming Mobile TV Surges
TV Prices Increase
Brazil Breaks Out as Top Emerging Market in Broadband, Pay-TV

OTT
Zattoo Signs Up Luxembourg Cellco to Mobile TV
OTT Will Not Be Cheap, Says Agama

SMART TVs and Other OTT DEVICES
Samsung Buys mSpot Video/Music Streaming Service
Lenovo Launches Smart TV in China
Belkin Launches 11ac Products with Broadcom Chips

DIGIGRAMS
Samsung Signs Smart TV Deal in Estonia
Speed Matters
RIM’s Decline Shows in Q1
Disney’s Touché Builds Touch World
T-Link HomePlug Adapters Go On Sale in 500+ Asada Stores
Aperion Launches Wi-Fi Speakers
Kindle Fire’s Second Coming
$99 Xbox Is Live!
Lenovo Breaks Ground on R&D
Entropic Lands STB Maker Asheridge
Spotify Launches iPad App
BlackBerry and Porsche Unveil Connected Car

Headlines – Issue No. 780 (May 4-10, 2012)

HEADLINES
Netgear First to Ship 11ac Wi-Fi Router
DOCSIS 3.0 Reigns Supreme in Broadband
Clearwire Announces LTE Rollout Schedule

BROADBAND BEAT
Clarifying the Murky Chinese Broadband Market
Comcast Adds $316m in Annual Broadband Revenue

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
Why Discovery Is So Hard to Implement

HOME NETWORKING
Microsoft Tests HomeOS for Smart Home Applications
What Attracted Devolo to Broadcom’s HomePlug Chips?

IPAD & THE MANY OTHER TABLETS
Microsoft Boosts Digital Content Platform with Barnes & Noble
Motorola Mobility Reports Lower Tablet Sales in Q1
Target Kicks Amazon Kindles Out of Its Stores

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
Kindle Fire Has Over Half the Android Tablet Market
On-Demand TV Viewing Most Popular for 25% of Brits
$50/Month Data Plans Too Much for Two-Thirds of US Consumers
Many Web Users Are Mobile-Only
E-Reader Purchases Down, E-Book Purchases Up
Interest in Purchasing Tablets within 6 Months Increases
US Spending on Home Entertainment Media Moves Up a Notch
Samsung Beats Apple in Smartphones, Again
New Samsung Smartphone Generating More Buzz than Apple’s?
Tablets Win Out over Smartphones for Viewing Videos
Ads on Smart TVs Engage the Family
Connected TV Shipments Expected to Hit 70% by 2016

OTT
Entone to Bring OTT to Latin America
Redbox’ DVD Rentals Grow Like an Internet Company
Pay TV Still Wins Out over OTT/OTA

PRODUCT WATCH
Samsung Launching 2 Competitors to iPod Touch

THE MOVE TO ORIGINAL CONTENT
Amazon Looks for Scripts for TV Shows
YouTube to Get Tribeca/Maker Studio Channel

DIGIGRAMS
Please Tear Down this Wall
Samsung Beats Nokia as Largest Mobile Phone Maker
LG Denies It Will Stop Making Windows 8 Smartphones
Free Hulu Moves to Authentication
Providence Exits from Hulu
All Olympic Events Will Be Live Online
Microsoft to Launch Competitor to Apple TV, Roku
Tizen Mobile OS Appears
Apple, Samsung Driving Broadcom’s Revenue
Deals and Rumors of Deals: Apple & Epix
Politicians Screwed Up Tax Code, Not Apple

Headlines – Issue No. 778 (April 20-26, 2012)

This Week’s Headlines
Walmart Jumps Out Front with DVD-to-Digital Service
Lantiq’s Video-Grade 802.11n Making Inroads at Pay TV Services
Samsung, not Apple or Google, Will Be Nokia’s Nemesis as Smartphone Markets Shift Eastward
Verizon Wants a Third Smartphone OS
Cellcos’ Data Caps Are Really to Protect Telcos’ Landlines Revenue
First Intel-Based Smartphone to Appear in India

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
Entropic Looks Ahead After Acquiring Trident’s STB Business
Microsoft Aims Windows 8 Tablets Squarely at Apple’s Heart

HOME NETWORKING
Quantenna Raises $79m for Gigabit Wi-Fi
Two Versions of 11n & 11ac: Standard & Advanced

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
33% of Global Cellular Traffic Offloaded to DSL/VDSL Broadband
Intel Expects to Sell 20m-30m Ultrabooks this Year
Marvell Has Shipped 1b Chips to Western Digital

OTT
Converting DVDs & Blu-ray Discs at Walmart…
Netflix CEO: Comcast Not Net-Neutral with Own OTT Service
Sony Pumps Free Ad-Supported Movies into Crackle in Latin America
Time Warner CEO Wants HBO Go Available Online to All HBO Subscribers

PRODUCT WATCH
Sony Has Devices to Back Up Its Four-Screen Strategy
A Closer Look at nasne
Microsoft Xbox 360 Becomes STB for Orange Pay TV

THE MOVE TO ORIGINAL CONTENT
Hulu Acts Like National Pay TV Service

DIGIGRAMS
YouTube, Google Play Get 600 MGM Flicks to Rent
Dune HD to Use BeeSmart Middleware in Its Boxes
LG Collaborates with Producers for More 3D Content
Samsung Launches Cineplex Movie App in Canada
Sony Coalition Gets EC OK to Acquire EMI’s Music Publishing
BBC Picks AudioBoo for Audio Clips Online
Page: Android Important but Not Critical to Google
Google to Sell Motorola Handset Business to Huawei?
Roku Launches in Canada
Can New CEOs Save Sony, Nokia & RIM?

Headlines – Issue No. 775 (March 29, 2012)

Telcos to Offer 100 Mbps Over Copper Wires
UltraViolet to Change How Consumers Get & View Movies & TV Shows
Hon Hai Connects Apple to Sharp to Apple TV
France Telecom Orange Prepares for an OTT Future
Comics Give Online Distribution a Try
Walmart Struggles to Keep Pace with Amazon, Costco

BROADBAND BEAT
Austria’s Telco Goes for AlcaLu’s 100 Mbps Broadband
Lantiq Shipping Chips for 100 Mbps Over Telcos’ Copper Wires
Telco’s Broadband & IPTV Growing Faster than Ever
UK Broadband ‘At the Back of the Pack’

HOME NETWORKING
Quantenna’s List of Announced Wins Gets Longer
Celeno Keeps Adding Wins
Videotron Launches New Cisco-Made HD DVR

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
Music Industry Has ‘Least Negative’ Revenue Since 2004
Music Industry Targets Small Restaurant
iPad’s LTE Not Attractive to Customers. Yet.
More iPad Purchases on the Horizon
IDC Expects Android Devices to Overtake Windows by 2016

MOBILE BROADBAND
Data Throttling Threatens Mobile Video Services

ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES
Aspiro’s WiMP Service Sees Success with Niche Appeal
HTC Moving Toward a Digital Music Service

OTT SERVICES
The Future of Broadband TV (OTT)
BBC Ponders DVD-Less, UltraViolet-Like Ecosystem
Conax Uses Off-the-Shelf Plug-Ins for OTT & Multi-Screen Services

SMART TVS AND OTHER OTT DEVICES
Xbox 360s Used More for Watching Content…

DIGIGRAMS
Staggered Windows for Movies Could Disappear
Sales of TV Sets in the States to Decline in 2012
Hillcrest Labs Puts Motion Control in Second Screens
2012 May Hold More Amazon Kindle Fires
UltraViolet Begins Moves Outside the States
Best Buy to Close 50 Stores
Apple, Android Drive RIM’s Blackberry Out of Consumer Market
Hulu Update Adds More Support for Android Tablets
iPads for the Very (Very, Very) Young?
Vizio Leaves Room to Put Second-Screen Apps on the TV Set

This Week’s Headlines – Issue No. 773

Broadcom’s SoC Technology Firewalls Pay TV and OTT Streams in Cablecos’ Gateways
Intel Raises Possibility of Nationwide Virtual Pay TV Services
Cable TV’s Finest Hour
Sharp Picks New President to Stem Losses in TV Sets
Pay TV Withdrawal Pains Ease in Week 4
Challenges Ahead for Pay TV Networks Come from Many Fronts
New: European OTT Stampede to Reach 83m Devices by 2015

BROADBAND BEAT
Verizon, NEC Field Test 21.7 Tbps Over Fiber
DSL Inventor Cioffi Aims for 100 Mbps with DSL Broadband

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
World’s First At-Sea, Fully Digital TV Content Delivery
ActiveVideo Offers a Universal Write-Once Platform for CE Apps

HOME NETWORKING
HomePlug, HD-PLC Get DLNA Certification
Entone Nabs Pay TV/OTT Software Order at Twin Lakes Telephone

IPAD & THE MANY OTHER TABLETS
The New iPad: Stand-Out Hardware, But Rivals Can Chase iTunes at Last
Toshiba to Keep Trying in Tablets
Unnamed Samsung Official Says Apple to Launch 7.85-inch Tablet

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
Pay TV Companies Land on List of Worst Companies in America
Tablet-Based Music Listening Driving Networked Home Audio
Tablets Changing Shopping Habits
Global Sales of TV Sets Dropped Slightly in 2011
iPad Routs Other Tablets in Corporate Marketplace
UK Social TV Participation Increasing

LEGAL MATTERS
Aereo’s ‘Cloud Antenna’ Draws Heavy Legal Fire from US Broadcasters
Microsoft Says Stop to iPad App ‘OnLive Desktop’
UK: Music Industry v Internet Providers

THE MOVE TO ORIGINAL CONTENT
Hulu to Get ‘First View’ Fremantle Content

ONLINE MUSIC SERVICES
Canada’s SOCAN Scrutinizes CBC’s Royalties Structure
GreenLight Allows Music to Be Legally Added to Web Sites
Spotify Now Available in Germany
Turntable.fm Confirms Deals with Four Major Record Companies
Calcutta High Court Blocks 104 Illegal Music Sites

SECOND SCREEN
The Importance of Metadata to Second-Screen Apps
Mark Burnett, Actv8.me’s ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ App Encourages Ad Viewing
ConnecTV Goes Second-Screen for Basketball’s March Madness

SHOW TIME FOR THE OTT SERVICES
Aereo May Offer Net-Delivered Local TV Channels in 75-199 Cities This Year
Walmart Takes Aim at Being Number 1 Digital Media Retailer
BBC to Offer Paid Downloads of Episodes

DIGIGRAMS
Peel Brings ‘American Idol’ to Second Screen
iPad 2 Price Drop Attracts Non-iPad Buyers
Billboard’s Hot 100 Will Include Digital Music
Barnes & Noble Appoints CFO with Spinoff Experience
New iPad Sold Out
Gaming Consoles a Dying Breed
Tablets, ‘Twilight’ Books, TV Bundles Added to Cost-of-Living Basket
Virgin Media Wins Tube Contract
Apple TV Set Rumor of the Week
Amino Launches Another STB with Intel’s Atom
Bricks & Mortar App Store Opens in New Orleans