TOP STORY: Eagle Flies with IPTV Connectivity Agreement CARRIAGE: here! Debuts Internet-TV Fare On the Front Lines · Study: Worldwide IPTV Subscribers Will Boom by 2010 · OEN Scores NFL Network Deal · Tandberg to Acquire Web-Video Player · Nortel, Broadstream Broaden Rural IPTV-Product Line One-Liners Quote of the Week

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Broadband-service provider Eagle Broadband inked a collocation deal with Internet-exchange-connection provider Terremark Worldwide to field IPTV throughout the United States.

Under the multiyear agreement, Eagle will use Terremark's NAP of the Americas facility as a distribution hub for its IPTV service. Eagle will use that to support its IPTVComplete service, which includes a lineup of 200 video channels, as well as delivery systems and HD and standard-definition set-top boxes.

The League City, Texas-based company has been marketing IPTVComplete to providers as a turnkey managed service and, so far, it has landed a handful of smaller operators, including Miami-based ANEW Broadband and hospitality video-service provider KoolConnect Technologies.

"This is a significant step for us in the delivery of our IPTV solution and our growth strategy for this service," Eagle CEO Dave Micek said. "Terremark's robust and secure NAP of the Americas facility is the right place for us to be as we continue to grow our business in the IPTV-content-delivery service market."

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Gay television network here! TV teamed up with online-television service Tvext to offer a selection of its programming content to Web viewers.

here! -- which boasts the world’s largest collection of gay and lesbian films, plus a bank of original television programs -- signed a distribution agreement with Tvext to offer titles on-demand via Tvext’s Web site (www.tvext.com). here! premium programs provided on the Web site include thriller Third Man Out - A Donald Strachey Mystery and comedy documentary Man of the Year.

Users also can create personal libraries of titles stored either on their home computer or via Tvext online servers.

“Millions of people are searching for here! premium gay and lesbian entertainment online, and Tvext offers an easy and exceptional broadband experience for finding, watching and downloading here! from the Internet," here! executive vice president and general manager Karen Flischel said.

Tvext itself recently came online and, as part of a limited-time introductory offer, it is allowing users to sample all of its programming free-of-charge. Going forward, it will switch to a subscription model, offering programs under a $10 package good for 10-15 hours of content or a $7.95 Tvext Pass. The Tvext Pass also offers 10-15 hours of content, but it automatically replenishes the account balance as viewing hours are consumed.

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A new study fielded by analyst firm iSuppli predicted that the IPTV-subscriber base worldwide will boom from 2.4 million in 2005 to more than 63 million by 2010.

El Segundo, Calif.-based iSuppli also predicted that this rapid pace of subscriber additions, which will have an annual compound growth rate of 92%, will spur a competitive battle between established video providers and new entrants.

In addition, the IPTV-subscriber base will generate more than $27 billion in services revenue in 2010. While video services will claim the lion’s share of this revenue, there will also be income generated from added media services.

These services, along with operator advertising, will comprise 14% of IPTV-services revenue in 2010. Meanwhile, content-licensing revenue will reach the $11 billion mark by 2010.

The market also will supply lucrative grounds for gear suppliers such as set-top-box makers, software vendors and semiconductor suppliers.

In global markets, Europe has the early lead in IPTV deployments, but iSuppli predicted that Asia ultimately will see the fastest growth rate and will achieve the largest subscriber base by the end of 2006. But also this year, the Americas will lead global markets in IPTV dollars, buoyed by the highest average revenue per user.

In the battle for subscribers, providing a competitive video offering is the cost of entry for service competitors. With that in place, they will have to find ways to differentiate their offerings with interactive services, melding of voice and data networks and tools allowing subscribers to personalize their services, according to iSuppli.

“The fight to capture the expanding base of IPTV subscribers will put telecom operators on a collision course with existing pay TV market competitors and with a new class of broadband-video portals as they roll out progressively more sophisticated offerings,” iSuppli vice president of multimedia content and services Mark Kirstein said.

Differentiation of IPTV services will be essential to bringing new capabilities to TV-based entertainment and attracting subscribers.

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Houston-based Optical Entertainment Network scored a programming touchdown with its announcement of a carriage agreement to carry NFL Network.

The deal, signed with the National Football League, will allow the Houston-based fiber-optic-network service provider to offer the football channel and its lineup of primetime regular-season games as part of its Fision TV service.

NFL Network will be part of the 400-channel Fision TV service when it debuts later this year. The network plans to carry nearly 2,000 hours of original programming this year, including 52 preseason games, 75 game rebroadcasts, eight primetime games and six new series debuting this fall.

OEN’s Fision service will offer IPTV, high-speed Internet, voice and video-on-demand via the fiber-optic network it built in Houston. At rollout, it will offer service passing 1.6 million homes.

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Tandberg Television decided to switch on the Web TV market, announcing that it signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Los Angeles-based Web-video-software provider Zetools.

Zetools developed software for delivery of next-generation digital-video services over the Internet, including MediaModulatorT, a software suite that automates the process of formatting, managing, programming and publishing interactive and on-demand Internet video. Its customer base includes AOL, NBC Universal, MTV Networks and Viacom.

Gaining that stake will allow Tandberg to expand its traditional and video-on-demand services to include the Internet-TV market, as well as to reach the mobile-video market.

"The deal with Zetools enables us to help our customers build broadband businesses through the delivery of digital video over the Internet to PCs and to the TV using the next generation of broadband-enabled set-top-boxes and [digital-video recorders],” Tandberg CEO Eric Cooney said.

The deal is expected to close later this quarter.

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Nortel Networks tapped Broadstream Communications to expand its IPTV-product line of video-infrastructure and television-programming elements aimed at rural telecommunications providers.

In adding Broadstream’s IPTV-content-transport and management services to its product portfolio, Nortel now offers more than 200 channels of IPTV-ready video content that can be transmitted directly to any service-provider location in the United States. The portfolio also allows providers to add features such as on-screen instant messaging, mobile-to-TV picture sharing and on-screen caller ID.

Broadstream’s services offer prepackaged IPTV channels already encoded in the MPEG-4 format for delivery to a telco’s video headend. In that way, the telco doesn’t have to invest money in encoders and satellite receivers.

Nortel then takes that content and provides the necessary interconnections to deliver the IPTV service to customers.

"As rural telcos look to offer their customers new IPTV services, a significant hurdle they face is access to a complete media and entertainment content bundle that can effectively compete with today's existing cable and satellite services," Nortel general manager of broadband-networks solutions Walt Megura said. “By teaming up with Broadstream to leverage their expertise in managed content services, Nortel can offer rural telcos a turnkey IPTV solution that helps enable more rapid and cost-effective introduction of these new revenue-generating services."

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Integrated Media Holdings subsidiary Endavo Media and Communications teamed up with digital-media outlet Ahora to launch several on-demand Latin entertainment services later this year. The resulting online, broadband-TV, IPTV and streaming-video offerings will be packaged as Ahora Musica, which will be marketed to U.S. online customers and Ahora TV, the first Spanish-language broadband-TV channel to reach users with Windows Media Center PCs … IPTV set-top-box supplier Amino Communications landed another European deployment deal, this time with Croatian telco Vodatel to support its first-ever rollout of IPTV services in that country.

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