Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008 - (Page 9)

telebites MARCH MADNESS HITS THE WEB FAST FACTS ON IPTV • A report from the Multimedia Research Group (www.mrgco.com) indicates that globally, IPTV will see dramatic growth over the next four years, with subscriptions rising from 13.5 million to 72.6 million. Revenues, at $3.7 billion in 2007, could top $23.2 billion over the same period. • Europe continues to lead in IPTV adoption, with Asia beginning to catch up after successful deployments in 2007 in China and India. • Broadband video offerings from telecoms are making substantial inroads into the traditional business of incumbent cable providers. Verizon recently announced its 1 millionth FiOS customer, and AT&T plans to see its U-Verse television offering reach 30 million potential customers by 2010. • Direct-to-consumer video over the web has caught the attention of the major networks, movie studios, retailers, professional sports leagues, and other content owners; distribution is now available through sources such as YouTube, Hulu, Apple’s I-tunes, broadcast network websites, and traditional retailers such as Netﬂix, Walmart, and Blockbuster. HDTV MEETS VIDEOCONFERENCING A recent Digital Life in America report from Solutions Research (www.srgnet.com) showed that in 2007, nearly 80 million Americans had watched a favorite television show over the Internet—nearly half of the online population. That’s up from only 25% of the online population in 2006; it’s even more people than reported using cable on-demand service. In March, many of those online TV watchers tuned in for March Madness NCAA basketball. Early estimates suggest that 1.5 million Americans watched NCAA coverage online from their desks at work, with a cost to productivity of $1.7 billion! Quanta Computer, a laptop manufacturer, and OoVoo, the makers of video chat software, are teaming up to turn your living room into an athome video conferencing center. The two companies recently announced plans to offer a device that will plug into your HDTV and connect it to the Internet so you can chat online from the comfort of your favorite couch. OoVoo is also in early discussions with broadband carriers about adding video chat functionality to set-top boxes. WILL ONLINE ADVERTISING OVERTAKE TRADITIONAL PRINT AND TELEVISION? The New York Times reported recently that spending for online advertising is growing at a much faster clip than spending in other media, such as television or print magazines. PricewaterhouseCoopers announced estimated 2007 online ad revenues of $21.1 billion, up 25% from 2006’s haul of $16.9 billion. One sign of the times: Pepsi-Cola— a company known for splashy, celebrity-ﬁlled television advertising—is launching a new drink with an online ad campaign targeted at men and women ages 35 to 49, rather than the typical youth online advertising audience. The drink, a no-calorie carbonated beverage called Tava, will be advertised online at sites like AOL, chow.com, CitySearch, dailycandy.com, discovery.com, Evite, MSN, oprah.com, People and weather.com. Summer 2008 COMMUNICATIONS CROSSROADS 9 http://www.mrgco.com http://www.srgnet.com http://www.weather.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008

Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008 Up Front Contents TeleBites Delivering the Broadband Future Deriving Revenue from Today's Broadband World The Right Way to Operate Data Centers Buyers' Guide Industry Calendar Advertisers DotCom Index to Advertisers Straight Talk

Communications Crossroads - Summer 2008

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