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I can’t help but draw a parallel between the jaw-dropping architecture that characterizes the Dubai skyline and the TV systems of the near future contemplated by some of the region’s more ambitious pay-TV operators.  The IPTV World Forum meeting here this week helped to label the Middle East and Africa as potentially one of the most dynamic markets in the [...]

Traditional pay-TV operators have always been highly focused on revenue security by way of theft of service prevention – for two main reasons. Subscriber fees are obviously a significant revenue source and piracy through theft of service is very prevalent, particularly in certain markets (See CASBAA for country-specific piracy rates). Smart cards were really the [...]

At the recent Television 3.0 conference in Los Angeles, I was pleased to find some fresh and interesting perspectives on mobile TV from execs at CBS Interactive and their mobile TV partner Transpera. They set out to dispel some commonly held “truths” regarding behavior on consuming mobile TV based on current research.  For me, it [...]

Seems that I wasn’t persuasive enough in my discussions at IBC 2009 with Ben Schwarz at VideoNet where we talked about extending pay-TV models into Internet delivery. Overall, I’m happy to be described as living in an alternate reality where sites like today’s Hulu do not represent the entire future of video services. I hope [...]

I got a warm reception this week at the STB 2009 conference in San Jose where many speakers were presenting on the convergence between pay-TV and Internet delivery channels. Also see Jeff Vinson’s blog write up. On the topic how to live in a multi-DRM world, I presented it as a challenge from both a [...]

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Are Internet video services, such as Hulu and the iPlayer, a threat to established pay-TV operators? The jury is still out.  While pundits insist that a significant number of current pay-TV subscribers will stop their monthly payments and go wholly broadband, some surveys suggest that overall we are just all watching more video from all [...]

IBC has always been a platform for showcasing the next big thing in pay TV. Operators come to hear about the latest technology platforms and get a sense of what is real and what is purely in the demo stage. Because of the innovation explosion that has occurred in this industry over the past several [...]

The promise of video watermarking has always been alluring to technologists and content owners. They like the idea of embedding an invisible forensic mark on valuable content in order to protect assets and possibly catch the bad guys. And with high-profile success stories like the Academy Awards busts on pirated screener copies traced using forensic [...]