Key announcements slated for rollout of ICT and broadband

The Connect Americas Summit is set to open its doors on July 18  to push broadband connectivity in the region, enlisting the support of Heads of State and Government and Ministers along with Chief Executives and top-level management from the ICT industry, heads of United Nations and international development bodies, financial institutions as well as academics, media and industry analysts.

NAB Show, in partnership with BPL Broadcast Ltd, will debut Connected Media World, an exhibit area set to launch at the 2013 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 6-11, 2013.The new exhibit area will showcase technologies and services that are advancing how consumers connect with media and entertainment.

Euroconsult announced the findings of its most recent study of fixed satellite services. The report entitled "Company Profiles, Analysis of FSS Operators," now in its 5th edition, indicates that regional operators in particular continued to see strong business growth from various applications including DTH TV broadcasting, cellular backhaul and enterprise networks. Many of these regional operators are continuing their ambitious expansion plans with growing satellite fleets and a number of satellite launches still ahead in the coming years.

The TV middleware market, long led by Nagra (25% worldwide 2011 market share) and NDS (24%) worldwide and Motorola (19%) and Cisco (11%) in North America, is in a massive state of upheaval as Cisco’s bid for NDS waits to close, (it is expected in early August 2012) while Google has yet to give a clear direction for its recently acquired Motorola Home business unit.

Satellite capacity is a uniquely valuable asset.  It can do some things, like broadcasting one signal to millions of destinations, better and cheaper than any other technology.  But it is also a scarce asset, thanks to the laws of physics and the skilled yield management of the operators that fly spacecraft in Earth orbit. 

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) finds that 87% of households nationwide subscribe to some form of multi-channel video service. The percentage of households that subscribe to a multi-channel video service is similar to the past two years, and up from 80% in 2004.

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Pay-TV Services and Subscribers report, which forecasts and analyzes the telco Internet protocol television (IPTV), cable video, and satellite video services markets.

Over one‑quarter of TVs shipped during Q1’12 were equipped with internet connectivity, as reported in the new NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Smart TV Shipment and Forecast Report, which tracks connected and smart TV shipments by brand, region, display technology and screen size. Approximately 27% of TV sets shipped worldwide had internet connectivity, led by Japan, where 46% of sets had networking capability, and Western Europe with 36%.

comScore, Inc. and the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) today released a research white paper entitled How Multi-Screen Consumers Are Changing Media Dynamics, revealing several new findings about the viewing habits of consumers who engage with media brands across multiple touchpoints.

Many fleet owners, looking to improve the lives of their crew by providing an affordable means for them to keep in touch with family and friends while onboard, turn to VSAT-based solutions to provide the connectivity.    But it doesn’t need to stop there.  The same VSAT system can be used to improve the bottom-line by enabling closer integration between ship and shore operations, just in the same way VSATs are used the world over to link branch offices to their headquarters.  This article examines the wide variety of ship based applications proactive fleet managers are now using their satel