Motorola IPTV Experts Share Insights on Trends for 2008 and Beyond

TELCOTV – ATLANTA . – A group of Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) business leaders, technologists and marketing experts recently convened an internal “trendstorm,” where they discussed the latest and upcoming innovations in Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) for 2008 – and beyond.

The market for IPTV is increasing at a rapid pace. “At year-end 2006, there were 4.6 million residential IPTV subscribers”, said Parks Associate industry analyst Kurt Scherf. “This number will grow to nearly 60 million by year-end 2011. We forecast annual shipments of IPTV set-top boxes to be seven million in 2007 and exceed 20 million by year-end 2011. To capitalize on this market growth, telcos should focus on embracing user-generated and social media to differentiate their services” Scherf said.

“In 2007, we really started to see the promise of IPTV fulfilled. For example, it took a few years for Motorola to reach the 1 millionth IPTV set top box shipment; we then doubled the number of shipments in five short months,” said Doug Means, Motorola corporate vice president and general manager, Home and Networks Mobility. “Building on the momentum of IPTV adoption, we see a number of applications coming into the picture as ‘the next big thing.’”

Key trends and innovations discussed included:

Content portability – the proliferation of mobile devices where video is available virtually anytime, anywhere carries over to the home environment. Whole-home DVR – pausing in one room and picking up the program in another room – is promising to be a potentially popular application for IPTV.

Increased content availability – via a switched digital video environment and bandwidth optimizing features such as MPEG-4 compression technology, IPTV promises expanded content choices for consumers. For example, niche market content like university- or league-specific, hobby or ethnic programming that may not have been included in traditional broadcast environments, will start to find homes – and viewers – in an all-switched digital video environment that allows an array of channels and choices from providers.

Personalization and localization - in an all IP-environment, each customer-premise equipment (CPE) device, like set tops, has an IP address. Accordingly, information specified and defined by the user can be provided as a customized content overlay. For example, IPTV consumers can receive personalized stock, weather, sports and other information directly on their TV.

Targeted advertising – TV advertising is changing from broadcast to “uni”cast. Advanced advertising technology will allow consumers to receive localized information. For example, consumers could receive local dealer information when watching a car ad (using graphic overlay technology), obtain more information (launching a video on demand) or even click to request a test drive of the car from the local dealership.

“Motorola, a leader in the video delivery industry for more than 50 years, offers a complete spectrum of IPTV technology to make these potential future applications a reality for telcos looking to deliver compelling services and content,” said Means.

Motorola at TelcoTV
Motorola (booth #701) will demonstrate its innovative IPTV video headend, transport and MPEG-4 encoding equipment, and connected home devices at this week’s TelcoTV show in Atlanta.

Means will present the keynote address at TelcoTV 2007 on Thursday, Oct. 25. Craig Pasek, Senior Product Manager, Access Networks, Motorola, will participate on a Wednesday, Oct. 24 panel titled “Options and Opportunities for Video Delivery.”

Motorola will host a workshop prior to the opening of TelcoTV on Tuesday, Oct. 23, about the “Basics of IPTV and Beyond,” discussing video trends and technology including on-demand solutions, IP set tops, ultra broadband, MPEG-4 encoding, content distribution and digital rights management.