May Yin Oh Senior Director of Business Development for Greater China and India, Qualcomm MediaFLO Technologies. Mobile television is now a reality in 12 Asia-Pacific countries and consumer demand in Asia is growing faster than the rest of world. ABI Research estimates there will be 260million mobile TV users in Asia alone by 2012, up from 24million in 2007 and more than half the estimated worldwide take-up of 462million. There are a number of mobile broadcast technologies available today, (one of which) is MediaFLO – which delivers high-quality entertainment and information, including streaming video and audio, Clipcasting media, IP datacasting and interactive services. Invented for mobility (it) provides increased channel capacity and coverage, a superior user experience and lower infrastructure costs compared with alternative mobile broadcast platforms. MediaFLO technical trials have already been conducted by PCCW in Hong Kong; China Network Systems and Taiwan Television in Taiwan; Maxis and ASTRO in Malaysia; and KDDI, Softbank and MediaScope in Japan Operators of other mobile TV platforms deployed in Asia are looking for ways to monetize their current free-to-air only services. To make a successful business case for mobile TV, we believe a combination of free-to-air channels that increase consumer acceptance and subscription-based channels and value added services that generate repeat revenue is an ideal offering that benefits all stakeholders in the ecosystem. To help the industry deliver combined mobile TV service offerings, Qualcomm recently announced the successful demonstration of MediaFLO and International ISDB-T mobile TV standards working on a single multi-mode handset powered by the company’s Universal Broadcast Modem chip. The two mobile TV standards can be combined in a unified service offering to drive handset adoption with the allure of free TV programming over ISDB-T, while generating revenue through pay TV services over MediaFLO. Mobile TV will become a mass market in Asia but before it does the industry needs to continue to collaborate to enable a business model and ecosystem that provides incentives for commercial deployment. This is already starting to happen as Asia leads the way in the take-up of mobile TV. Graham Kill, CEO, Irdeto The exciting world of digital content is transforming around us every day. New entrants into the “ecosystem” are challenging traditional ways of doing business and consumers are flocking to new technologies and providers that give them greater control over how, when and where they purchase, acquire and enjoy their favorite media content. However, the most critical success factors have remained the same and indeed grown in importance; the content provider’s ability to protect media content from theft, collect the revenues associated with its sale, and keep customers coming back for more. Over the last four decades, our unique technologies and strategies have enabled everything from the world’s first digital satellite pay TV network to the world’s first mobile broadcast TV service. That history of innovation continues today as we at Irdeto, a leading expert in content and business model protection solutions and services introduce our expanded product line, which offers a complete range of solutions that empower companies to protect and monetize digital assets with innovative and reliable software technologies, end-to-end solutions and services in CommunicAsia 2008. Irdeto already has a proven track record of industry leadership in content security for digital TV, IPTV and mobile with more than 400 CA and DRM customers worldwide. The company recently acquired business support systems specialist IBS Interprit, set-top box (STB) solutions provider IDway and software and datacenter security leader Cloakware as part of a strategic expansion to more effectively meet the challenges faced by its customers, who represent some of the world’s leading digital TV operators, consumer electronics manufacturers and application developers. This strategy led Irdeto to expand its product offering to include a full range of Content & Business Model Protection Solutions that enable broadcasters and operators to launch and grow their digital TV businesses profitably and securely using not only CA and DRM, but also Business Support Systems and STB Software Solutions. These best-in-class products will continue to be sold individually under the Irdeto brand, and will also be sold bundled as an end-to-end solution called Irdeto SmartStart for digital TV operators. David Justin Chief Executive Officer – GlobeCast Asia As our business environment is going through many evolutions, this creates fantastic opportunities for content owners to reach a wider audience but adds a tremendous amount of new challenges to overcome: new technologies, new stakeholders in the value chain, new regulation and so on. What is happening around us in terms of technology developments? • Digital transmission replacing analogue • Internet Protocol becoming suitable for live video transmissions • The line between broadcast and telecommunications is blurred • New screens to watch TV make their debut • Consumers want to be in charge of what they watch wherever they are, as they become more mobile On the content front, in our strategic position, we are seeing first-hand, the flow of international content to Asia. In targeting the diverse Asian audience, content providers need a partner who understands these markets, comes up with the most effective solution and is with them every step of the way. Expanding and new channels looking to launch across Asia, for example, Russia Today and BBC Worldwide turn to a single partner to handle their signal distribution and media management needs; they provide us their content and we take care of the rest. For BBC Worldwide, in addition to distribution of their signal, we provided regionalized content management service with multiple language tracks and subtitles, ensuring encoding and decoding for maximum pickup by bouquet markets throughout the target market. Results were immediate, with initial pickup of the bouquet at over 100 cable and DTH headends in India, as well as two major IPTV platforms – SingTel’s mio TV in Singapore and Pacific Century’s now TV in Hong Kong. We have upgraded our global facilities to meet our clients’ demand for HD services. We are currently handling full HD delivery for Luxe TV and WWE. For WWE’s The Royal Rumble®, WrestleMania XXIV®, Summerslam® and Armageddon® we deliver pre-event testing, post-event replays, and live events themselves, including playout and international distribution. On the reverse side of the content flow, we have seen the high demand for international programming outside Asia. GlobeCast’s WorldTV is a leading international bouquet carried via Direct-to-Home satellite in the United States, and Europe, as well as via IPTV in Canada. GlobeCast holds the exclusive IPTV rights to seven South-East Asian channels from the WorldTV Europe package (Channel Punjab, GEO TV, AAJ TAK, AAG TV, NDTV, Geo News and PTV) and two Cambodian channels, CTN and TVK, for the Europe market. This content, taken up by French operators Neuf Cegetel, Orange and Free enables them to enhance their ethnic content offering for their subscribers. TVAplus
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