In the past few months we have seen an acceleration of activities from consumer electronics manufactures. By adding ever more services and apps to their smart TVs they seem to be taking the lead in the connected home.
Briel On: Live streaming goes over-the-top
There is a thin line between fully managed IPTV services and managed OTT services – and the gap is closing. Soon we will see lots more OTT live streaming.
Briel on: HBO launches in the Netherlands
The launch of HBO in the Netherlands in a joint venture with cable operator Ziggo marks an interesting move for the Time-Warner owned company.
CE manufacturers already on the Horizon…
We all know we can look at the horizon, but we can never touch it. Does the same also apply to Liberty Global’s Horizon set-top box? We saw the pictures, we even saw the box at IBC – and we saw some flashy Flash demos. But touching it was out of the question – let […]
Briel on: iTunes wins Round 1 versus UltraViolet
Warner Bros.’ release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 on Blu-ray and UltraViolet has sparked much discontent among its buyers, writes Robert Briel. It looks like Hollywood has trouble finding an iTunes alternative.
KPN testing its boundaries
Like all incumbent telephony operators, Dutch KPN is losing fixed line customers to alternative providers, with cable being the most formidable competitor.
Briel on: Fibre or not to fibre to my home?
It was a long, long time ago when cable came first to my home. KTA, the Amsterdam city net, was a revelation: the number of channels I could receive tripled – from the two national Dutch public channels to no less than six channels – one from Belgium and three from Germany.
Briel on: Streaming to tablets can’t be stopped
Multiscreen television is fast becoming a reality. With the extremely fast take-up of tablets, both iPad and Android, these are destined to become one of the main destinations of streaming videos. A development, which is also bound to create new challenges to the traditional business models.
Briel on: Connected devices are the name of the game
Philips is not the only party in The Netherlands that is pioneering connected television. On the contrary, there are a number of players that have been around for some time trying to connect the web to the television set.
The end of Open Cable?
Following a ruling by the Dutch Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal, cable operators UPC, Ziggo, Delta and CAIW are no longer required to give their competitors access to their networks.