It’s cliché, but oh so true – content is king. Look at most industry conference agendas these days, whether they be broadband or wireless focused, and content is the center of attention. The tag line for this year’s IBC Conference, a leading global telecom industry event taking place next week in Amsterdam, is “the world of content creation management delivery.” Most of the CTIA I.T. and Entertainment conference centers on the delivery of content wirelessly. Like it or hate it, the future of our business involves figuring out how to profitably deliver content to customers. Voice service won’t disappear, but will morph into a value added application among a variety of more robust services. Carriers are in the beginning stages of making the transition to purveyors of content. There’s a lot to learn. With that in mind, we invite you to join us for an upcoming free webcast, IPTV Content: Putting the Pieces in Place, scheduled for Thursday September 11, 2008 at 2:00p ET/1:00p CT. It will be well worth your time.

Recent days have seen a flurry of new launches for video services by both AT&T and Verizon. Markets like Jacksonville, Florida, South Bend, Indiana, and Hampton, Virginia are all now able to receive video from the local phone company in addition to cable and DBS options. And it’s not just the large players either. Smaller telcos across the U.S. continue to launch IPTV services. Avail Media, an aggregator of content and IPTV solutions for smaller telcos, announced 20 new affiliates this week. The competitive posturing continues as well, with all kinds of promotions being offered to entice people to switch services. I live in the D.C. area and noticed a commercial from Comcast the other day promoting free DVR for a year – a direct response to Verizon FiOS’ ongoing free multi-room DVR promotion. The ongoing battle lines seem to be intensifying. Should be fun to watch.

Avail Media announced the launch of 20 new affiliates for their IPTV linear content solution. In a company statement, Avail said “…these affiliates add to Avail Media's 35 video on demand affiliates that are already live in market and represent just a fraction of the 94 customers with whom Avail Media has secured deals to provide linear and/or video on demand services.” The new affiliates are located across 14 states.

Avail Media announced the launch of several new affiliates for its VOD service. The new affiliates include Clarksville Utilities, NuVision, FTC Diversified Services, LigTel, Guam Telecom Authority, Kentucky Telephone, and Lafayette Utilities System. "With Avail On Demand, we are now able to provide our subscribers with a wide variety of content from both major motion picture studios and independents," said Dent Adams, COO, FTC Diversified Services in a Avail Media press release.

GTA TeleGuam announced the pending launch of IPTV service, which will compete with the local cable company. GTA TeleGuam is utilizing CSI Digital and the Avail Media IPTV platform to bring digital TV services to its footprint. The service is scheduled to launch in June 2008. The launch is expected to include VOD and HDTV services.

Avail Media and Motorola announced a partnership to integrate Avail’s content transport solution and Motorola’s MWAVE IPTV portfolio. MWAVE provides set-tops, encoders, systems integration services, and program management for video hub office components, including third-party middleware and digital rights management. MWAVE will integrate with Avail’s Avail Connect to create a “hosted” head-end solution. Servicoe providers can also utilize these services to build their own head end.

Espial announced a sales partnership agreement with Avail Media, where Avail will market Espial IPTV solutions in conjunction with their IPTV content and transport solution. Espial offers a variety of IPTV focused solutions, branded as the Espial Evo IPTV Service Platform. Avail offers IPTV content and transport rights for over 200 channels. The partnership also announced nine new service providers have agreed to launch the new Avail/Espial powered solution, including Prime Time Communications of Colorado.

Falcon IP Complete, a subsidiary of Falcon Communications, announced deployments of their managed IPTV service to Adak Cablevision of Alaska and Magazine Telephone Co. of Arkansas. Falcon IP Complete utilizes the Avail Media platform to deliver its managed IPTV solution.

There’s a new HITS kid on the block – a partnership between Antenna Technology Communications Inc. (ATCi) and Digisoft. ATCI and Digisoft join NRTC, Avail Media, and Falcon Communications with an end-to end IPTV solution targeting rural telcos. This new solution an IPTV video headend, which utilizes a Simulsat receive multibeam antenna, a satellite subsystem and MPEG-4 compression. Digisoft provides an application server and Java powered set top boxes with program guide.