Interactive TV News Round-Up (III): Lovefilm, Disney, BBC, ITV, Deutsche Telekom, MobiTV, NDS

Due to the large volume of news generated by last week's 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we are covering stories in this issue in round-up/summary format. We anticipate that it will take us several more days to process all the news from the show: so if your company has sent us a press release or briefed us on an announcement, and you don't yet see your news covered in this issue, please bear with us.

•  Amazon-owned, UK-based streaming video company, Lovefilm, has been ramping up its content offering, as rival Netflix launches in the UK and Ireland. The company said Monday that it has signed a deal with Disney UK that will give its subscribers access to the SVOD service, ABC TV On Demand. It also recently announced streaming deals with BBC Worldwide and with UK commercial terrestrial broadcaster, ITV. Lovefilm, which recently launched a £4.99-per-month unlimited streaming-only package, says that it now has over 2 million subscribers, thanks to a record number of sign-ups in the fourth quarter.
• MobiTV and Deutsche Telekom announced earlier this month that they are developing a converged media platform that will enable delivery of content across multiple platforms, including mobiles, tablets, PC's, connected TV's and set-top boxes. The partnership will see the German incumbent telco integrating MobiTV's "TV Everywhere" solution. "Consumer expectations of TV viewing have been transformed by the expansion of service delivery to smartphones, tablets and other connected devices," the companies state in their press materials. "As a result, viewers expect to be able to watch their favorite programs on any device irrespective of manufacturer or platform. MobiTV's TV Everywhere solution supports Deutsche Telekom's converged service offering that will expand the delivery of live TV and on-demand programming to multiple screens. This converged media experience can address the growing consumer demand for universal access to TV content. The first phase of the technology partnership began with a trial implementation of the converged multiscreen service that integrates MobiTV's TV Everywhere solution into Deutsche Telekom existing IPTV service 'Entertain.' As a key component of the convergence service ecosystem, MobiTV's TV Everywhere solution will enable Deutsche Telekom's IPTV subscribers to view both live and on-demand video content on authorized PC's, tablets and smartphone devices."
• Interactive TV and content-protection technology provider, NDS (which is planning to raise $100 million via an IPO), contacted [itvt] last week to let us know that its Snowflake user interface received the 2012 TV Innovation Award from IMS Research. "NDS Snowflake is a new approach to content navigation, providing a rich and consistent TV experience across multiple devices," the company states in its press materials. "Based on an ergonomic model, the principles behind NDS Snowflake are simplicity and intuitiveness, which help unify access to, and the discovery of all types of content, including broadcast, recorded/stored, on-demand, over-the-top programming, and third-party on-demand services--on all types of device, including PC's, TV's, portable media players, tablets, smartphones, and more. The award-winning NDS Snowflake has been deployed by Zon TV Cabo in Portugal and provides the navigation model behind the user interface for French Telecoms operator SFR. It has also been selected by Liberty Global to provide the portal to their multimedia home gateway."