CONN @ CES panel, Advanced Video Services: The Next Big Thing?

What role will advanced television and broadband video services play in defining the next generation of entertainment applications? On January 8th, 2009, Jayant Dasari, Research Analyst at Parks Associates will moderate the "Advanced Video Services: The Next Big Thing?" panel at the upcoming CONNECTIONS Summit at CES.

This presentation and panel discussion examines the worldwide pay television market, providing context for the competitive environment in major worldwide geographies and countries. It also focuses on consumer adoption of broadband video services, examining the use cases for “go-to-TV” services and products. This session includes consumer data from Parks Associates’ TV 2.0: The Consumer Perspective study, showing customer affinity and willingness to pay for advanced television features.

Confirmed speakers for this panel include: Charles Cerino, President, MoCA; Ed Forman, EVP, Products and Services, ActiveVideo Networks; Jean-Marc Harion, Vice President, Business Development, North America, Orange – France Telecom NA; John Reister, Chief IPTV Architect, BigBand Networks; and Marty Roberts, VP Marketing, thePlatform.

Sony running beta tests of Home Virtual World

While it’s not exactly a world like “World of Warcraft” or Linden Labs’ “Second Life,” Home is the most ambitious push by any console maker into creating a virtual world for gamers. It will live or die on whether it’s simple, fun, and deep enough for gamers who have plenty of other things they want to do — like play games. And the price is right: free for those who have a PS 3.

Read More at The New York Times

Interested in Parks Associates Perspective on Virtual Worlds and Social Media? Read our new white paper.

Verizon to bring FiOS TV to Comcast's hometown

Verizon Communications Inc. is bringing the fight over TV customers to the hometown of its biggest cable rival, Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company.

Verizon on Thursday asked Philadelphia's City Council to approve a 15-year video franchise agreement allowing it to offer fiber-optic TV service in the city. Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced an ordinance to give Verizon the right to run a cable TV service, a measure the council is expected to vote on by the end of the year.

New York-based Verizon said it could start offering FiOS TV in the first year after the deal goes into effect.

Read More at BusinessWeek

CONNECTIONS™ SUMMIT Announces Speakers for Research and Strategy Sessions at CES

Parks Associates research shows broadband penetration in U.S. is changing landscape of consumer electronics, new services, and content delivery--

International research firm Parks Associates today announced the speakers and preliminary agenda for the CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, to be held January 8-9, 2009, in Las Vegas. This information-packed, networking-rich event, hosted during the first two days of 2009 International CES, includes multiple panel discussions moderated by Parks Associates’ leading analysts.

The CONNECTIONS™ Summit will feature Parks Associates’ latest consumer and industry research, with expert analysis on future business strategies and revenue opportunities. Session topics include converging media, digital entertainment, customer support, social networking, GPS, gaming, consumer electronics purchase patterns, and digital photo frames.

SPEAKERS:

Fazal Ali, Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies
Glenn Broderick, Executive Director, Gaming, AT&T
Scott Brown, Director, Marketing, Cisco
Richard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, Macrovision
Chenyi Chiu, Strategic Program Manager, HD-PLC Alliance
Robert Eisses, President and CEO, Icron Technologies Corp.
David Foote, CTO, Hitachi USA
Ed Forman, EVP, Products and Services, ActiveVideo Networks
Noam Geri, Co-founder, Vice President, Marketing & Business Development, AMIMON
Jean-Marc Harion, Vice President, Business Development, North America, Orange – France Telecom NA
Ben Huang, Director of Product Management and Marketing, TV Business, Microsoft Corporation
H.P. Jin, President, CEO and Co-Founder, TeleNav
Stephen Joe, President/CEO, D-Link Systems, Inc.
Doug Jones, Chief Architect, Cable, BigBand Networks
Fred King, VP, Sales & Marketing, PlumChoice, Inc.
Aslam Khader, Chief Product Officer, Ensequence
Kazuhiro Kitagawa, Vice-Chairman, PUCC
Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
Michelle Leyden Li, GM of Home Control, Zilog
Jeremy Lockhorn, Director of Emerging Media, Avenue A Razorfish
John Marshall, Chairman of WirelessHD, WirelessHD LLC
David McCall, VP, PC Strategic Business Unit, CSR
Patrick McDevitt, Vice President, Global Engineering, Tele Atlas
Andy Nix, Co-Founder & Director, ProVision Communications
Rajat Paharia, Founder & CEO, Bunchball
Susan Panico, Senior Director of PLAYSTATION Network, Sony Computer Entertainment America
John Reister, Chief IPTV Architect, BigBand Networks
Ron Richards, Director of Marketing & Product Management, Revision3
Marty Roberts, VP Marketing, thePlatform
Anthony Rodio, Chief Operating Officer, support.com
Eric Smith, Chief Technology Officer, Control4
Bill Stanley, Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
Mike Talley, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Customer Care, 2Wire
Steve Tranter, VP, Interactive and Broadband, NDS
Evan Tree, Chief Products Officer, Logitech
Mark Vena, Vice President, PC Business Unit, Synaptics, Inc.
Bruce Watkins, Founder, President/COO, Pulse~LINK, Inc.

CONNECTIONS™ Summit also features a networking mixer on Friday evening, January 9, at the Hilton Hotel, open to all Summit attendees, speakers, and analysts.

Event registration is available through the CES Partner Program at http://www.cesweb.org/.

Vudu CEO Mark Jung has left the company

Vudu, the online TV box, has lost its second senior executive in the last three months: first the CFO, layoffs, and now CEO Mark Jung has left after exactly a year, we have confirmed from the company.

Reported by PaidContent.org