Shane Walker, research analyst and author of the study, states, “The increasingly competitive pay-TV landscape with proliferation of new content, triple/quadruple play offerings, and new Internet-based TV services is one of the main factors behind IPTV household growth. Another important factor is the rapid uptake of IPTV services in China and South Korea as governments relax regulations restricting deployment and as telcos become more involved with expanding IPTV services.” The multi-play offerings being rolled out by telcos to gain a competitive advantage include a combination of IPTV, VoIP, Internet, mobile and premises security in addition to advanced services such as VOD. In addition to an analysis of current commercial and technological trends surrounding IPTV, the report provides forecasts through 2012 for IPTV households, IP STB shipments and IP STB revenues.

Bebo has around 40 million users worldwide and is the third most popular US social media site and the sixth in the UK, according to Nielsen Online figures. The company has around 100 employees operating in offices in the UK and the US.

AOL chairman and chief executive Randy Falco says: "Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL's personal communication network and puts us in a leading position in social media." He adds: "This positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers."

Bebo president Joanna Shields will continue to run the social media company after the deal is closed and will report to Ron Grant, the president and chief operating officer of AOL

No sooner has the battle for the next-generation high-definition DVD format ended, with Blu-ray triumphing over HD DVD, than a new contender has emerged.

A new system that is incompatible with Blu-ray, called HD VMD, for versatile multilayer disc, is trying to find a niche. New Medium Enterprises, the London company behind HD VMD, says its system's quality is equal to Blu-ray's, but it costs less.

By undercutting the competition in production, replication and hardware costs, it thinks it can find a market among consumers with less disposable income, particularly outside the United States.

An HD VMD player costs less than a Blu-ray because it uses the red-laser technologies found in today's standard-definition DVD players. The Blu-ray and HD DVD machines use a more expensive blue-laser system.

"We do not intend to take on Blu-ray," Shirly Levich, New Medium's vice president and product development manager, said in an e-mail message. "We see VMD as a natural extension of mass-market DVD product enhanced to HD capabilities. We shall not rekindle the format war."

The industry and consumers may not see it that way, given that the company is promoting its price advantages. While Blu-ray players typically cost more than $300, an HD VMD unit is priced at $199. Sales through Amazon are scheduled to begin in five weeks, the company said.

No talks have been held with the big-box retailers, like Wal-Mart Stores, to carry the product.

New Medium thinks its secret weapon is Michael Jay Solomon, one of Hollywood's best-known film distributors, who has been named its chairman.

Although he has yet to approach the studios, Solomon, a former president of Warner Bros. International Television, said his long tenure in the industry would help him succeed in licensing movies for HD VMD.

"It's a combination of my good experiences and continual relationships," Solomon said in a telephone interview from Shanghai, where he was visiting with company engineers.

No matter how cheap a player is, it is useless unless major movies are released using its format. To date, New Medium has come up short.

Just 17 movies are available to customers in the United States at the company's online store, including little-known ones like "The Enigma With a Stigma" and "Kandukondain Kandukondain," a Bollywood production. Its major suppliers to the American market are Anthem Pictures, Eros Entertainment and SFM Entertainment, all independent distributors. Some bigger movies, like "Apocalypto," are available in other territories.

Neither Walt Disney, Universal Studios nor Warner Bros. would comment on their interest in releasing movies on HD VMD.

But even without major studio movies, Solomon thinks that the company will be successful.

The low cost of producing HD VMD master discs, from which the consumer products are made, and the inexpensive consumer players have attracted the owners of movie rights in China, India and Spain, Solomon said. He said Australia, China, India, central Europe, Russia and Scandinavia would be major markets.

"We can sell players for $90 and make a profit," he said.

In the United States, Solomon said, producers of lesser-known movies, like religious organizations and independent filmmakers, will see HD VMD as a cost-effective way to create high-definition versions of their programming.

The Blu-ray camp is unimpressed. New Medium's price strategy will fail, said Andy Parsons, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association, a trade group, because it relies on a false assumption: Blu-ray technology will always be more expensive.

"When you mass produce blue lasers in large quantities, hardware costs will absolutely come down," Parsons said. "I'm sure we'll eventually be able to charge $90 for a Blu-ray player."

The HD VMD camp "is pitching a solution at a market niche that does not exist," said Carmi Levy, senior vice president for strategic consulting at AR Communications, a Toronto research firm. "And even if it is a niche, you will never sell enough to make it a business."

Solomon dissents, saying: "Our idea is to create a player that people can afford. There is room for the two of us."

Unfortunately, those consumers who bought HD DVD players that are now orphaned may not agree.

Digital TV switchover will cost the country £4.6 billion, £3.8bn of which will be paid by consumers to convert or replace their existing analogue sets.

However, according to the Government, switchover could produce £6.3bn in benefits through extending the geographical availability of existing services and the opportunity for new ones.

While acknowledging that the country had got off to a good start with 85 per cent of households already having made the switch on their main sets, the National Audit Office (NAO) pointed out that 26 million sets still remain to be converted or replaced.

It is also concerned that 31 per cent of people still do not understand that they will need some form of digital equipment in order to continue to receive broadcast TV.

The study, which included companies such as Sony, Diago, GlaxoSmithKline and Hewlett Packard, reveals that only 18% of executives from participating UK companies see blogging and social networking as valuable, compared to 50% of US businesses questioned.

Companies in the UK are also lagging behind foreign counterparts in getting up to speed with social media, with 22% of participants claiming that they are still "learning", compared with a global average of 18%. Only 9% of UK businesses claimed to be at the "experimentation" stage.

The survey found that 23% of respondents blame a lack of senior management commitment for the slow uptake, while 36% say it is due to a lack of skills. However, budget restrictions were not seen as hurdles in the UK, compared with a 10% global average.

It says that viral marketing in social networks is also disregarded by domestic companies and, according to 25% of UK executives, viral campaigns have very little brand impact. In contrast, three quarters of US executives believe the opposite.

Jim Nail, chief strategy & marketing officer, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony, says: "It is surprising to see that the UK is lagging so far behind other major nations in terms of recognising the business potential for social media.

Nail adds: "Everybody we spoke to thought that social media would have a big impact in future. Surprisingly, however, our study shows that many business executives are still new to social media, which points to a large gap between attitudes and action. And nowhere is this more evident than in the UK. If senior managers continue to disregard social media and fail to resource related campaigns appropriately, UK businesses will put themselves at a severe disadvantage."