Although the UK and US are usually quick to adopt new services and technology, we’re still lagging behind in accepting IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) according to industry analyst, Gartner.

While France, Hong Kong and Spain have already adopted IPTV over fixed line Internet services, the US is in ninth place – while the UK doesn’t even appear in the top ten.

According to 2006 figures, France had 1.55 million IPTV subscribers, followed by Hong Kong with 876,000 and Spain with 380,000.

There’s no sign of a ceasefire anytime soon in the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD with UK media analysts, Screen Digest, claiming it’s set to continue until at least 2011.

The analysts also claim that any film studio exclusively supporting one format over another is simply hurting their bottom line.

Richard Cooper, Screen Digest video analysts, believes that the forthcoming festive season could be a crucial time for both camps – although with so little hardware available it’s the early adopters that will eventually feel shortchanged.

One of the main talking points at this year’s show was the growing popularity of IPTV, or ‘television on the basis of Internet protocol’. It refers to new forms of television services that offer genuine in interactivity including video on demand and individual access to programmes.

IPTV offers a new way of watching television without being restricted by the time sequence of programme schedules. Instead, viewers can access programmes of interest from the Internet, irrespective of the schedules drawn up by broadcasting networks

It was quite a show at the annual IFA exhibition in Berlin last week with a record participation of 1,212 exhibitors from 32 different countries showing off their latest wares in an area that covered around 104,000 square metres.

It’s no surprise that high-definition took centre stage and at times it was difficult to move with large screen displays and next generation disc players taking up practically all the floor space.

DS2, suppliers of Universal Powerline Association (UPA) technology, has announced that it will be providing its powerline chips to BT to allow customers to self-install BT Vision digital TV.

The DS2 solution includes a unique reference design for the development of powerline products that incorporates a female socket that saves the customer's power outlet for use with other devices. It provides a simple one-touch set-up for HDTV-speed home networks in seconds as well as an environmentally friendly standby mode for energy saving when not in use.

UPA technology provides up to 200Mbps speed, and BT's testing showed that DS2 chips deliver excellent IPTV viewing capabilities.

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ABD has unveiled a number of new technology solutions designed to open new opportunities for digital TV broadcasters. These include the company’s latest range of IPTV, Advanced Video Coding and high-definition set top boxes – providing a complete portfolio for cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasters.

ADB has become established as the leading supplier of hybrid IPTV set top boxes in Europe, including the world’s first single chip, high-definition set top box based on advanced video coding (AVC), the award winning ADB3800W.

Just two weeks after the BBC’s iPlayer video-on-demand software has become publicly available, Internet service providers are threatening to restrict services to save bandwidth.

So-called ‘traffic shaping’ measures, where excessive downloaders are restricted to retain the speed of most broadband connections, are already being used. But the threat to control a public service like iPlayer has caused controversy.

Online high-definition portal, Vuze, has proudly announced that it has reached six million users in only the first six months of availability.

The company is the world’s largest high-definition Internet video portal with millions of HD videos downloaded every month – and July saw downloads grow by over 100% compared to June.

Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), a Swiss supplier of digital TV solutions for interactive television, has announced that it has launched its first commercial high-definition IPTV set top boxes in North America.

The ADB-3800W device features Minerva Networks iTV Manager software and has been deployed over numerous independent networks around the country. ADB reportedly plans to follow up this launch with an IPTV digital video recorder later this year.

Apple TV hacks have recently provided a software patch that allows external storage devices to be connected via a USB port to the stylish set top box - with increased storage paving the way for high-definition.

The newly released patch is for version 1.0 of Apple TV software – so it won’t work on version 1.1.

There’s no official support for the hacks but forums at Apple TV hacks could be useful for anyone interested in installing or uninstalling the patch.

According to the Strategic Analytics research group, global broadband subscriptions are set to exceed 536 million by 2011.

The report suggests that digital subscriber line broadband will account for more than 50% of the market while fibre and WiMax will be the fastest growing technologies over the next five years.

David Mercer, vice president of the Strategy Analytics Digital Consumer Practice, said, "Fibre-to-the-home will eventually provide the ultimate broadband experience for many users, including high definition TV and lightning-fast interactive web-based services."

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ABC.com has announced that it’s testing streaming high-definition video over the Internet. It relies on technology provided by Move Networks, whose clients include US broadcasting networks, ABC and Fox.

You can take a look for yourself by viewing the demo or visiting either the Fox MySpace page or ABC’s Episodes Player (US users only) – although it’s still in beta and you’ll need to install the HD player.

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The good news is that HD video is finally available on Apple's iTunes, but the bad news is that it's only a video podcast from the Washington Post.

Up until now all the movies and TV shows on iTunes are encoded using standard resolution 480p. But the system is capable of streaming high-definition 720p, which was used to shoot he new vidcast.

Global Digital Broadcast has signed a deal with leading provider of high-definition technologies, VeHDa, to release and install 500,000 IP set top boxes in the UK market by the end of 2008.

The partnership makes use of existing resources owned by both VeHDa and its sister company play TV, which include 200 installation engineers located around the country, 800 sales and customer service staff and over 200 new vehicles used to transport the boxes.

Virgin Media has announced that it has struck a deal with the Football League to stream match action via broadband and mobile to its customers.

It seems as if selected matches will be streamed live, while highlights will be available for a week after the transmission. The service will start ahead of the Coca Cola Championship.

Though the content won't be in high definition, it marks the growing trend for putting content out over the net, and as broadband speeds improve, the possibility for streaming, or at least downloading, select HD content in this way grows.

Sky, Virgin Media, and BT are just three UK companies putting infrastructure in place to push forward with putting their content online.

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