US families in DTT blackout

More than 6.5 million US households are not ready for the upcoming transition to digital broadcasting and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today, says the Nielsen Company, according to PR News Wire.

The federal government states all television stations are required to switch to digital programming by 17 February, which will leave viewers without a television signal unless they purchase digital television sets, connect to cable, satellite, and alternate delivery systems or purchase a converter box.

"Nielsen has been preparing for the transition to digital television for more than two years," says Nielsen vice-chair Susan Whiting. "Because we recognise that accurate and reliable information on consumer behaviour is essential to this transition, we've been sharing our data with clients, government leaders and the public so they could track progress to digital readiness."

Live Cargo has acquired CMWare, a mobile marketing technology company, says MSNBC.

"I see this as a strategic fit in the telecommunications market as well as other vertical markets where large numbers of subscribers are located, such as education, real estate and social networking sites,” says Live Cargo's CEO Doug Young.

The provider of mobile streaming, IPTV, and Web-based social networking services wants to combine the resources of the two companies into one solution that will produce new disruptive technologies.

Argentinean telco Cooperativa de Tel'efonos de Pinamar (Telpin) is readying itself to launch IPTV services in the country, and is only awaiting modification of Argentina's Radio broadcasting Law before starting commercial services, reports IPTV News.

Current Argentinean regulation prevents a provider of public services from gaining a pay-TV licence, but the government intends to modify this barrier. Meanwhile, Telpin is operating an Internet TV portal called Telpin TV, offering video on-demand content such as local news, music and general interest shows.

“The IPTV initiative is framed within our triple-play project,” says Telpin CEO Dar'io Oliver. "We have worked hard recently to improve the quality of the network and to start to offer increasingly higher speeds. We hope to increase speeds to 8Mbps."