asia

Because the [itvt] editorial team has been on the road the past few weeks, we are covering recent news stories in summary/round-up form. We anticipate that it will take a few days for us to catch up with all the recent news: 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. We apologize for any inconvenience to our readers.

Live Internet broadcasting service provider, Ustream, announced late Monday that it has secured $75 million in a Series B funding round that was led by Softbank of Japan, and that additional funding commitments are pending from other investors in the US and Asia. The company says that the funding will help it continue its growth in the US, and allow it to expand its presence in the Asia Pacific region where it is hoping to pursue opportunities in Japan, China, Korea and India.

Interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, announced Monday evening that DOXTV, a Chinese TV service provider that focuses on distributing international movies and television shows, has selected an end-to-end suite of NDS technologies to power its new push-VOD service. According to the terms of a deal that NDS describes as "the first agreement of its kind in China," DOXTV is using NDS's VideoGuard conditional access technology, its MediaHighway middleware, and its XTV DVR technology (which, among other things, offers push-VOD capabilities) to offer a range of programming and technology to Chinese pay-TV operators.

--Partners with tvCompass on EPG for Wireless Devices
--Signs Japan Distribution Deal with HitachiSoft

--Deal Targets China and other Asia-Pacific Markets

--Company Appoints New VP's of Programming and Business Development

ICTV, a Silicon Valley-based company that offers solutions for
bringing Web media to television, announced last month that it has
signed a deal with iPanel Technologies, a provider of embedded
software platforms for digital and IPTV services and applications. The
deal is designed to increase the availability of ICTV's flagship
ActiveVideo technology and service in China and other Asia-Pacific
markets. (Note: ActiveVideo technology mixes linear and on-demand
programming with broadband content from the Internet, and delivers it