TelecomTV interviewed Dr. Arjang Zadeh, Managing Partner of Accenture at the Broadband World Forum (BBWF) in Paris, France. He believes the forecasts of global IPTV subscribers are "over exuberant predictions." The video of the interview is available online.
Dr. Zadeh's candid comments regarding "highly suspect market estimates" is perhaps the latest attempt to manage the financial analyst community's expectations about IPTV investments by broadband service providers. Moreover, he builds the case for a differentiated, but not complicated, IPTV consumer experience that is still a work in progress.
This collective acknowledgement that IPTV has stalled in the U.S. market is noteworthy, since Accenture is known to be a primary business partner and advisor to the AT&T U-verse IPTV launch planning team.
In contrast to Dr. Zadeh's somber assessment, Christine Heckart, General Manager of Marketing at Microsoft TV says that she doesn't agree with Alcatel's senior executive assessment that IPTV is "massively over-hyped."
Martyn Warwick's pointed questions are captured in yet another interview video from the BBWF event, where Ms. Heckart attempts to wince and grin her way through Martyn's comments regarding her "very diplomatic answers."
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Verizon is unhappy with the glitches and delays with Microsoft's prior role in developing set-top box features for their FiOS pay-TV service. Taking matters into its own hands, the U.S. telco has replaced Microsoft personnel and software code and has hired developers in India and Texas to solve the problems, sources say.
Dr. Zadeh's candid comments regarding "highly suspect market estimates" is perhaps the latest attempt to manage the financial analyst community's expectations about IPTV investments by broadband service providers. Moreover, he builds the case for a differentiated, but not complicated, IPTV consumer experience that is still a work in progress.
This collective acknowledgement that IPTV has stalled in the U.S. market is noteworthy, since Accenture is known to be a primary business partner and advisor to the AT&T U-verse IPTV launch planning team.
In contrast to Dr. Zadeh's somber assessment, Christine Heckart, General Manager of Marketing at Microsoft TV says that she doesn't agree with Alcatel's senior executive assessment that IPTV is "massively over-hyped."
Martyn Warwick's pointed questions are captured in yet another interview video from the BBWF event, where Ms. Heckart attempts to wince and grin her way through Martyn's comments regarding her "very diplomatic answers."
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Verizon is unhappy with the glitches and delays with Microsoft's prior role in developing set-top box features for their FiOS pay-TV service. Taking matters into its own hands, the U.S. telco has replaced Microsoft personnel and software code and has hired developers in India and Texas to solve the problems, sources say.