Verimatrix announces CANTV as the latest Americas customer to select the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System for IPTV. Through a reseller partnership with ZTE, VCAS for IPTV has been integrated with ZTE's ZXBIV IPTV Eyewill solution for the CANTV deployment. In this initial deployment phase, CANTV plans to offer IPTV services with 140 channels to 67,000 subscribers, which is considered the largest IPTV project in South America. The Venezuelan state-owned operator CANTV is targeting 1.26 million IPTV customers within the next six years.

ZTE recently clinched a large-scale commercial IPTV contract from CANTV in Venezuela. Considered as the largest IPTV project in the whole South America region, CANTV is investing about $400 million in line with its aim of developing 1.26 million IPTV subscribers in the next six years.

Despite it being early days in the IPTV market, service providers are lured by the technology’s offer of an interesting entry-door to triple play. IPTV is rapidly emerging as the buzzword in Latin America’s telecommunications industry, as a host of operators has either started testing the waters or intends to do so soon.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Internet Protocol Television Services Markets in Latin America, finds that IPTV service is beginning to see widespread deployment in the region, as traditional telecommunications service providers try to complete a triple play offer.

KIT digital has been selected by RCN Television to provide a variety of online video and audio solutions for their television and radio assets. RCN is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ardila Lülle Organization, a leading regional, diversified conglomerate based in Bogotá, Colombia. KIT digital has contracted with e-nnovva, the recently created new media division of RCN, to provide proprietary technology to host live streaming, video-on-demand, and live audio content in both short and long formats for RCN's network of TV and radio stations. KIT digital's "VX " digital asset management platform will provide RCN with best-of-breed customer-facing functionality as well as wide-ranging capabilities for RCN to proactively create new channels and sub-channels, geo-blocking features, advertising integration, and other interactive marketing programs.

Unión Electrica has deployed the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System for IPTV within its platform solution for the UNE-EPM Telecomunicaciones IPTV deployment. UNE-EPM will be formally launching its IPTV service in Medellín and Bogotá over the next few months. Verimatrix joins partners Orca, Sagem and Bitband for this groundbreaking IPTV deployment in Columbia.

UNE-EPM's IPTV service will include 103 broadcast TV channels and will offer VoD and PVR functionality later in the year as it expands into other operating regions When fully deployed, the service will be available to as many as 1.6 million existing UNE-EPM phone and cable subscribers.

Telsur has selected Zhone’s multi-service access platform to expand the company’s IPTV footprint. Telsur is a leader in the telecommunications market in Chile and recognized for advanced IP convergence throughout Latin America.

With Zhone’s MALC, Telsur can immediately provision high-speed data and IPTV services over traditional ADSL and provision GPON fiber to the home services using the same platform and standard TR-069 Automatic Configuration Server.

UTStarcom announces its first IPTV win in Latin America for its industry-leading RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution with the launch of Brasil Telecom's Videon IPTV service. This is the telecom operator's first video offering to its customers.

Brasil Telecom, one of Brazil's leading wireless and fixed-line communications providers, has deployed UTStarcom's RollingStream solution as the sole end-to-end technology platform for its new Videon video-on-demand IPTV service in Brasilia with plans to expand the service to additional cities in the country's South and Midwest regions in the coming months. In addition to supporting the current subscriber base in Brasilia, the RollingStream system designed for Brasil Telecom maintains an additional capacity of 50,000 subscribers for the expansion.

UNE-EPM Telecommunications has selected Orca’s advanced RiGHTv middleware to enable the first IPTV service rollout in Colombia. The IPTV deployment will be carried out by Union Electrica S.A., Orca’s partner and system integrator in the project, providing a seamless, end-to-end solution. UNE-EPM Telecommunications’s IPTV service is expected to be available in major cities across Colombia in the first quarter of 2008.

According to Portafolio, UNE-EPM Telecommunications will launch its IPTV service in March, making it the first company to offer IPTV in Colombia.

The service will include a total of 103 TV channels and in August the company will expand the service to include video on-demand and PVR functionality.

TANDBERG Television announced with business partner Balum Ltd. that its IPTV video headend and MPEG-4 AVC encoders have been selected by EPM Telecommunications UNE to deploy the first IPTV service in Colombia, South America. As a leading provider of Internet, VoIP and television services to this market, EPM's new IPTV service will be part of its competitive triple play package. The company will leverage the TANDBERG iPlex Video Headend Platform to provide Colombian viewers with more than 100 real-time channels and video-on-demand movies.

IPTV-Americas has selected the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to provide digital video content security throughout its digital video network. IPTV Americas is currently running trials of its turnkey IPTV solution with telecommunications carriers in Latin America and plans a full-scale launch in 2007. Visitors to the IPTV World Forum in Rio de Janeiro can visit Verimatrix at booth #2 and IPTV Americas at booth #11 to hear more details.

Brasil Telecom has chosen Widevine Technologies to protect its IP video service. Scheduled to launch in phases, the service enables subscribers to view a variety of Hollywood content and local programming on set top boxes, home media gateways and, eventually, PCs.

UTStarcom, Inc., a global leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and services, announced that the company has signed a contract with Telpin, a telecommunications operator in the Atlantic Coastal region of Argentina, to deploy its iAN-8000 Multiservice Access Node (MSAN) in order to broaden its subscriber base and deliver triple play services.

UTStarcom, Inc., a global leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and services, announced that the company provided its mVision end-to-end IPTV solution for a recently completed trial of triple play services in Brazil with Telemar, which will make IP-based television and multimedia services available to its customers utilizing the IP protocol. Today, Telemar offers 15 million fixed lines of telephony service, 8.1 million cellular lines and almost 700,000 Internet lines to the Brazilian market.