As of 8am PST Bell changed the stream in regards to B1, much like the new Dish B1’s. However they don’t seem to be stopping there, please stand by.

Those running autoroll blockers be careful and those running FTA manual input your keys and shut off A/R !!

Concerned that the NFL’s exclusive Sunday Ticket package with DirecTV may be disenfranchising cable subscribers, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a last-minute hearing for Tuesday to talk about the package’s antitrust implications.

The hearing was called by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who in January is expected to be replaced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., as committee chairman.

NFL’s exclusive deal with DirecTV for the NFL Sunday Ticket package lets DirecTV subscribers see multiple NFL games that aren’t broadcast locally and aren’t available on cable.

Sen. Specter in the past has occasionally indicated concern about sports antitrust issues.

Officials from DirecTV and Time Warner Cable and the NFL’s general counsel are among witnesses slated to testify at Tuesday’s hearing.

An NFL spokesman said the league has been told Sen. Specter wants to discuss the NFL’s overall TV policy and said the senator has occasionally scheduled hearings to discuss the issue going back to the days of NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who held the post from 1960 through 1989.

The spokesman said the NFL is pleased to have the discussion, “since our longstanding emphasis on making our games available on free over-the-air TV has helped make us the most popular sport in the country.”

The media server market is gaining significant momentum as large end-user platform vendors release new products across the different product categories for digital distribution and content-shifting, both in the home and over the Internet. ABI Research believes that a media server strategy is fast becoming a requirement for platform providers both for retail and service provider technology.

“The market for networked media devices is seeing significant traction in the second half of 2006, and media servers are key component for the major vendors of platforms for consumer content,” said research director Michael Wolf. “We expect that platform providers will continue their push to integrate capabilities for secure distribution of content over home networks and onto the Internet.”

Some key vendor-related developments regarding enabling the media server market:

Apple’s announcement of its iTV media adapter has pushed Apple into the media networking and media server market.
Sony’s recent announcement that its Playstation 3 will be able to placeshift content locally and over the Internet to the Playstation Portable
Motorola’s Home Media DRV platform and Cisco’s media networking initiative are pushing their STB and consumer media platforms further towards whole-home media servers
Intel’s Viiv program and AMD Live have brought a significant number of new media networked devices to market to enable local and Internet distribution from media server PCs

Some of the key end-use applications for these media server devices include multi-room PVR and placeshifting of content. Companies like Orb and Sling Media, which enable the evolution of PC and set-top box platforms into media servers through aftermarket products, are seeing increased end-user traction as well.

“While consumers are hesitant to take on additional technology that complicates their lives, new and enticing use-case scenarios are steadily increasing adoption of different technologies,” said Wolf. “Once media servers provide new ways to consume content in new ways, these technologies will see mainstream adoption.”

TiVo Inc. Tuesday unveiled plans to expand Internet video that can be shown on TVs through its DVRs.

Alviso-based TiVo said its TiVoCast system now has programming partnerships with CBS Interactive, part of CBS Corp. Reuters Group plc and business magazine Forbes to bring their video content to TV.

It will also offer a Home Movies Service, in partnership with Redwood City-based One True Media Inc., that allows sharing of home videos by sending them directly to TV sets.

TiVo’s new service is expected to be offered by the end of the year, but requires an upgrade to the TiVo Desktop software. Some subscribers already use this to view photos from the Web and listen to Internet radio. It, will cost $24.95 for new users and will be a free upgrade for current users.

The service will only work with downloaded videos that are not copy-protected. It can’t handle videos that use San Jose-based Adobe Systems Inc.’s Flash technology, which is becoming the most common way to distribute video on the Internet.

San Bruno-based YouTube Inc., which has been acquired by Mountain View-based Google Inc., uses Flash for its popular video-sharing Web site.

Neither will the services reportedly be available to TiVos that are hooked up through DirecTV Group Inc.’s satellite service.

TiVo has 4.4 million subscribers but its growth has been slowed by competition from cheaper DVRs offered by cable and satellite services.

Three former Robeson County deputies have been charged with pirating satellite TV service.

The charges were added to a federal indictment unsealed in June that accuses C.T. Strickland, Roger Taylor and Steven Lovin of stealing drug money, arson, beating up suspected drug dealers and distributing cocaine and marijuana from 1996 to 2004.

The indictment is part of a four-year investigation called Operation Tarnished Badge. The investigation, by state and federal lawmen, has led to charges against 11 deputies and two Lumberton police officers. Six of the 11 deputies have pleaded guilty.

A December trial date for Strickland, Taylor and Lovin has been postponed.

The additional charges in the 12-count indictment say the three former deputies conspired with others to possess modified telecommunications equipment. That equipment was used to illegally program satellite TV cards to receive unauthorized service. Counterfeit cards also were made and sold to people, the indictment says.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey and District Attorney Johnson Britt could not be reached for comment. It is not known whether other deputies will be charged with satellite TV piracy.

Generally, thieves steal satellite TV services by altering the commands of a programmable card inside each subscriber’s control box. The card allows the programmer to block channels, such as pay-per-view sports and movies, that the subscriber does not want to pay for.

Pirates alter or clone the cards to allow access to all of a provider’s channels, said Jimmy Schaeffler, chief executive of The Carmel Group, a telecommunications consulting company in California.

The federal government is cracking down on the pirates, who cause legal subscribers to pay more for services, Schaeffler said.

“These are serious federal agents who go after this stuff,� he said. The Robeson County deputies “picked the wrong thing to do at the wrong time, if they did it.�

Two years ago, Gerald Strickland, a close relative of C.T. Strickland, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $49,380 in restitution to DirecTV for making and selling counterfeit satellite cards from his business, Prospect Satellite Sales and Services. After finishing his sentence, Gerald Strickland was allowed to return to work at the Robeson County Health Department.

The U.S. Secret Service investigated Gerald Strickland’s case. A Secret Service agent at the Wilmington office could not be reached for comment.

Schaeffler said piracy of satellite television cost DirecTV hundreds of millions of dollars annually before the nation’s largest provider figured out a way to stop the thefts in 2004. EchoStar, which owns the No. 2 provider, Dish Network, still has widespread problems with piracy, Schaeffler said.

Schaeffler said he finds it troubling that people sworn to uphold the law are accused of stealing satellite TV programming.

“It’s a shame when those who are in control of the system take advantage of it,� he said. “One could argue that those kinds of people should pay the highest price because they are in a position to get away with it for a long, long time, maybe forever.�

The Fight Network television service has successfully launched on Bell ExpressVu’s satellite system.

ExpressVu customers will enjoy a free preview of the service until December 1st, 2006.

Available on channel 390, The Fight Network is described as the first and only all combatant sports and entertainment channel that delivers the very best in boxing, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and other combatant styles along with top-notch “fight theme” movies, documentaries, and news coverage, 24 hours a day. Pride FC, K-1, TNA Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Versus Top Rank Boxing, Showtime Boxing: Shobox, and TKO (From Quebec) are just a few of the network’s programming highlights.

“We are very pleased to have Fight Network now available on ExpressVu, said Mike Garrow President of the channel, “We know that the fans who have ExpressVu have been waiting to see “all fights, all the time” and now the wait is over….get ready for some non-stop action coming through your dish each and every day from now on,” he added.

The Fight Network is a cross-platform media company with brand interest in television, pay-per view, radio, mobile and web. All five of these media are seamlessly integrated to offer fans of combatant sports and related entertainment a true convergence experience. The Fight Network Inc. corporate headquarters is located in Toronto.

Launched in September 1997, Bell ExpressVu has become the largest and fastest growing leader in digital home entertainment and has over 850,000 customers, representing more than 40 per cent of the digital TV subscribers in Canada. The company broadcasts Canada’s largest programming line-up of over 200 video channels to an 18-inch dish, the smallest in the country. Bell ExpressVu is a limited partnership, wholly owned by BCE Inc.