Better Late than Never? Israeli Broadcasters Unite to Fight Piracy

   

5-10 years after the rest of the world, the Israeli broadcasters decided to join forces and fight piracy. The Marker - "Shivuk" (marketing) site reports that 11 Media organizations, including broadcast channels 2 and 10, Hot (Cable - here), Yes (Satellite - see "YES Secret Plan - Be an OTT Provider" - here) and several content producers and niche channels will "initiate legislation, locate piracy web sites as well as educating the public on the issue."

See here (Hebrew). The initiative was approved by the Antitrust Authority - see thier press release - here.

The effort is led by Michal Refaeli-Caduri (picture), VP Regulation of Yes, which is a subsidiary of Israel incumbent carrier, Bezeq.

YES [Satellite TV, Israel] Secret Plan - Be an OTT Provider

    

The Israeli site, The Marker, exposed the strategic plans of Yes, a TV Satellite provider: the "Virtual Setup box" - moving to be an OTT content provider only.

According to site (here, Hebrew), Yes will use the internet infrastructure, with CPEs such as streamers, Boxee, Blu-ray players, PC, tablets and internet connected TV sets. The service will be based on monthly subscription as well as per-per-view. This is a significant change to the company’s business model, operation and technical staff.

Yes is a member of the Bezeq group, the incumbent teleco in Israel, the only provider of DSL services who recently deployed a "NGN" service (here), and announced that it will provide a 200 Mbps service using NSN equipment (see "Bezeq now ultra-fast with its broadband in Israel" - here)

"Our next generation network is now capable of delivering an experience people never thought possible. It gives Bezeq a major competitive edge, as our subscribers now have access to the fastest broadband speeds in the country to meet all their online requirements," said Yuval Keinan, vice president engineering, Bezeq