Biz Vision

Here's an excerpt out of Tracy Swedlow's [itvt] newsletter about a free HD IPTV service. The website is called MyTVPal.com and offers up channels such as ABC News, NBC News and a regional FOX station for free. There are also tons of international channels for anyone from abroad who is feeling a little homesick.

1080P HD IPTV Service, MyTVPal.com, Launches

A service called MyTVPal.com--which claims to be the world's first 1080P high-definition streaming IPTV and VOD service for PC player and IPTV set-top box clients--launched last week. The service, which is operated by IPTV content aggregator, BB Entertainment, and powered by technologies from MatrixStream, a Bay Area-based provider of IPTV solutions (note: to access the service, consumers must have a broadband connection of 1.5Mbps or faster), currently offers over 700 free standard- and high-definition channels from around 70 different countries, and plans to roll out additional channels on a monthly basis; in the coming months, it also plans to offer what it says will be a "wide range" of VOD titles "for a low monthly cost." In addition, it says that user-uploaded content and DVR features will be available as a software upgrade for PC and set-top box clients at some point in 2007. MyTVPal.com claims to be targeting 10 million users over the next five years, and is currently offering a free trial of its PC player to consumers who register on its Web site. In addition, it says that it plans to release 100,000 MatrixStream 1080P IPTV set-top boxes during its first year.