Applications
IPTV survey reveals limited initial revenue expectations
MUMBAI: Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a global survey of 302 technology and media firm executives. All of them are involved in or close to the IPTV business—network operators, equipment vendors, consumer electronics firms, broadcasters/studios and content providers.
Key Findings:
There is long-term optimism in IPTV: 34 per cent of the executives we surveyed believe IPTV will generate “significant revenue” by 2009 and another 57 per cent are at least “somewhat confident” that this will be the case.
But, few companies expect a substantial IPTV impact on their bottom line. Rather, most see the larger impact being on top-line growth. Network operators also hope IPTV will drive the take-up of broadband access connections and help reduce customer churn.
Content is critical to network operators‘ business model. They are currently acquiring it however they can, and the largest proportion of respondents say distribution without rights of ownership will be the primary means of sourcing IPTV content over the next year, according to an official release.
Video-on-demand is expected to be the chief money-maker among different IPTV services, both today and over the longer term. There is little consensus on other likely revenue sources. Respondents did not see advertising as a potential money-earner.
The chief hurdles to IPTV consumer adoption: a dearth of compelling content and lingering quality-of-service problems. Not a single respondent from this group is very confident that IPTV will spur significant revenue growth within a year of launch and no more than half are fairly or very confident of generating substantial revenue by 2009.
Despite respondents‘ pessimism that IPTV will spur growth in the near-term, major players are in various stages of testing IPTV. These include Verizon, AT&T, Telecom Italia, France Telecom and China Netcom, the release adds.
Applications
Canva acquires animation and AI startups Cavalry and MangoAI
The deals strengthen Canva’s push into enterprise and AI-led design workflows
AUSTRALIA: Global visual communication platform Canva has stepped up its acquisition drive, buying UK-based 2D animation platform Cavalry and US-based AI startup MangoAI to deepen its AI-powered creative stack.
Cavalry, whose tools are used by brands including Amazon, Meta, Google and Netflix, will strengthen Canva’s motion design capabilities. The deal builds on Canva’s 2024 acquisition of Affinity, which has crossed four million downloads since launch. With Cavalry, Canva now counts seven Europe-based acquisitions, underscoring its global expansion strategy.
MangoAI, an early-stage startup focused on video advertising optimisation, will integrate its reinforcement learning systems into Canva AI. The move aims to enable brands to generate personalised marketing content in real time, cutting production cycles while improving campaign performance. MangoAI co-founder Vinith Misra will join Canva as reinforcement learning lead in its research lab.
Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht said the acquisitions reflect the company’s ambition to make professional-grade creative tools more accessible without sidelining human creativity. The goal, he said, is to bring everything from vector to motion design into a single, integrated suite.
The company now reports 265 million active users, including 31 million paid subscribers, and $4 billion in annualised revenue, up 36 per cent year on year. The latest buys further position Canva against rivals such as Adobe and Apple’s Creator Studio as it pushes deeper into enterprise workflows.
Canva head of pro design marketing Liam Fisher, said AI is intended to act as a creative assistant rather than a replacement, reinforcing the primacy of craft and individual design judgement.
