ivi ready to grow in L.A., Chicago and Philadelphia; Boxee Box encourages users to ditch cable

> Legal wars with broadcasters aside, ivi.TV is ready to grow its service in three new major markets: Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, joining existing sites Seattle and New York City. ivi claims it's allowed to redistribute--and charge fees starting at $4.99 a month for--TV station signals online without regard to retransmission rules. Broadcasters, never ones to miss a monetary opening, vehemently and litigiously disagree. Story.

> Speaking of devices that have cable operators grinding their teeth, the Boxee Box is out there and getting some hype as "a possible replacement for cable service" because it can "deliver all of the entertainment available on the Internet to your HDTV." After reviewing the device, Leslie Meredith, TechNewsDaily senior writer concludes that it's worth a look: "The download is free and it's up to you whether or not it's worth the $80 to bring it your TV and cancel your cable service." Story.

> Continuing today's OTT theme, Internet set-top box startup and Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) spinoff Roku said it's on track to ship about a million boxes in 2010, primarily to access Netflix's instant streaming service and to cut the cable cord. "There's a pretty high dissatisfaction with cable and satellite, whether that's price/value or service or whatever," said Business Development VP Jim Funk speaking at Digital Hollywood. Story.

> If it's any comfort, cord cutting, or whatever purports to be cord cutting, is not a U.S.-only phenomenon. U.K. telecom giant BT (NYSE: BT) said that a strong broadband quarter didn't help much because fewer customers turned to it for traditional landline services. Story.

And finally... on the last broadband note, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's senior broadband adviser is leaving. Perhaps she saw the writing on the electoral wall or perhaps it was just time to go off and rejoin David Bradley, another Genachowski adviser, but Phoebe Yang is joining the senior management team at the Advisory Board Company (which Bradley founded). Yang was key in the development of the National Broadband Plan. Story.