Sky hopes to soar past Virgin with set-top Internet connections

> Sky, as part of its ongoing competition with Virgin, will launch Internet connectivity via TV set-tops in the fourth quarter of this year. About 2.5 million Sky customers with HD-enabled boxes will be able to access Internet content via an Ethernet connection that's just never been turned on up to this point. Virgin is keeping pace by delivering VoD content via a cable Internet connection and launching a new TiVo-partnered set-top later this year. Story.

> Here's a headline you never want to read if you're trying to make some money. "Stay Away From This IPO" advises The Motley Fool's Anders Bylund, commenting on plans by Nielsen's private ownership to take the media measurement company public. "The rise of digital cable and satellite broadcast services is making Nielsen boxes obsolete," Bylund writes. Ouch!

> If you love legalese, you'll love this story about how The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public Citizen and the ACLU have sided with Time Warner Cable in trying to quash a broad mass copyright infringement lawsuit by the U.S. Copyright Group. Even if your love for the law goes no further than Legal Seafood, you should read it because it's an interesting that examines the battle between content owners, content purveyors and content users. Story.

> The Indian Direct-to-Home (DTH) market grew by 44 percent year-over-year to 16 million subscribers in 2009 based primarily on the fact that "quality of service delivered by DTH is superior as compared to cable or any other medium." Story.

And finally... Speaking of markets, analyst firm Research and Markets reports in a news release that the big telecommunications story in Iraq continues to be mobile wireless not because it's good but because it's available. There is, the report said, a "lack of any significant fixed-line market, with infrastructure almost nonexistent outside of Baghdad."