AMC Networks said its Shudder horror-focused streaming service has launched in Australia and New Zealand.

Shudder has been expanding internationally and is now also available in Canada, Germany, the U.K. and Ireland as well as the U.S. 

“We’re thrilled to share our unrivaled collection of curated horror and supernatural movies and series with Australian and New Zealand audiences just in time for Halloween season, where we feature our biggest and best programming of the year,” said Craig Engler, Shudder’s general manager. “These new launches continue our growing international expansion and our commitment to offer premium genre entertainment to a global audience."

Shudder features the series Creepshow and Cursed Films in addition to movies and documentaries. Another series, The Dead Lands is available only in Australia.

Shudder is available in Australia and New Zealand on the web, iOS, Apple TV, Android and Android TV, and also FireTV in Australia. Plans start at just AU$5.83 and NZ$6.67.

Start-up AVOD company Tubi is set to expand to Australia.

Starting September 1, the free-to-consumer, ad-supported streaming service will be available to Telstra TV subscribers through an integration deal with the telecom. It will also be viewable in Down Under region via Samsung smart TVs, as well as connected devices including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. There’s app support for Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices. And Australians can watch via PCs on Tubi.TV.

Tubi said it has secured rights to a library of 7,000 movies and TV shows at launch. Tubi name-dropped titles including 3:10 to Yuma,The Blair Witch Project, Kickboxer and Stranger Than Fiction in its press release touting the expansion.

Related: Roku Growth Outpacing Netflix’s Early Int’l Expansion Phase: Analyst

International expansion is all the rage right now in the ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) business. Roku appears to be following Netflix’s game plan for its Roku Channel, building inroads into Latin America. ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV recently landed in Europe.

Tubi CEO Farhad Massoudi noted that Australia is a top market for the leading SVOD service, Netflix, but that Tubi expects to have the market much to itself in regard to AVOD, at least initially.

“I don't think any of the big AVOD platforms have launch there,” he said, noting that Australia also has a strong internet infrastructure and that the advertising market is “fairly mature.”

In a 2018 report on Netflix’s top streaming markets, Business Insider ranked Australia seventh, just behind Norway, noting that the SVOD giant had about 43% penetration into a market of more than 23 million consumers.

Tubi, which is privately funded with $26 million to date, is crediting heavy lifting for the Australian launch to a man who bills himself as the AVOD company's “international expansion consultant,” Josh Ismin.

Said by Tubi to be “no stranger to Australian video advertising,” Ismin founded video and ad platform TVN in Sydney back in 2010. Sold to Telaria in 2015, TVN now touts users including Foxtel, Network Ten, MCN and Southern Cross Austereo. 

Arris has announced a broad-reaching deal with Australia’s NBN Co. to provide Full Duplex-capable, DOCSIS 3.1-powered broadband services to 3 million of the cable operator’s subscribers by 2020.

Under the agreement, Arris will supply its E6000 Gen 2 CCAP platform and its OM4100 OptiMax 4x4 segmentable nodes, as well last its CM8200B DOCSIS 3.1 modems.

Related: Arris to Be ‘More Selective’ With Its Set-Top Box Business

Arris will also provide its ServAssure NXT network management platform, as well as the resources of its global software and devices services team.

“They’re able to add bandwidth and pay 65% - 75% of what they paid before,” noted Dan Whalen, president of Arris’ Network & Cloud division, in an interview with Multichannel News. “They’re able to do more using less power and less space.”

Whalen noted the preponderance of fiber competition in the Australian region. The ability for NBN to provide the gigabit symmetrical services enabled by Full Duplex DOCSIS will be a significant competitive boost for the operator, Whalen said.

He compared the Down Under market to Latin America and the Caribbean, noting a shortage of technologists in the region familiar with next-generation HFC network. NBC, Whalen said.

“There’s a lot of fiber-to-the-curb and fiber-to-the-home, but but not a lot of people to support DOCSIS," he said.

This has benefited Arris’ growing Global Services unit, Whalen added, which is being called upon by NBN to help manage the network.

“They’re looking for someone to step in and manage the end-to-end operation of their network,” he explained.

Related: Arris Hit Hard By Shortages of Capacitors, DRAM

At least on the CPE side, Arris has been troubled of late, as all companies working in the electronics business, by shortages of components, including memory chips and capacitors.

SNL Kagan analyst Jeff Heynen said he believes the impact of these component shortages should be short-lived. “Though it will have an impact on how quickly DOCSIS 3.1 devices can be deployed,” he added in a direct tweet to Multichannel.

For his part, Whalen downplayed the effect of the shortages in Arris’ Australian DOCSIS 3.1 deployment.

“I feel pretty comfortable that we have workarounds,” he said. 

Nbn Co, a government-owned entity that’s tasked with bringing next-gen broadband to millions of homes and businesses in Australia, said it has completed an HFC trial with a set of retail service partners (RSPs) using DOCSIS 3.0 technology that produced Layer 3 peak speeds of about 100 Mbps downstream and 40 Mbps in the upstream direction.

That trial, conducted on the Optus HFC network in Redcliffe, Queensland, involved about 20 end users, and tested elements such as improvements to network capacity, speed performance monitoring and the “on-boarding” of RSPs.

Those trials help to set the table for an anticipated commercial launch in Redcliffe in June 2016.

Three RSPs (retail service providers) – Telstra, iiNet and Exetel participated in the HFC pilot.

The HFC pilot, which used Arris-made DOCSIS 3.0 modems and the vendor’s E6000 CMTS/CCAP, averaged speeds of 84 Mbps/33 Mbps from December 1, 2015, through January 20, 2016. Those results were verified by Ovum (PDF), an independent U.K.-based analyst and consulting firm.

Nbn has already committed to using DOCSIS 3.1, a new platform for HFC networks that can deliver multi-gigabit speeds, but put a finer point on it this week, announcing that it intends to launch D3.1-based services in the second half of 2017. Nbn has also praised an emerging “full duplex” technology being developed at CableLabs that will enable MSOs to deliver symmetrical data services on DOCSIS 3.1-powered HFC networks.

“We launched our HFC Pilot on the former Optus HFC network back in November – with our pilot being one of the few times that a HFC network had been used to offer wholesale open access broadband services either in Australia or in the global broadband market,” Tony Brown, nbn’s public affairs manager, explained in this blog post.

“Whilst we are delighted with the speeds we have achieved on the pilot, we should note that this is really only just the beginning of what we are able to achieve on our nbn HFC network,” Brown added. “On our HFC pilot, we were using the current generation DOCSIS 3.0 technology, but from mid-2017 we plan to deploy next-generation DOCSIS 3.1 technology which is capable of wholesale downstream speeds of 10Gbps and wholesale upload speeds of 1Gbps.”

Last year, nbn selected Arris to play a primary role with the HFC portion of its network upgrades, which will rely on the supplier’s E600, CORWave transmitters and OM4100 optical receivers. Though Arris modems were used for the trials, it’s expected that cable modems from multiple suppliers will be distributed by RSPs that offer services on the network.

Nbn, established in 2009 to design, build and operate Australia’s new broadband network, is using a multi-technology approach. In addition to HFC, it will also use a mix of fiber-to-the-premises, fiber-to-the-node/basement (42%), and satellite and fixed wireless technologies to deliver broadband services.

According to nbn’s results for the second half of 2015, it ended the year with nearly 1.7 million premises that can order an nbn service, having added 450,000 homes and businesses to the footprint during that period. Nbn also posted total revenue of $164 million, up 152%, during the second half of 2015, with an average revenue per user of $43 per month. 

A newly ripe OTT channel for wine lovers everywhere, WineVine.tv, launched on Aprill 22 focused on offering vino-flavored content for both novices and connoisseurs. 

Although WineVine is based in the land down under, network CEO Frank Brown, former CEO of MTV Networks Asia Pacific, saidthe digital network will target “the fast-growing international audience of wine consumers” and cover the “global” market.

The OTT company has partnered with video content developer Brand New Media, which also powers digital channels Healthy Me and mySURF.tv.

Here are the five must-see videos from WineVine.  

True or False - Is Wine Good For You?

The debate over whether vino has health benefits constantly flip-flops. In this clip, WineVine’s lead host, top Australian wine writer Jeremy Oliver, explains what he’s learned from studying reds, whites and the scientific literature on both. Here, Oliver speaks about wine's general benefits as well as its heart-healthy properties. 

Introduction to Varietals - Pinot Noir 

Dubbing it “the holy grail,” “the impossible dream” and “the heartbreak grape,” Oliver describes the “full, intense” French wine and the best places the grapes are grown. He also explains how to recognize a great bottle of pinot. It is clearly the wine to know.

Cellar Notes - Corks vs. Screw Caps

For everyone who’s ever wondered whether corked wines are better than screw-top wines, wine educator Mark Davidson sets the record straight, detailing the differences in the capping process. Although screw tops may seem less sophisticated, Davidson shows why they’re the better choice.

Meet the Maker - Lake’s Folly (The Lake’s Folly Difference)

In this installment, the first in a trio of deep dives into unique regional wine makers, host Oliver speaks to the creator of Lakes Folly wines, the first boutique winery in Australia. Folly’s winemaker Rod Kempe also dishes on how his business got its name. 

Warming up to Cool Climate Whites - Canadian Chardonnay

WineVine isn’t all about Australian vino. In this series — which goes longer than the channel's other videos, hitting the 22-minute mark —  local experts visit grape growers and wineries around the globe.  For this episode, sommelier Tom Doughty  investigates Canadian white wines like rieslings, chardonnays and sauvignon blancs, hitting topics like fermentation, food pairings and “cool-climate” white wine. 

While there’s been some controversy surrounding what’s the right strategy for NBN Co due to a bit of an historical bias toward FTTP, hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) will be a “cornerstone” technology as Australia’s government-sponsored agency for next-gen broadband pushes ahead, Bruce McClelland, president of Network & Cloud and Global Services, said the day after vendor announced its chief role in the project.

Fiber-to-the-premises, DSL, satellite and fixed wireless will also play a part in NBN Co’s plan, which will ultimately create an open access network for  a number of “retail service providers” that will ultimately ride on top of that common mixed-technology network. It’s expected that the upgraded HFC network will cover about 3.4 million premises, nearly half of the 8 million envisioned by the NBN project.

While Telstra’s HFC networks are in decent shape, Optus’s was relatively under-invested, McClelland said, noting that the broadband technology underpinning those networks spans everything from DOCSIS 1.0 to DOCSIS 3.0.

While the plan is to move to a Converged Cable Access Platform, the HFC-facing tech roadmap also includes a possible future migration to DOCSIS 3.1.

As for timing, McClelland said NBN would like to reach commercial trials with the new technology platform toward the end of 2015, with widescale commercial deployments underway by the first part of 2016.

Arris’s deal with NBN doesn’t include modems and other consumer premises equipment, as NBN will specify the minimum requirements but leave distribution of that equipment to its retail service partners. Arris, though, is “highly motivated to participate in that piece of the solution as well,” McClelland said.

Arris and NBN didn’t reveal financial terms, though one report placed the value at about $400 million. In a research note issued Monday (February 23), Simon Leopold, analyst with Raymond James, hesitated to put precise value on the deal, but said it could be “worth double digit millions.”

Although Arris sees international markets as a growth driver, “recent dollar strength might present a headwind for this opportunity,” Leopold added.