Microsoft’s blizzard of publicity not withstanding, smaller players are trying to get a foothold in the fast growing IPTV market. UTStarcom, the Sino-American telecom equipment maker is going to power the IPTV efforts of Softbank (Yahoo) Broadband of Japan as well. UTStarcom says the new BBTV service will have 28 live TV channels, and offer upto 5200 movies on demand. Softbank BB has 4.8 million customers. Of course you can’t discount the all important fact – Softbank owns 12% of UTStarcom. Which is pretty much is the same thing as Microsoft’s publicity machine.