Press Release

14 September 2009

New Members Reflect Growing Influence and Wide Geographic Appeal of Open IPTV Forum

AMSTERDAM, International Broadcasting Convention, 14 Sept 2009: Cisco, SmartLabs and Bouygues Telecom are the latest organisations to join the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF) in its development of open, end-to-end specifications for IPTV, based on existing technologies and open standards.

Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Today, networks are an essential part of business, education, government and home communications, and Cisco Internet Protocol-based (IP) networking solutions provide the platform for these communications.

SmartLabs LLC, headquartered in Russia,  is a leader in service delivery platform (SDP) for interactive digital television (IPTV, DVB, hybrid, satellite, Internet TV), innovative client applications and user interfaces for STBs. SmartLabs LLC is a part of ITG (Inline Technologies Group) holding group of companies.

Created in 1994, Bouygues Telecom is a mobile, fixed, TV and Internet communications provider. It has over 9.7 million customers, including 7.3 million with contracts. Bouygues Telecom is committed to being “the preferred brand of personal communication services” thanks to exemplary service and support for customers.

According to Yun Chao Hu, Chair of the OIPF, “The addition of Cisco and Russian technology provider SmartLabs LLC strengthens our representation in the important North American and Russian markets respectively, while French operator Bouygues Telecom continues to reinforce the relevance of the Forum in one of Europe’s most vibrant and competitive IPTV markets. It is very pleasing that the Forum membership includes an ever-increasing number of the world’s most influential IPTV stakeholders, highlighting the desirability of standardised mass market IPTV and throwing a sharp focus on the OIPF efforts to achieve this.”

For further information about this news release, please contact: Claire d’Esclercs [email protected]

 NOTES FOR EDITORS

IPTV (Internet Protocol Television or Interactive Personalised Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. With IPTV, the television screen becomes a means of communication, allowing the viewer to interact with the service. It will have numerous applications, for example, in video on demand, shopping, for special needs, quiz shows, voting in television shows etc.  

The Open IPTV Forum is fully open to participants from across the communications and entertainment industries, and brings together network operators, content providers, service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers and home and network infrastructure providers. The members of the Open IPTV Forum are working together on the development of open standards because they recognise that combining the expertise of all involved will help to streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies. Their aim is to make the next generation of IPTV a mass market service and to maximise the benefits of IPTV for consumers as well as the industry.