dotTV Consortium to Demonstrate Next Generation Digital Television Service at NAB

New Service Allows Broadcasters to Realize Increased On-line and TV Ad Revenues

SEOUL, South Korea — The dotTV Consortium, whose mission is to develop and promote specifications for the next-generation digital TV service, will demonstrate its service at NAB in Las Vegas. As viewers increasingly demand greater flexibility when, where and how they access TV and other entertainment content, dotTV brings the interactivity of online media and social networking to the TV and set-top box while retaining the cost and bandwidth advantages of the traditional broadcast network infrastructure. Based on its own open standard currently under development, dotTV will demonstrate the benefits of its services for both the viewing public and broadcast/media companies. Consumers can find, watch, save and share favorite video moments using their HDTV, PC or mobile device while broadcasters and other media companies are able to offer a new service that enables the monetization of content through contextually relevant advertising. dotTV’s demonstration can be seen at the ATSC DTV HotSpot Booth (L33).

“Broadcasters in advanced markets such as South Korea with high broadband penetration and data rates are facing declining advertising revenues as consumers increasingly access entertainment content through alternative media and via a variety of devices,” says Won-Kun Lee, Executive Vice President of KBS, the largest broadcaster in the Korea. “The dotTV specification takes advantage of the confluence of digital terrestrial television tuners, internet connectivity and DVR capabilities in new devices to provide consumers with a next-generation television viewing experience that enhances traditional broadcast service with the interactivity users have come to expect from the internet. The end result is a better TV viewing experience for the consumer supported by new, contextual advertising revenue opportunities for broadcasters.”

Launched in January of 2008, dotTV is driving the standard that enables new ways for consumers to interact with TV content by leveraging integration of media across multiple platforms, including TVs, PCs and mobile devices. The dotTV Consortium is comprised of major consumer electronics manufacturers LG and Samsung, broadcast television companies KBS, SBS and EBS, and key technology providers Irdeto and VMark. “Particularly noteworthy is the participation of major consumer electronics makers in the development of the dotTV specification as it will be through such devices that consumers will experience dotTV compliant services. The successful launch of a new, advanced service based on the dotTV specification will require consumer electronics companies to offer TVs and other devices that are compliant with and take advantage of such a service,” said Simon Kang, President & CEO of Digital Display Company of LG Electronics. “At the same time, we believe that advanced, standards-based services such as dotTV will allow us to differentiate our products by delivering significant value-added functionality to our customers. Thus, our participation in dotTV is a win-win situation for our partners, customers and CE companies,” said Kyungshik Lee, Vice President of Visual Display Division of Samsung Electronics.

At NAB, 2008, dotTV will demonstrate the ability of television viewers to mark individual scenes and share those scenes with friends and communities of interest over the internet, while respecting the rights of copyright holders. This “scene-sharing” promotes the viral distribution of content over the web and directs the resulting traffic to sites where media and broadcast companies can once again engage their viewers. The viewing experience of both full length shows and marked scenes is further enhanced via scene-based metadata contributed by both broadcasters and viewers that describe key aspects of each scene. By enabling dynamic delivery of scene information, this metadata creates a more engaging viewing experience while providing broadcasters and advertisers the opportunity to deliver targeted, contextual advertising and promotions. The association of this metadata with specific video scenes also enables granular video search by consumers to discover and view relevant scenes within TV shows.

“Young, savvy Korean viewers have been migrating away from watching broadcast network programming on their TVs in favor of viewing these same programs on the web, largely enabled by high broadband penetration and data rates in South Korea,” said Koo Kwan Seo, CEO of EBS. “We worked with a key dotTV consortium member to launch a pilot project and the results have been very encouraging,” said Mr. Lee of KBS. “These same consumers have responded positively to the ability to save and share scenes via social networks, blogs, email, and instant messaging, and the resulting increase in traffic to our website from this activity has been dramatic.” Jeong Il-Jong, CTO of SBS explained, “Based on this experience, as we and our partners enable the dotTV service on internet-connected set-top boxes and TVs, SBS has a clear vision of how a next-generation digital TV service based on dotTV can bring the interactivity that consumers desire to the TV and also drive incremental advertising revenue for broadcasters.”

“Free-to-air broadcasting is the next frontier for the addition of value-added services for consumers. Irdeto technologies have been securing and enabling innovative pay-TV business models for many years, and we believe strongly in the potential of the dotTV consortium to help terrestrial broadcasters achieve these same results,” said Andrew Wajs, CTO of Irdeto. “As traditional broadcast advertising revenues decline and pay-TV operators and the Internet raise the bar on consumer expectations for video, public and commercial broadcasters must keep up by offering compelling and profitable services to bring people back to the couch. We believe that dotTV can help them do that.”

“Korea is a market leader in many aspects of technology, services and new usage models,” adds Brett Gaines, Executive Vice President of VMark. “When it comes to new services and usage models for the delivery and consumption of new media, everyone in this industry should be looking at the Korean market for trends that will affect their businesses.” As dotTV continues to prove its model in the Korean marketplace, the consortium seeks to work with global broadcasting, media and technology companies to prove the model in other markets.