OpenTV Announces New Customer Win in Israel

OpenTV Announces New Customer Win in Israel

OpenTV Participate(TM) Solution to Power Unique Mobile Interactive Experience for Broadcast of Game Show '1 vs 100'

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- OpenTV Corp. (NASDAQ:OPTV) , a leading provider of solutions for the delivery of advanced television and cross-platform interactive services, announced today that its OpenTV Participate solution will power live, synchronized mobile interactive services for the international hit TV game show "1 vs 100" broadcast by Reshet, Israel's largest broadcaster.

The recent adoption of the OpenTV Participate system allows Reshet to provide a powerful, new interactive viewing experience to its audience, enabling viewers to actively participate in the "1 vs 100" game show using mobile phones.

"We are very excited to partner with Reshet on our new mobile interactive solution. It offers unprecedented flexibility for broadcasters and producers alike, as well as an exciting and unique interactive experience for viewers," said Alan Guggenheim, President and CEO of OpenTV. "This latest extension to the OpenTV Participate platform is part of an ongoing initiative at OpenTV to deliver the right content, at the right time to the right device. The power of OpenTV Participate is that it fully embraces the idea that viewers can participate and transact via multiple platforms," concluded Guggenheim.

During the show, a user friendly graphical interface, developed by the Vario Group, a Tel Aviv based Internet and mobile solutions provider, will display synchronized content enabling viewers to select their answer to the actual questions presented on the TV show. The mobile application, which works on both Brew and Java enabled phones, has already been developed and ported by Vario to the majority of mobile handsets in Israel.

"Reshet's goal is to lead Israeli TV into the new media age," said Reshet Deputy CEO Ilan Tovyahu. "Our strategy is to find and adopt technologies that can help us expand our offering beyond the traditional TV viewing experience, and we are happy to be able to partner with companies like OpenTV and Vario. We hope this is just the first such experience we offer our viewers," added Tovyahu. "The user interface created by OpenTV and Vario is so simple and intuitive that anyone can use it; the system offers us a very flexible platform for creating a seamless interactive experience with multiple new opportunities for viewers to get involved."

OpenTV Participate is a server-based system which can process several thousand transactions per second, delivering a personalized interactive experience to viewers who will be able to compete against the studio player, and each other, simultaneously. Powerful competition logic allows points to be allocated for each correct answer and provides viewers with 'on-the-fly' audience response statistics and personalized score and answer results for each response. Prizes can be set in the system, which automatically selects the winner, ensuring a fair process that can be independently audited if required. The system also creates a unique account for each user, allowing the broadcaster to contact winners as well as track weekly retention and usage statistics.

In addition to the synchronized interactive services, OpenTV Participate also allows Reshet to present other value-added content, such as trivia, fun facts, sponsor messages and interactive advertising, to the audience at various intervals during the show and commercial breaks.

About OpenTV

OpenTV is one of the world's leading providers of solutions for the delivery of digital and interactive television. The company's software has been integrated in over 92 million digital set-top boxes and digital televisions around the world. The software enables enhanced program guides, video-on-demand, personal video recording, enhanced television, interactive shopping, interactive and addressable advertising, games and gaming and a variety of consumer care and communication applications. For more information, please visit http://www.opentv.com/.

About Reshet

Reshet Company, a communication entity, which operates and manages Channel 2 broadcasts ever since the Channel was established in 1993. The Company's new facilities, located in the Hi-Tech compound of Ramat Hachayal in Tel Aviv, include advanced studios; world class sophisticated broadcast room and a school for the various television-industry professions.

About Vario

Vario Group operates several lines of business, dealing with seed capital investments and serving as a "technological incubator." The Group also provides various services in the high tech arena including software development in fields of Web and mobile. Moreover, Vario Media manages various products in all three media platforms: Internet, television and mobile.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: lisa.rogers@mslpr.com

Source: OpenTV Corp.

CONTACT: Lisa Ruiz Rogers, +1-323-866-6059, lisa.rogers@mslpr.com, or
Justin Hayward, +44 (0) 20 7878 32919, justin.hayward@mslpr.co.uk, both of
Manning, Selvage & Lee, for OpenTV Corp.

Web site: http://www.opentv.com/

---

Profile: International Entertainment