Time Warner Cable Licenses Key Elements of BIAP's ETV Platform

Time Warner Cable Licenses Key Elements of BIAP's ETV Platform

PLANO, Texas, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- BIAP Inc. announced today that is has reached an agreement with Time Warner Cable for the use of its ETV User Agent in Time Warner Cable's advanced advertising platform. The five year license agreement will, upon deployment of the software, enable Time Warner Cable digital set-top boxes to run EBIF applications created by the operator or by third parties such as television networks. In addition to supporting third-party EBIF applications, the BIAP ETV User Agent will support Time Warner Cable's newest MDN navigator.

"The BIAP ETV User Agent is a robust application platform that will serve Time Warner Cable well in the deployment of EBIF and properly support our interactive applications and advanced advertising," said Mike Hayashi, executive vice president, advanced engineering for Time Warner Cable.

"We are thrilled to open a new chapter in our relationship with Time Warner Cable," said Tim Peters, BIAP CEO. "This agreement we believe validates our EBIF technology and we thank Time Warner Cable for their pioneering work in the world of interactive television. With the advent of the EBIF standard; their groundwork will lead the entire industry into the new and lucrative world of advanced advertising which depends on the wide deployment of EBIF-enabled set-top boxes. It will also usher in a new era of interactive programming that will allow viewers to participate more and to personalize various aspects of what they are watching."

EBIF (Enhanced TV Binary Interchange Format) is a multimedia content format standard developed under the OpenCable project of CableLabs. The primary purpose of ETV and the EBIF standard is to enable interactivity to drive viewer engagement and participation. EBIF is one of the key elements of Canoe, the cross-MSO advanced advertising platform currently under development. Both the cable and broadcast industries have fully embraced the EBIF standard as the primary application platform to deliver the long-awaited advanced features across the full range of deployed digital cable set-top boxes, including early generation models with less memory and processing power.

BIAP provides for the industry the three essential elements that will enable interactivity and bring the Canoe initiative to a critical mass of homes. These elements include a standard-based ETV Platform which includes the User Agent, ETV platform server, ETV streamer and a development SDK for EBIF application creation. The second element is a portfolio of applications (EBIF) that enrich the subscriber experience but more importantly allow for the creation of user data critical to addressable advertising. And third is an advanced advertising product called Canoe in a Box which has all the standard-based elements (SCTE-130) that make interactive advertising work including the AdAim(TM) technology to generate ad targeting information for addressable advertising to the individual homes, while preserving subscriber privacy.

About BIAP:

BIAP (Broadband Interactive Applications) supplies the cable industry with all of the critical tools for interactive television advertising and programming. These tools include the ETV Platform, a broad offering of applications and a complete portfolio of products for advanced advertising. BIAP's partners include: NBC, eBay, Hearst's Talking Phone Book, and Rasmussen Reports. Applications in deployment include eBay on TV, Fantasy Football, Yellow Pages on TV and PiTV, a local information service that can be personalized. BIAP is currently available on 24 million set top boxes principally with Time Warner Cable and DISH Network. BIAP has received two patents for its technology and has three Emmy nominations for its applications. Corporate headquarters are in Plano, Texas, with research and development in Sterling, Virginia.

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Source: BIAP Inc.

CONTACT: Ellen Cooper, +1-212-777-8353, ellencooper@biap.com, for BIAP

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

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Profile: International Entertainment