AT&T, Ericsson, France Telecom, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Siemens Networks, Sony and Telecom Italia have founded an industry consortium called Open IPTV Forum that will work to define interoperable end-to-end specifications for the delivery of IPTV services.
Open standards could streamline and accelerate deployments of IPTV technologies, the companies said. It would also reduce costs for network operators, content providers and consumer electronics companies, as well as improve services for consumers.
The Open IPTV Forum plans to establish requirements and architecture specifications as well as protocol specifications later in 2007.
Industry observers have welcomed the drive to industry standards, but some have questioned how the absence of Microsoft might affect the success of the Forum’s plans.
Regardless, the Forum members said the opportunities for creating more interactive content services, and the possibilities for better integration of content and communications were worth pursuing.
“The evolving IPTV service has many advantages, including personalization, interactivity and on-demand access for all forms of digital content,” the companies said in a statement.
“Unique possibilities exist for integration of content and communication services offered across mobile handsets and home devices.
“By ensuring the interoperability between consumer equipment and services compliant to the Open IPTV Forum’s specification, the end users can easily access their choice of contents and services among multiple service providers.”
“With this scope in mind, the Open IPTV Forum will work on the basis of suitable open-standards technologies, and will also address key technology elements such as content protection, necessary interfaces that allow IPTV services to be delivered over both managed network environment and the public Internet, and adequate measures to ensure interoperability between such services and retail consumer devices.”
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