Liberate and TiVo Partner to Offer Interactive TV Services on Open Linux-based Platform
Partnership Will Deliver DVR to AOLTV Service Later This Year
TiVo and Liberate Will Collaborate on Future Initiatives to Provide Integrated, Interactive and Personalized Entertainment Options for Cable, Satellite, Telco and ISPs
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW, LAS VEGAS, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberate
Technologies (Nasdaq: LBRT) and TiVo, Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), today announced
that they have signed a definitive licensing agreement to incorporate
Liberate's TV Navigator(TM) on future versions of TiVo's Personal TV reference
platform.
Liberate and TiVo plan to license and bundle TiVo's Personal TV? Service
and Liberate's TV Navigator software platform to network operators as an
integrated offering. The combined solution will be available in North America
during the second half of 2000.
The alliance between Liberate and TiVo will provide consumers with a rich
experience that seamlessly integrates interactivity with the familiarity of
the TV experience that viewers have come to enjoy. This agreement follows
separate announcements between AOL, TiVo and Liberate to provide an
interactive experience through the television. Under this new licensing
agreement, Liberate and TiVo will work together to deliver DVR capabilities to
the AOLTV service later this year.
"By combining Liberate's leading platform for interactive TV with TiVo's
Personal TV service, we are not only providing viewers with a better TV
experience, we are providing the industry with a complete, open platform for
enhanced TV," said Mitchell Kertzman, president and CEO of Liberate
Technologies.
"Customers rave about TiVo's service because it provides them with a
convenience and control that they have never experienced with TV. With this
partnership between the premier Personal TV service and the leading
interactive TV software platform, the future of TV will provide an even more
convenient and entertaining experience for our mutual viewers," said Mike
Ramsay, TiVo's president and CEO.
"AOL looks forward to a partnership with TiVo where AOL will enhance AOLTV
by incorporating Tivo's best of breed Digital Video Recording (DVR) features
with future versions of AOLTV," said Barry Schuler, president, AOL Interactive
Services. "TiVo's decision to partner with Liberate to integrate Liberate's
TV Navigator software to the TiVo open Linux platform is fundamental to our
efforts to enable these features."
TiVo's technology is built on the "open source" Linux operating system and
is currently licensed royalty free to manufacturers who want to deliver TiVo's
Personal TV Service. The partnership between Liberate and TiVo will enable
network operators to deliver multiple services -- including interactive TV and
TiVo's service -- to subscribers.
TiVo's DVR capabilities combined with the TiVo Service allow consumers to
control their television viewing experience with features such as live TV
pause, instant replay, slow motion, frame forward/back and variable speed
rewind and fast forward. Additionally, it creates a personalized TV line-up
and automatically suggests and records shows that match a viewer's taste.
Liberate's software platform, which is based on broadcast and Internet
standards, enables network operators to deliver interactive TV entertainment
and services to customers. The Liberate software platform includes a full
range of client and server products, tools and applications. The company
offers network operators a suite of server solutions tailored to cable,
satellite, telecommunications, and ISP markets along with the ability to
customize and brand their interactive TV offerings. The Liberate platform
enables network operators to provide email, chat, Web browsing and ATVEF
(Advanced Television Enhancement Forum) compliant services and applications
that integrate the Web's interactivity with the richness of TV-based content.
Using open Internet and international broadcast standards, Liberate TV
Navigator combines the best of TV and the Web into one compelling, interactive
medium.
About Liberate Technologies
Liberate Technologies (Nasdaq: LBRT) is a leading provider of a complete
software platform for delivering Internet-enhanced content and applications to
information appliances, such as television set-top boxes and game consoles.
Liberate's Internet-based client and server software allows network operators,
such as telecommunications companies, cable and satellite television operators
and Internet service providers to provide consumers access to network
operator-branded applications and services. Headquartered in San Carlos,
California, the company has sales offices in the U.S. and the U.K.
Investors in Liberate include: Acer, America Online, Comcast, Cox
Communications, General Instrument, Hambrecht & Quist, Lucent Technologies,
MediaOne, Netscape, Nintendo, Oracle, Rogers Communications, Sega, Shaw
Communications, Sony, and Sun Microsystems. |
