EAST FISHKILL, NY: International Business Machines Corp. and OpenTV on
Tuesday announced a pact to use OpenTV's interactive television software in TV
set-top boxes based on the next generation of IBM's PowerPC chips.
OpenTV stock was up 65 cents, or 8.4 per cent, at $8.29 at midday on Nasdaq.
OpenTV's interactive TV software is now deployed in more than 18.2 million
set-top boxes worldwide, the company said. The software allows viewers to manage
e-mail via their TV sets, watch shows from different angles and order movies
with a click of the remote control.
IBM is developing higher performance chips for the next generation of set-top
boxes, which would offer a wider range of uses for a TV set - including as a
personal video recorder or to browse the Web.
"We have several million Power PC-based chips that we've deployed into
the digital set-top box marketplace in the four or five years we've been focused
on this market," said John Sixsmith, IBM's digital video products marketing
manager. "Many of them already run Open TV. This is an ongoing
relationship."
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