"Broadcasters in advanced markets such as South Korea with high broadbandpenetration and data rates are facing declining advertising revenues asconsumers increasingly access entertainment content through alternative mediaand via a variety of devices," says Won-Kun Lee, Executive Vice President ofKBS, the largest broadcaster in the Korea. "The dotTV specification takesadvantage of the confluence of digital terrestrial television tuners, internetconnectivity and DVR capabilities in new devices to provide consumers with anext-generation television viewing experience that enhances traditionalbroadcast service with the interactivity users have come to expect from theinternet. The end result is a better TV viewing experience for the consumersupported by new, contextual advertising revenue opportunities forbroadcasters."

Launched in January of 2008, dotTV is driving the standard that enablesnew ways for consumers to interact with TV content by leveraging integrationof media across multiple platforms, including TVs, PCs and mobile devices.The dotTV Consortium is comprised of major consumer electronics manufacturersLG and Samsung, broadcast television companies KBS, SBS and EBS, and keytechnology providers Irdeto and VMark. "Particularly noteworthy is theparticipation of major consumer electronics makers in the development of thedotTV specification as it will be through such devices that consumers willexperience dotTV compliant services. The successful launch of a new, advancedservice based on the dotTV specification will require consumer electronicscompanies to offer TVs and other devices that are compliant with and takeadvantage of such a service," said Simon Kang, President & CEO of DigitalDisplay Company of LG Electronics. "At the same time, we believe thatadvanced, standards-based services such as dotTV will allow us todifferentiate our products by delivering significant value-added functionalityto our customers. Thus, our participation in dotTV is a win-win situation forour partners, customers and CE companies," said Kyungshik Lee, Vice Presidentof Visual Display Division of Samsung Electronics.

At NAB, 2008, dotTV will demonstrate the ability of television viewers tomark individual scenes and share those scenes with friends and communities ofinterest over the internet, while respecting the rights of copyright holders.This "scene-sharing" promotes the viral distribution of content over the weband directs the resulting traffic to sites where media and broadcast companiescan once again engage their viewers. The viewing experience of both fulllength shows and marked scenes is further enhanced via scene-based metadatacontributed by both broadcasters and viewers that describe key aspects of eachscene. By enabling dynamic delivery of scene information, this metadatacreates a more engaging viewing experience while providing broadcasters andadvertisers the opportunity to deliver targeted, contextual advertising andpromotions. The association of this metadata with specific video scenes alsoenables granular video search by consumers to discover and view relevantscenes within TV shows.

"Young, savvy Korean viewers have been migrating away from watchingbroadcast network programming on their TVs in favor of viewing these sameprograms on the web, largely enabled by high broadband penetration and datarates in South Korea," said Koo Kwan Seo, CEO of EBS. "We worked with a keydotTV consortium member to launch a pilot project and the results have beenvery encouraging," said Mr. Lee of KBS. "These same consumers have respondedpositively to the ability to save and share scenes via social networks, blogs,email, and instant messaging, and the resulting increase in traffic to ourwebsite from this activity has been dramatic." Jeong Il-Jong, CTO of SBSexplained, "Based on this experience, as we and our partners enable the dotTVservice on internet-connected set-top boxes and TVs, SBS has a clear vision ofhow a next-generation digital TV service based on dotTV can bring theinteractivity that consumers desire to the TV and also drive incrementaladvertising revenue for broadcasters."

"Free-to-air broadcasting is the next frontier for the addition ofvalue-added services for consumers. Irdeto technologies have been securingand enabling innovative pay-TV business models for many years, and we believestrongly in the potential of the dotTV consortium to help terrestrialbroadcasters achieve these same results," said Andrew Wajs, CTO of Irdeto."As traditional broadcast advertising revenues decline and pay-TV operatorsand the Internet raise the bar on consumer expectations for video, public andcommercial broadcasters must keep up by offering compelling and profitableservices to bring people back to the couch. We believe that dotTV can helpthem do that."

"Korea is a market leader in many aspects of technology, services and newusage models," adds Brett Gaines, Executive Vice President of VMark. "When itcomes to new services and usage models for the delivery and consumption of newmedia, everyone in this industry should be looking at the Korean market fortrends that will affect their businesses." As dotTV continues to prove itsmodel in the Korean marketplace, the consortium seeks to work with globalbroadcasting, media and technology companies to prove the model in othermarkets.

About the dotTV Consortium and Promoters

dotTV is a consortium that is driving the standard for next generationdigital television services that bridges content over any device and allowsopportunities for the increase in advertising revenue across multiple mediaand over multiple devices. The dotTV Consortium is comprised of majorconsumer electronics manufacturers (LG and Samsung), broadcast televisioncompanies (Korean Broadcasting System, Korea Educational Broadcasting System,and SBS), and key technology providers (Irdeto -- content security, and VMark-- scene-based video solutions).

For more information about dotTV and the dotTV Promoters, visithttp://www.dot-tv.org

dotTV is a trademark of dotTV LLC. All other trademarks and registeredtrademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contacts Brett Gaines Executive VP and GM of US Operations VMark, Inc. +1 (408) 483-6226 brett.gaines@vmark.tvSOURCE dotTV Consortium