Korean Broadcasters, Tech Companies Launch Consortium

SEOUL, January 7: A group of major consumer electronics
manufacturers, technology providers and South Korean broadcasters, including
pubcaster KBS, have formed dotTV, a consortium whose mission is to build a
next-generation interactive TV viewing experience leveraging social networking
and online video.

Members of the consortium include broadcasters KBS, EBS
(Educational Broadcasting System) and SBS, technology providers Irdeto and
VMark, and major consumer electronics makers Samsung and LG.

dotTV seeks to bring the interactivity of online media and
social networking to the TV and set-top box. Initial services based on the
dotTV standard will be deployed in Korea in 2009, with expansion to other
regions soon thereafter.

“By leveraging the confluence of digital terrestrial
television tuners, DVRs and Internet access in Digital Televisions, set-top
boxes and other consumer electronics devices, dotTV is developing a platform
that provides viewers with a more social, interactive viewing experience,” said
Won-Kun Lee, the executive VP of KBS. “By supplementing our broadcast content
with relevant metadata, viewers will be able to search for content of interest,
retrieve more information about specifics presented in the content as well as
share this content with friends over any connected viewing device. Combining
the power of social networking and online video with broadcast television is
the next step in engaging the viewer anytime and anywhere.”

Added Dr. David Lee, the CEO of VMark, “Television viewers
will be able to record content, mark individual scenes of interest by means of
a video bookmark, and share these bookmarked scenes with friends and
communities of interest over the internet, all while respecting the rights of
copyright holders. This ability for ‘scene-sharing’ enables the viral
distribution of content over social networks and generates traffic to sites or
locations where media and broadcast companies can once again engage their
viewers. With the close proximity of CE manufacturers, content providers and
broadcast studios, Korea provides the ideal test bed for dotTV.”

—By Irene Lew