CANAL+, Philips And Sony Team Up To Promote The Wide Deployment Of DVB-MHP Standard
First Consumer Electronics Appliances Based On DVB-MHP To Run With MEDIAHIGHWAY And Be Deployed In Europe And Other Regions Of The World Later This Year
Global consumer electronics companies Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) of the Netherlands and Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE), together with the European pay-TV operator CANAL+, have agreed to actively support the global development of a range of digital TV appliances for the consumer market. The appliances will be based on common international standards, in particular the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) to be proposed by the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), the three companies jointly announced. In parallel with the deployment of a new generation of set-top boxes for the CANAL+ broadcasting territories in Europe, Philips and Sony foresee the market introduction of other possible devices such as integrated digital TV-sets (IDTV), Internet TV devices, DVD combination devices, as well as home network devices for the future. To accelerate the deployment of the DVB-MHP standard as widely as possible, and in a short period of time, Philips and Sony have decided to use the MEDIAHIGHWAY interactive TV middleware developed by CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES, one of the market's most popular platforms, in their first consumer electronics devices. Henri Joubaud, Senior Executive Vice-President, Technology, said: ""CANAL+ welcomes Philips and Sony's strong commitment to create a large digital broadcasting retail market based on open and international standards. Interactive TV and multimedia home platforms will strongly benefit from the availability of a wide range of products easily accessible and affordable to the viewer. A broadcaster ourselves, we are delighted to see the consumer electronics industry playing such an active role in the development of digital TV which is to become the home entertainment platform by excellence. As a technology provider, we are proud that our MEDIAHIGHWAY middleware has been recognized as an ideal vehicle to quickly and efficiently implement standardized solutions for digital broadcasting."" ""Philips is very pleased to see that the pioneering work that was done together with CANAL+ in the Pay-TV market is now broadening to a more general consumer market, by the addition of interactivity to the successful DVB format, as now being standardized by DVB-MHP,"" said Rob van Oostenbrugge, Managing Director of Philips Digital Networks. ""I am convinced that by joining forces with CANAL+ and Sony, we will be able to get to market quickly with truly interoperable and leading edge solutions."" ""The early expansion of DVB-MHP as an international standard will benefit consumers by allowing them to select the most suitable electronics devices, from a wide selection and at an affordable price. Sony is happy to contribute toward this effort. Our collaboration with Philips and CANAL+ is one of Sony's initiatives to achieve this goal, and we look forward to introducing our first consumer-friendly products based on DVB-MHP in Europe later this year,"" said Yukio Kubota, Corporate Senior Vice President of Sony Corporation. About CANAL+ CANAL+ is Europe's leading pay-television company, with revenues of US$3.4 billion in 1999. Launched in 1984 in France, CANAL+ has renowned expertise in the development of premium and theme channels, in television and movie production, distribution, digital broadcasting, multimedia ventures, conditional access systems, and interactive technology. The group totaled 13.6 million subscriptions at year-end 1999. CANAL+ can be found on the Web at http://www.canalplus.fr. CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES, a wholly-owned CANAL+ subsidiary, is the world's leading provider of digital and interactive TV software solutions. The company offers a wide range of field-proven and flexible systems to broadcasters and digital operator around the world. Its product line includes conditional access software MEDIAGUARD and hardware-independent interactive system and middleware MEDIAHIGHWAY which has integrated several international open languages and standards, for instance for clients such as ONdigital in the UK (MHEG-5) or MediaOne in the US. CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES has also developed over 30 different interactive and multimedia applications and several integrated development environments. CANAL+ TECHNOLOGIES can be found on the Web at http://www.canalplus-technologies.com. About Royal Philips Electronics Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $33.5 billion (EUR 31.5 billion) in 1999. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 226,900 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, medical systems, and IT services (Origin). Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at http://www.news.philips.com. About Sony Corporation Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its music, pictures, computer entertainment and online business make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of over $56 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999. For more information, visit the Sony Web site at http://www.sony.co.jp. Source: CANAL+