Rovi And FourthWall Media Collaborate On Enhanced TV Platform Solution

PLANO, Texas and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- FourthWall Media (formerly BIAP) and Rovi Corporation (Nasdaq: ROVI) today announced that they have signed an agreement to offer an Enhanced Television (ETV) solution to many of Rovi's Interactive Program Guide customers throughout North and South America. In 2010, Rovi will begin to offer an integrated ETV Platform, including FourthWall Media's EBIF User Agent, ETV Server, and TV Widgets® as part of Rovi's guide solutions.

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EBIF, or "Enhanced Television Binary Interchange Format," represents a standards-based platform for enhanced television. By deploying EBIF technology, service providers can easily offer targeted and interactive advertising, and interactive television widgets and applications across legacy and next-generation digital set-top boxes (STBs).  Rovi's ETV Platform is designed to simplify the implementation of new applications, making it easier for service providers to bring more advanced features to consumers. According to analyst research firm, SNL Kagan, by year-end 2011, 89% or 42.9 million digital cable subscriber households in the United States will be EBIF-enabled.

"We are very excited to begin a relationship with Rovi," said Tim Peters, FourthWall Media CEO.  "Its program guide has changed the way consumers watch television. Our integrated cross-platform solution will open the cable environment to further technology advancements. By working together, we can meet market needs to connect advertisers and programmers with their audiences."

Under the agreement, Rovi will make available seamlessly through its guides an initial set of pre-integrated TV Widgets® from FourthWall.  These include eBay on TV, Yellow Pages on TV, News, Weather, and numerous Sports widgets for nearly every major league, team and college.  Each TV Widget® can be hyper-personalized turning the television into an interactive, tailored experience for the viewer. In addition, the integrated solution will enable service providers to launch new EBIF applications developed by third-parties.

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