The Open IPTV Forum has created a tiered membership fee structure to encourage the participation of small and medium sized businesses. In addition to the current membership fee, one new fee level set at €2,400 is available to businesses with annual revenues of less than €10M, while another fee level of €6000 targets medium-size companies with annual revenues of less than €100M.

This tiered fee structure supports the aspirations of many innovative app developers, technology component developers and digital entertainment businesses with a valuable and vested interest in shaping the future of Internet Connected TV.

The Forum believes that the time is ripe for encouraging small and medium-size, innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises to find a way to also benefit from the OIPF’s consensus-based specification development process – furthering those areas specifically relevant to the business of “apps” and third party services in particular. Rather than implement bespoke versions of their services and apps for many different types of Internet Connected TVs or work only with one or two specific brands, as is common today, new entrants from these businesses can take advantage of the interoperability of devices, applications and services for connected TVs that is at the foundation of the Forum’s specifications and GoToMarket activities.

The Open IPTV Forum specifications, created by consensus among TV manufacturers (including Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba, ), service providers, technology providers and network infrastructure vendors, contribute a backbone of the HbbTV specification that is being rolled out in many European countries, offering an OTT “stepping stone” solution for broadcasters. HbbTV is already implemented in retail STB’s (set top box), connected TV’s and other devices such as game players from a majority of leading TV and STB manufacturers. The full OIPF specifications provide a clear and defined path to more ambitious and advanced Connected TV service functionality, enabling manufacturers to reuse their HbbTV technology development efforts when they add support for fully managed IPTV services in future.

Nilo Mitra, President of OIPF says “Participation in the work of the Forum for these new members from smaller enterprises, alongside technical experts defining solutions for the largest companies in the TV industry, will doubtless deliver valuable shared learning and experience to members new and old. This collaborative work will hopefully also help create global success and new revenues from the creation of a mass market for apps and services compatible with the millions of Internet Connected TVs being sold by numerous manufacturers worldwide”