OpenTV Corp., a leading provider of enabling technologies for advanced digital television services, and Innovative Systems, a leading supplier of advanced telephony technology and services, announced a strategic partnership to provide integrated, turn-key IPTV solutions for telcos. This solution will enable telcos to include advanced digital video, interactive television, and advanced telephony services as part of their offering.

Innovative Systems, leveraging its national sales and support team, will market the solution, which will consist of IPTV set-tops running OpenTV Core2 middleware together with personal video recording software and a suite of interactive television and telephony applications. The solution will include an electronic program guide (EPG) with video on demand capability as well as on-screen caller ID, voicemail, and other IPTV -- Internet -- Telephony blended services.

"This relationship accelerates our continued progress in the evolving IPTV world, enabling us to leverage our core competencies in advanced digital television with Innovative Systems' significant experience and customer relationships in the independent telco market," said James A. (Jim) Chiddix, CEO of OpenTV. "By offering a complete, turn-key IPTV solution, we hope to accelerate the time to market that telcos can expect. And by partnering with Innovative, which has a long and successful track record in the independent telco market with more than 500 customers, we think we can make faster progress developing and delivering a reliable, scalable solution that will form the basis for the continued extension of our product lineup."

The integrated IPTV solution will initially be built for the Amino family of set-top boxes and will include support for MPEG 2/4, personal video recording, standard definition and high definition video. Additionally, the solution will include VOD capability and a suite of interactive television and telephony applications, including news, weather, sports, and on-screen control of telephony services, including caller ID and voicemail management. Innovative Systems will offer an integrated headend server, based on its recently announced IMS Application Server for set-top-box and subscriber management. The IMS/IPTV server will include OpenTV's Streamer(TM) and Notify(TM) capabilities, enabling IPTV management, interactive TV application distribution, and dynamic messaging capability in a redundant carrier grade hardware platform.

"We see a real need in the independent telco market for a more full- featured IPTV solution than is currently available. We are very excited to be partnering with OpenTV, one of the world's top middleware providers," said Roger Musick, CEO of Innovative Systems. "We have a long history of developing advanced features, and OpenTV's technology platform will allow Innovative Systems to develop next generation blended services that enable our customers to offer differentiated services, dramatically improving their ability to compete in their markets."