The membership of the Open IPTV Forum has been recently reinforced by the addition of four significant new members. British Telecom, Pirelli, Netgem and ITRI have joined the effort to develop open, end-to-end specifications for IPTV; based on existing technologies and open standards.

British Telecom, BT operates an IPTV service that combines Digital Terrestrial Television with IP delivered On Demand Content. The service is available to customers of BT Retail Broadband throughout the UK. The last announced figure was over 400,000 customers.

Pirelli Broadband Solutions develops products that enable the delivery of innovative services to the broadband connected homes and offices. Incorporated in 2005, Pirelli Broadband Solutions has become in a few years the partner supplier of leading Service Providers and Telecom Operators, delivering over 10 million custom CPEs. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Pirelli Broadband Solutions builds on a portfolio comprising residential and small business access gateways, IPTV and hybrid set-top boxes, home networking adapters, remote management systems, fixed-mobile convergence solutions and open middlewares.

Netgem provides Set Top Boxes and Software to develop innovative Television services, combining the best of broadcast and IP worlds. Netgem based solutions are scalable and can be quickly deployed in a cost effective manner with very limited network investment while delivering breakthrough customer experience even in low bandwidth areas. Headquartered in Paris and listed on the Nyse Euronext market, Netgem has already and installed base of more than 1.5 million High Definition Hybrid DVB-T&C/IP Set top boxes delivered in the last 4 years to Telcos such as SFR/Neuf in France or Elisa in Finland.

Industrial Technology Research Institute, a national research organization that provides technology & solutions to strengthen the technological competitiveness of Taiwan. The headquarter is located in Taiwan and ITRI’s overseas offices in the United States, Japan, Russia and Germany works closely with the Taiwan head quarter. Our focus on Information and Communications, Electronics and Optoelectronics, Advanced manufacturing and systems, Nanotechnology Material and Chemical, Biomedical Technology, Energy and Environment will lay down the foundation for innovative research in the future and transform domestic industry into global bedrock for technological innovation.

Yun Chao Hu, Chair of the Open IPTV Forum, commented; “Once again the forum has demonstrated its global & pan-industry leadership by bringing in Home Device Vendor Pirelli, Italy, Technology Provider Netgem, France as well as Network Operator BT, UK and Research Institute ITRI, Taiwan. We are delighted to welcome these additional members!