| Type | privately held |
|---|---|
| Industry | Interactive television |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, USA |
| Products | Television operating systems and Middleware |
| Revenue | $110 million (USD) in 2007 |
| Employees | 500 |
| Website | www.OpenTV.com |
OpenTV is an interactive television company founded in 1994. Its main business involves the sale of set-top-box operating systems and software. On March 28, 2010 OpenTV became a fully owned subsidiary of the NAGRA Kudelski Group and officially delisted from the NASDAQ, where it was previously listed under the symbol OPTV.
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OpenTV's flagship product is OpenTV Core, a widely deployed digital television middleware. OpenTV Core software technology contains a hardware abstraction layer to enable hardware independence, TV libraries, a selection of application execution environments, and support for Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) to create a digital television environment for set-top box.
OpenTV Core middleware has shipped some 100 million set-top boxes worldwide (February 2007)[1] on 37 set-top-box manufacturers.
OpenTV applications are written in C, using their own compiler, gcco, which outputs o-code which is then run on many set-top-boxes. The OpenTV API wrap all the hardware functions, including data transmission (one-way satellite broadcasts, full bi-directional links such as a modem or hard-wired serial port and high-speed broadband networks).
In 2002, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) engaged in a GPL enforcement action against OpenTV. According to Forbes, OpenTV ended up paying the FSF $65,000 to avoid additional legal action regarding the profits made during the illegal use of the GPL software. The FSF's stated mission is not to demand money damages for GPL violations.[2]
OpenTV supports interactive advertising. They purchased CAM Systems in 2005, an advertising traffic & billing solution for a US cable company, specifically Comcast. OpenTV provides system for allocation, scheduling, traffic, verification, and billing and supports local ad insertion/targeting at the head-end or on the set-top, ad telescoping using VOD and PVR, enhanced TV for consumer call-to-action and audience measurement solutions for campaign effectiveness.