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PENTV: BBC achieves significant interactive TV audiences with OpenTV

August 13, 2001

4.5 million tennis and golf fans experience OpenTV interactive TV service

LONDON -- Armchair sports fans get into the action! The BBC announced a total of 4.5 million sports fans experienced interactive coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships or the British Open golf tournament through the BSkyB/Sky Digital service deployed on OpenTV's (NASDAQ National Market and Euronext Amsterdam: OPTV) interactive platform.

As previously announced, one million digital satellite viewers accessed the BBC's Wimbledon interactive service on the very first day of the Championships. An average of 0.9 million viewers used the service every day during this event resulting in a cumulative audience of 4.2 million viewers.

Coverage of the British Open Golf tournament was a similar success with around 50 per cent of the BSkyB audience accessing interactive services. A total of 1.2 million individual viewers accessed interactive services during the four day event, with an audience of around half a million each day.

Scott Gronmark, Head of Interactive TV, BBC New Media said, "The reaction has been nothing short of sensational. We look forward to rolling out further interactive services in the near future."

James Ackerman, OpenTV's CEO, said, "It's fantastic to see how interactive TV services can deepen the viewing experience offered by one of the world's best known broadcasters. The very strong consumer results achieved by BSkyB and the BBC clearly indicate that iTV applications have raised the bar for premium sports broadcasting. With over 45 broadcast networks using, or having selected, OpenTV technology world-wide, we expect that many more viewers will see innovative interactive TV programmes in the future." The BBC's interactive Wimbledon and British Open coverage offered viewers the ability to choose what they wanted to watch from a selection of five video streams. Both services also offered some statistics and player information.

The market for BBC's interactive broadcast services extends to the 5.5 million BSkyB viewers with a Sky Digital set-top box.

About OpenTV
OpenTV is the world's leading interactive television and media solutions company. OpenTV builds a complete software and infrastructure platform that enables digital interactive television and brings on-demand content to other digital communications devices. OpenTV solutions are crafted to meet the needs of digital communications networks and include operating middleware, content applications, content creation tools, professional services expertise, and strategic consulting.

At present, OpenTV software has been shipped with or installed in more than 16 million digital set-top boxes worldwide and has been selected by 45 digital cable, satellite and terrestrial communications networks in over 50 countries, including BSkyB in the United Kingdom; TPS and Noos in France; PrimaCom in Germany; Via Digital in Spain; Stream in Italy; DIRECTV(tm) Latin America LLC; and EchoStar's DISH Network and USA Media Group in the U.S. In addition, 33 digital set-top box manufacturers have licensed OpenTV's software to date, and more than 1,100 developers have joined the Company's OpenAdvantage developer program.

Worldwide headquarters for OpenTV is located in Mountain View, Calif.

Information on OpenTV is available at www.opentv.com.

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