OpenTV Signs Multi-Year License With India's Largest Cable and Satellite Operator

OpenTV Signs Multi-Year License With India's Largest Cable and Satellite Operator

Essel Group Companies to Deploy OpenTV's Advanced Digital Television Solutions

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- OpenTV Corp. (NASDAQ:OPTV), a leading provider of enabling technologies for advanced digital television services, today announced a multi-year license agreement with companies comprising the Essel Group, a diversified media and communications company that is India's largest cable and satellite operator, to deploy OpenTV's software and services. The agreement represents OpenTV's initial entry into the Indian pay television market, recognized as the fastest growing in the Asia Pacific.

OpenTV's solutions will enable Essel Group to deliver a variety of advanced interactive television services, including PVRs (personal video recorders) and EPGs (electronic program guides) to its subscriber base. Essel Group expects to provide its interactive services first to subscribers of Dish TV, India's first and fastest growing satellite television service, with over one million subscribers and an expected annual growth rate of 100% per year for the foreseeable future. Essel Group subsequently expects to deploy similar OpenTV-enabled services to a portion of its Siticable customer base, India's largest at approximately 6.5 million subscribers, as Sitibase converts its cable systems from analog to digital.

Fusion Consulting, a business consulting firm specializing in the Asia Pacific market, projects a compound annual growth rate of 10% for the Indian pay TV market, with subscriber households expected to grow to 70 million by the year 2010, from approximately 50 million in 2004.

"With nearly 17% of the world's population, a fast-growing economy, and a middle class that has tripled in size in the last twenty years to some 300 million, the Indian market represents a tremendous opportunity for OpenTV and reinforces our strong market position in the Asia Pacific region and globally," said James A. (Jim) Chiddix, CEO of OpenTV. "This deal also is among our first 'subscription model' arrangements, under which we are paid monthly for each active set-top box that is deployed in the field for so long as that set-top box remains in service. We believe that this business model offers us more of a recurring revenue stream and should provide us with a better opportunity to increase our revenues in line with those of our customer's growing subscriber base. We look forward to supporting Essel as they accelerate the growth of the digital television market in India and other countries in the region."

According to Jawahar Goel, Additional Vice Chairman, of Essel Group, "Partnering with OpenTV will enable Dish TV to offer our growing subscriber base an exceptional television viewing experience unlike any other in the region, with multi-camera viewing, gaming, interactive channels, PVR, and push video-on-demand (PVOD). It also allows us to further accelerate Siticable's aggressive plans to provide similar compelling and interactive digital services to its cable networks in time for the Commonwealth Games in 2010. We are confident that OpenTV's track record, expertise, and premier technology will help us to achieve our goals of growing our subscribers throughout India at an accelerated rate."

About OpenTV

OpenTV is one of the world's leading providers of technologies and services enabling the delivery of digital and interactive television. Deployed in 61 million digital set-top-boxes in 96 countries, the company's software enables a wide array of functionality, including enhanced television, interactive shopping, interactive and addressable advertising, games and gaming, personal video recording, and a variety of consumer care and communication applications. For more information, please visit www.opentv.com.

About Essel Group

Essel Group has a vast range of national and global business interests that include media programming, broadcasting and distribution, packaging, entertainment, online gaming, and telecom.

Essel Group has always been a pioneer -- Zee TV was the first Indian satellite channel, Siticable the first MSO, Esselworld the first theme park, Playwin the first online lottery, Essel Propack, the world's number one in packaging -- were all revolutionary concepts in their respective fields.

Continuing with the same path-breaking tradition, the group has recently launched Dish TV, India's first DTH service, which in a short span of time has established itself as the leading content provider within India, bringing to the viewers a new era of premium quality TV viewing.

Source: OpenTV Corp.

CONTACT: Barbara Cassidy of OpenTV, +1-415-962-5000, or
bcassidy@opentv.com; or Ray Yeung, or yeung@braincomm.com, or Matt Hantz, or
hantz@braincomm.com, both of Brainerd Communicators, Inc, +1-212-986-6667, for
OpenTV; or Rajiv Khattar of Essel Group, +919-8111-56796, or
rkhattar@dishtvindia.esselgroup.com

Web site: http://www.opentv.com/

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