TOKYO--(Business Wire)--
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE:6703) today announced it has
developed "Audience Rating Information System" for IPTV, which will be
offered to the Japanese market. The system collects viewership data to
enable broadcasting companies to improve their services.
"We are pleased to introduce OKI's Audience Rating Information
System using our eVideo technology to efficiently deliver high quality
video over IP networks," said Masa Saito, General Manager of IP
Systems Division at OKI. "We have been proposing the technology to
handle audience rating information to ASTAP, Asia's communication
standard organization and FG-IPTV in ITU, the UN's agency for
information and communication technologies, as we believe open
standards are important in improving IPTV service and technologies. We
will continue our activities within IPTV-GSI, the IPTV standardization
initiative, to promote international standardization to enrich IPTV
services."
IPTV service is expected to grow as telecom carriers in Japan will
increase their IPTV service provisioning with the start of
next-generation network (NGN) services, and the ITU working on setting
international standards. Current ground-based broadcasting systems
have functions to collect viewership data such as user preference and
viewer history, as it is important for broadcasting companies to
collect such information. However, with current IPTV services, there
are no equivalent user information collection functions.
To respond to such needs, OKI has developed IPTV Audience Rating
Information System to enable service providers, with the authorization
of users, to obtain information about when and which channel and
programs the users watched. The system will collect the viewership
data in the form of an "audience rating library" on the user's device,
which will then be encrypted, sent to and registered in the database
server at the IPTV distribution center. This information will then be
printed out as viewership reports which service providers can offer to
program producers.
The server offers scalability enabling service providers to
increase the number of servers as viewership increases. The audience
rating library can be embedded in the set-top-boxes (STB) or in the
IPTV. Those who have STBs or IPTVs without the embedded library can
connect a home gateway (HGW) that has the audience rating library to
collect viewership data. This system has already been tested in IPTV
applications that utilize mutli-casting.
While recognizing user concern about maintaining privacy, OKI will
include opinions from both IPTV service providers and users as it
works towards standardization. OKI will add the system to its product
lineup that includes OKI MediaServer, the video distribution server
for IPTV, home gateways and set-top-boxes.
About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first
telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo,
Japan. OKI provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions
to its customers through its info-telecom system business,
semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses
function as a collective force to create exciting new products and
technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various
markets. Visit OKI's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.
Notes:
-- This system was developed as part of the businesses granted by
the National Institute of Information and Communications
Technology (NICT) to accelerate the convergence of
communication and broadcasting technologies.
-- Names of companies and products are trademarks or registered
trademarks of the respective companies and organizations.
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
For Europe and Americas:
Naomi Takeuchi, +1-408-737-6279
Public Relations Division
press@oki.com
or
For Asia and Other Areas:
Akiko Horiguchi, +81-3-3580-8950
Public Relations Division
press@oki.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
