OpenTV, S-A Reach Porting Pact

OpenTV Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. signed one deal and extended another Tuesday.

The two companies announced a five-year licensing and porting agreement for OpenTV's interactive-television middleware products, as well as the extension of their application-developers agreement for S-A’s “ProSync” interactive-television service.

Under terms of the porting deal, S-A will be able to offer digital receivers that will be fully integrated and tested with OpenTV's “Core 1.1” middleware running on top of S-A’s “Explorer” platform.

The “Explorer 4200DVB” -- which supports the PAL (Phase Alternation Line), Digital Video Broadcasting and EuroDOCSIS standards -- has completed OpenTV's “VTS” certification process.

"We are thrilled to add Scientific-Atlanta to our growing list of OpenTV licensees," OpenTV chairman and CEO Jim Chiddix said in a prepared statement. "This licensing agreement will create new opportunities for both companies by making it easier for operators to quickly deploy a state-of-the-art interactive-TV solution comprised of hardware and software that has already been tested to reliably work together."