Finnish Cable TV starts commercial iTV services with Ortikon Interactive's solution

Ortikon Interactive Ltd, announces that its MHP-based interactive TV services, platform and head-end management solution have passed all the acceptance tests set by the major Finnish cable consortium comprising 3KTV (Finnet), TTV (Elisa), Turku Cable and VLP (Vaasa Telephone Company), which together reach over 60% of Finnish cable households.

Cable tv customers can use their living room digital television to receive travel pictures from their friends. High resolution image (632 Kt) Photo: Ville Holopainen

You can send pictures taken with a camera phone directly to your friend's television. High resolution image (599 Kt) Photo: Ville Holopainen

The Ortikon's complete interactive MHP service package for digital cable television, will be demonstrated on the Ortikon Interactive stand at IBC 2004 in Amsterdam 10.-14.9.2004. - Hall 4, Stand 4.244

"We compared different MHP solutions and the Ortikon's solution best meets our stringent and extensive technological and functional requirements. It is also the only solution ready for immediate use," says Mika Arjanne, Technology Director at TTV. "The platform approach offers scalability and modularity, which are important factors as we are expanding our existing offering to viewers with new kinds of MHP service."

A pilot service was used to test the technical functions and the usability of the new services. "The pilot and the feedback from our pilot users were important in the development of MHP-based value-added services. We are now ready to offer MHP services to all of our 280.000 households," explains Mikko Saarentaus, Content Director at 3KTV.

To expedite content creation and production, Ortikon Interactive has launched content-production guidelines for DVB-HTML-based digital television browser. By using this specification (available at www.ortikon.com) contents and services are easily created to an MHP compatible digital TV environment.

For the past year, the Ortikon's browser system has been used by Finnish cable TV operators to facilitate the transition of new businesses, e.g. publishers and ISPs, into the digital TV world. The browser supports the open DVB-HTML standard and enables almost any XML-based content to be easily and cost-efficiently transformed for DTV transmission.

The Ortikon's publisher system is designed for small-scale content production for digital TV. The desired content is fed via an easy user interface to the preview window, which shows how the text and pictures will appear on digital TV.

Service production has attracted businesses outside the traditional media. For example, real estate agents and restaurants have found that this new marketing channel offers easy access to the right target groups with the possibility for real interactivity. Regional TV operators have also realized the importance of reaching the local public via services such as news, targeted interactive advertising and enewspapers.

Further information from:

Ortikon Interactive Ltd Seppo Kalli, President Tel. Mob. +358 44 757 5701 seppo.kalli@ortikon.com www.ortikon.com	TTV Ltd Mika Arjanne, Technology Director Tel. +358 3 216 6111 mika.arjanne@ttv.fi	Turku Cable Kari Ylenius, Technology Director Tel. Mob. +358 50 520 3800 kari.ylenius@turunkaapelitv.fi