Rovi and FourthWall Media Collaborate on Enhanced TV Platform Solution

PLANO, Texas and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- FourthWall Media (formerly BIAP) and Rovi Corporation (Nasdaq: ROVI) today announced that they have signed an agreement to offer an Enhanced Television (ETV) solution to many of Rovi's Interactive Program Guide customers throughout North and South America. In 2010, Rovi will begin to offer an integrated ETV Platform, including FourthWall Media's EBIF User Agent, ETV Server, and TV Widgets® as part of Rovi's guide solutions.

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EBIF, or "Enhanced Television Binary Interchange Format," represents a standards-based platform for enhanced television. By deploying EBIF technology, service providers can easily offer targeted and interactive advertising, and interactive television widgets and applications across legacy and next-generation digital set-top boxes (STBs).  Rovi's ETV Platform is designed to simplify the implementation of new applications, making it easier for service providers to bring more advanced features to consumers. According to analyst research firm, SNL Kagan, by year-end 2011, 89% or 42.9 million digital cable subscriber households in the United States will be EBIF-enabled.

"We are very excited to begin a relationship with Rovi," said Tim Peters, FourthWall Media CEO.  "Its program guide has changed the way consumers watch television. Our integrated cross-platform solution will open the cable environment to further technology advancements. By working together, we can meet market needs to connect advertisers and programmers with their audiences."

Under the agreement, Rovi will make available seamlessly through its guides an initial set of pre-integrated TV Widgets® from FourthWall.  These include eBay on TV, Yellow Pages on TV, News, Weather, and numerous Sports widgets for nearly every major league, team and college.  Each TV Widget® can be hyper-personalized turning the television into an interactive, tailored experience for the viewer. In addition, the integrated solution will enable service providers to launch new EBIF applications developed by third-parties.

"Our collaboration with FourthWall enables service providers to deliver a more engaging and data-rich environment for the consumer that can be accessed through the program guide with the click of a remote control," said Corey Ferengul, executive vice president of product management and marketing, Rovi Corporation.  "FourthWall, a leading EBIF platform and interactive applications provider, will help us bring an integrated offering to the market that will enable service providers to drive increased revenue streams through value-added services."  

Rovi program guides with FourthWall's EBIF platform and applications will be integrated to work on STBs from Motorola, Cisco and Pace.  Rovi currently serves close to 500 service providers in North America and South America, many of whom will now have access to this expanded product offering. To learn more about FourthWall Media TV Widgets®, visit http://fourthwallmedia.tv/Prod-TvWidgets.aspx. To learn more about Rovi's guide solutions, please visit http://www.rovicorp.com/products/service_providers/8660.htm.

About FourthWall Media

FourthWall Media™, formerly known as BIAP, is an advanced advertising solutions company that is fundamentally changing how television advertising is delivered and measured. This Emmy-nominated media company is leading the interactive television revolution through solutions that break through the 'fourth wall' to engage audiences, extend cable subscriber loyalty, and deliver detailed measurement and reporting. The company's set-top-box EBIF solutions include the Ad Widgets® end-to-end advertising system, AdAim Audience Measurement Suite, a soup-to-nuts audience measurement and behavioral profiling system; TV Widgets® applications such as eBay on TV, Fantasy Football and Yellow Pages on TV; and a technology platform for Cisco/Scientific Atlanta, Motorola and tru2way set-top boxes. FourthWall Media products and technology are distributed by Comcast Media Center, Time Warner Cable, DISH Network, and several other MSOs, and have been deployed in over 24 million set-top boxes. Learn more at www.fourthwallmedia.tv  

About Rovi Corporation

Rovi Corporation is focused on revolutionizing the digital entertainment landscape by delivering solutions that enable consumers to intuitively connect to new entertainment from many sources and locations. The company also provides extensive entertainment discovery solutions for television, movies, music and photos to its customers in the consumer electronics, cable and satellite, entertainment and online distribution markets. These solutions, complemented by industry leading entertainment data, create the connections between people and technology, and enable them to discover and manage entertainment in an enjoyable form.

Rovi holds over 4,400 issued or pending patents worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with numerous offices across the United States and around the world including Japan, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom. More information about Rovi can be found at http://www.rovicorp.com/.

Forward Looking Statements

All statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements that use the words "will" or "is expected to," or similar words that describe the Company's or its management's future plans, objectives, or goals, are "forward-looking statements" and are made pursuant to the Safe-Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results and/or from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors are further addressed in the Company's most recent report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2009 and such other documents as are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time (available at www.sec.gov).  The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release, except as required by law.

SOURCE FourthWall Media