MHP still attracts revenue for Asian operators
Article from December 2007 issue of APB News – by Mike Feazel
If the phone rings during the live broadcast of a soccer match in South Korea, the subscriber of satellite-TV service provider SkyLife does not have to miss any minute of the game to answer the call. This is because he can pause the action at the touch of a remote-control button and later resume watching the game from where he had stopped, all thanks to the MHP (multimedia home platform) middleware controlling his personal video recorder (PVR).
MHP was designed by the DVB Project, an industry-led consortium, to be used for iTV. It allows the reception and use of interactive Java-based applications on TV. Already deployed commercially in South Korea, Belgium and Italy, the platform is being tested in half a dozen other countries. In the US, OpenCable Application Program (OCAP), which is largely based on MHP, is used.
Indeed, MHP is also the key to the
T-commerce service offered by SkyLife to its subscribers to shop via TV simply by pushing buttons. The company, which is partly owned by Korea Telecom, is believed to be one of the first DVB-MHP operators in the world to offer T-commerce.
