Sun announces support for Java TV API for digital interactive TV

January 14, 1998 — Sun Microsystems this week announced support from several key members of the growing digital television industry for the development of the Java TV API. The API is designed to extend the Java platform to enable secure delivery of dynamic interactive digital television content. Already an established tool for digital TV content creation, according to analysts, Java is a prime candidate for incorporation into global digital TV standards, but may ultimately offer more than consumers are demanding.

“The Java platform has become a preferred solution for the development and deployment of interactive digital television content,” said Mark Tolliver, president of Sun Microsystems’s Consumer and Embedded team. “We are confident that the digital television market and its relevant standards bodies will adopt [Java TV].”

While Sean Kaldor, vice president of Consumer Devices for International Data Corporation (IDC), agrees that Java and HTML are about the only technologies currently available for developing complex interactive applications, he says it’s still unclear exactly what Java has to offer the interactive television user.

“The real question is how to make a show like Friends interactive,” said Kaldor. “Does the audience want to be able to throw a pie in Monica’s face? It’s just not clear how complicated the interface is going to be. Hollywood will ultimately decide that, but it may turn out that HTML is powerful enough to handle what people want to do.”

Set-top box maker WebTV, owned by Microsoft, recently decided HTML was just fine, and dropped Java from its platform, claiming its customers were more interested in lower prices than Java applets. The same company recently signed deals with cable TV hardware manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta and French-owned television giant Thomson Multimedia for inclusion in the companies’ planned cable-based set-tops, making the future of Java in digital television less than certain.

At stake for Sun if Java TV fails to entrench itself as a digital standard may also be the future of its realtime embedded JavaOS operating system, which Kaldor says could prevail as the OS of choice (over Windows CE) if Java takes a leading role in digital TV, because running Java on the JavaOS is simpler and cheaper than installing a Java virtual machine on a CE-based device.

JavaOS already has its foot in the door as a standard set-top box platform, following deals with Hitachi and TCI to incorporate JavaOS in existing and future set-tops. Windows CE, however, has been hot on its heels, singing agreements with a wide variety of embedded device makers. Digital television, the latest market to heat up for embedded software, is estimated by Forrester Research to reach as many as 3 million homes by 2002.

But the industry is just beginning to take off, and it may be a bit early for Sun to hope to set a standard, said Kaldor. The future of digital TV content is still unclear, and while HTML may be enough for the time being, the major content developers — ABC, NBC, CBS, etc. — could step in at any moment and create the need for complex applications and graphics, or just as easily turn their backs on such technology.

Companies pushing Java TV along with Sun include Motorola, Phillips, Sony, Toshiba, HongKong Telecom, and Matsushita. Java TV, said Sun, will provide its partners with an independent software platform to access hardware features unique to televisions, such as tuner control for channel changing and on-screen graphics. Java’s capacity to run across multiple platforms, added Sun, will allow television service providers to save porting costs of moving value-added services and applications to new platforms.

The end result for users, if they want it, will be enhanced television, including Video-On-Demand, Electronic Programming Guides (EPGs), and interactive multi-camera sporting events, said Sun.