What is CI+?

The Common Interface Plus specification (CI+) is an emerging industry standard defined by Sony and Neotion and their partners in the CI Plus Forum, which will soon be supported within 80% of Sony digital televisions and approximately 70% of all new Integrated Digital TV sets.

The breakthrough industry collaboration allows standard TVs to support VoD right out of the box. This results in lower deployment costs for cable operators, who can avoid set-top box purchase and installation. Consumers benefit from reduced energy usage in the home and faster service availability – and they do not have to make time for an engineer’s visit.

Cable operators have the opportunity to generate valuable new revenue streams and offer a better customer experience with on-demand services, and hence reduce subscriber churn. They maintain full control over the applications offered and the look and feel of the user interface. Meanwhile, viewers gain full PVR functionality on the TV with no storage and no extra cost.

For further information see the CI Plus web site at http://www.ci-lus.com/