OpenTV^® And Panasonic (Matsushita) Form Strategic Alliance To Deliver MHP-Compliant Interactive Television Solutions

Agreement Establishes Clear Expansion Path For MHP-Compliant Digital ITV Set-Top Boxes and Programming

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (March 8, 2000) - OpenTV (Nasdaq and Amsterdam Stock Exchange: OPTV), the leading worldwide provider of software that enables digital interactive television, and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC), the world's leading electronics company best known outside Japan by its Panasonic brand name, announced today a new, long-term strategic alliance. Through this alliance, Panasonic and OpenTV will cooperate on the development of a fully MHP (MultiMedia Home Platform) compliant extension to the OpenTV operating platform. MHP is a DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) specification for an interoperable interactive television platform based on Java technology. This agreement represents a tremendous step forward in the global initiative towards strengthening the position of MHP as an emerging standard platform for interactive television.

The MHP extension offers full interoperability between services, set-top boxes and television networks. In addition, it will give OpenTV-powered set-top boxes the ability to receive MHP compliant interactive programming in addition to OpenTV-based interactive content. The two companies will work collaboratively to develop MHP-compliant hardware and software for deployment in 2001 or earlier by integrating OpenTV's interactive TV technology and Panasonic's digital TV technology, including operating system and specialised LSIs that have been developed as part of Panasonic's plan to create a global platform for its digital television products.

Supporting and leading the early introduction of MHP, OpenTV and Panasonic will conduct MHP trials this year. OpenTV and Panasonic aim to be the first companies to pass through the MHP compliance regime when the DVB, the standardization forum for Europe, makes the testing suites available in 2000. Further, in continuation of its open access policy, OpenTV will offer the developed MHP extension to any set-top box manufacturer that has ported the OpenTV software.

"We see the emergence of standards as a requirement for interactive television to reach its full potential, and are excited about our partnership with Panasonic to build MHP-compliant hardware and software," said Jan Steenkamp, president and CEO of OpenTV. "How better to further our position as the worldwide leader in interactive television than to partner with the worldwide leader in consumer electronics."

As a part of its strategic agreement with OpenTV, Panasonic's current and next generation digital set-top boxes (incorporating its software and LSI) will become one of the official reference platforms for OpenTV which will be employed to help implement current and future software. While OpenTV benefits from immediate access to Panasonic's current and next generation digital set-top boxes, Panasonic gains the ability to offer the latest generation of OpenTV software products for digital ITV, as soon as OpenTV releases them.

"We see this collaboration with OpenTV as a real opportunity to accelerate the deployment of MHP, as well as to strengthen our digital TV global platform technology such as next-generation chipsets and PiE-OS software furthermore," said Kunio Nakamura, Senior Managing Director of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.

Currently, OpenTV possesses the largest digital set-top box installed base in Europe and is providing a suite of interactive content for television. Now, as OpenTV moves towards an MHP product in cooperation with Panasonic, digital television network operators can gain the advantage of running both existing OpenTV-enabled content and future MHP-compliant ITV programming in the same set-top box.

About OpenTV
OpenTV is the leading worldwide provider of software that enables digital interactive television. OpenTV provides a complete end-to-end solution for the development and delivery of interactive services via digital satellite, cable, and terrestrial broadcast. OpenTV set-top box software has been shipped with, or installed in, more than 6.1 million digital set-top boxes worldwide. To date, OpenTV software solutions have been selected by 25 television network operators worldwide, including British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in the United Kingdom, TPS in France, Via Digital in Spain, Senda in Sweden, Stream in Italy and EchoStar's DISH Networkä in the U.S.

The OpenTV set-top box software is licensed to more than 25 digital set-top box manufacturers, and OpenTV's authoring tools are licensed to more than 100 independent developers and content and service providers. OpenTV is a member of the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) project, CableLabs OpenCable initiative, ATSC DASE, and JavaTV. OpenTV is a licensee of Personal Java™ from Sun Microsystems.

OpenTV is now supported by investments from eight leading Internet and broadcast companies including America Online (NYSE: AOL), General Instrument (NYSE: GIC), Liberty Digital (Nasdaq: LDIG), News Corporation (NYSE: NWS), Shaw Communications (NYSE: SJR) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), in addition to Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) and MIH Limited (Nasdaq: MIHL).

Worldwide headquarters for OpenTV is located in Mountain View, Calif., with European operations in Paris, France, and London, England; and offices in Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Beijing, China; and Sydney, Australia. Information on OpenTV is available at www.OpenTV.com.

About Panasonic and Matsushita
Best known for its Panasonic brand products, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd. is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of digital electronics for the home, office and in between. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded sales of $63.7 billion last year. In Europe, Matsushita Electric employs some 15,000 people across the region. Panasonic European Laboratories, based in Langen, near Frankfurt, Germany, conducts advanced research into audio, video and multimedia technologies, and is a founding member of DVB and a member of the DVB Steering Board. Panasonic OWL, based in Edinburgh, UK, is carrying out research and development into middleware technologies for consumer electronics. For more information about our European operations, visit our web site: www.matsushita-europe.com.

About DVB
DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) is an open forum that is creating a European/Global framework for the development of digital television via cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasting. It was formally launched in Bonn, Germany, on September 10, 1993. Some 265 manufacturers, broadcasters, infrastructure and other organizations from 32 countries are members of the DVB forum. DVB is developing a common and open standard for the API of universally usable set-top boxes, Integrated Digital TVs as well as Multimedia PCs. The MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) specification provides a common and open platform on which multimedia and interactive applications will be able to run. The first MHP standard 1.0 covering enhanced broadcast as well as interactive services was approved on February 22, 2000 by the DVB Steering Board.

This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to OpenTV that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause OpenTV's actual results to differ materially from those contemplated herein, including but not limited to the ability of OpenTV and Panasonic to develop the MHP extension contemplated by their alliance within the time frames projected, the acceptance of such extension by set-top box manufacturers other than Panasonic, and other risk factors detailed in the Registration Statement on Form F-1 and other documents filed from time to time by OpenTV Corp. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as amended. OpenTV undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

OpenTV and the OpenTV logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of OpenTV, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.