Panasonic formally begins Web TV service

On December 3rd , Matsushita Electric Industrial hosted a meeting in Tokyo to introduce “Tnavi”, its customized Internet contents service for digital TV/ tuner. The company introduced new features to be introducted in December, such as new billing and web mail.

“VIERA”, a Tnavi enabled plasma TV

Tnavi is an information service based on IP developed by Matsushita's e-Net business division. ADSL or other Internet “always-on” environment is assumed to let the users enjoy on their TV screen lifestyle-related information services, including weather forecast, restaurant information, and maps.

Beginning with the “D30 series” CRT TV launched in May, Tnavi-compatible Panasonic products now include a full line-up of plasma, liquid crystal, and CRT TV, as well as the “TU-MHD500” digital tuner. Tnavi-compatible products from other manufacturers include Mitsubishi “32T-GD303” CRT, as well as Sharp, Hitachi and Pioneer tuners.

When Tnavi first started in May, it had 21 contents services, but at the end of November, the number increased to 41. 8 services were further added in December, making it a total of 49.

e-Net Business Division Director, Jun Kimura

Tnavi's full-scale start was declared by e-Net business division director, Jun Kimura: “we consider May as the pre-opening, and December as the grand-opening.” The company plans to provide 100 services by spring 2004, and about 200 to 300 services in 2004.

3 new services were also launched in December: “Family Link Service”, “Message Service”, and “Passport Member Service”.

Family Link Service is a tool which enables a user to register for free the links to frequently accessed sites as well as the pay-services currently subscribed. A new “Family Menu” button is set up at the top page of Tnavi, enabling easy access to the sites.

A list of the new features added in December	A new “Family Link Service” access button is set up at the top page
With Family Link Service, any Tnavi site link can be registered

Receiving mail from contents holder and replying to them will be possible.

Message Service enables sending and receiving e-mail between a contents holder and a user. A new mail inbox is set up in the Family Menu and messages are distributed by the contents holder. The service is to be used mainly for the distribution of mail magazines and confirmation of orders, but users will be able to reply to the messages they receive.

Because Tnavi-compatible TV and tuners do not have the function to send or to receive e-mail for the time being, message service uses Web mail. However, mails from content holders that are not registered are blocked, so this service does not handle sending e-mail from a TV to another TV, or from a PC to a TV. It is a closed system limited to communication between contents holders and users.

Figure summarizing Passport Member Service

Passport Member Service is a bill settlement agency service carried out by the company for pay-services. When a user becomes a member, pay-services can be used simply by typing in a 4-digit password.

Settlement is made by credit card. The company's agency fees are 9% for fixed monthly contents, and 12% for charge-per-use.

With the addition of new services, karaoke is also possible.

List of services as of December

The 8 sites that will be newly set up from December are from the following companies: Kirin Beer (a site for snack recipes), Japan Air Lines (travel and leisure information/articles), Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japanese, Chinese, Western recipes), Taniguchi Shoyudo (art supplies on-line shop), Medical Bank (health related information), I Style (cosmetics information and on-line shop), Yumenomachi Sozo Iinkai (on-line order and same-day delivery of gifts, food, etc.), Sanyo Shinbun (news from Okayama). Details of each content can be found on the dedicated web site.

As one of the pay-services aimed at Passport Members mentioned earlier, Matsushita Electric has started a Karaoke site called “Yume Karaoke”. This is a download service of tunes to be used with Matsushita's karaoke microphone “DO! KARAOKE”. The tunes downloaded with Tnavi are stored on an SD card to be used with DO! KARAOKE.

Tnavi is only used to download tunes to the SD card, so playback and display of the karaoke screen will be made using DO! KARAOKE's functions. Matsushita says they are considering enabling karaoke with only Tnavi in the future

“DO! KARAOKE” is used to display videos with the song lyrics and to playback the tunes from the microphone.

Millions of Tnavi users in 2006

Looking back at some network-enabled home appliance services launched during 2003 such as the service to book TV programmes from a mobile phone which was realized with the DIGA series, or the “Mimamori Anshin Service” using home network to keep a watch over white goods and raise an alarm if needed, or the “Kurashi Service” which controls white goods home appliances, e-Net business headquarters' group manager, Seiichi Ono declared “Tnavi is at the core of all these services”. He suggested the positioning of Tnavi and its direction in the future.

Ono added that ”Tnavi is not a service attached to a Panasonic TV. It conforms with HTML 4.0 and content development is easy. There are no limitations regarding providers, it is an extremely open platform”, and said that he will continue to call on not only to contents holders but to each AV equipment maker to handle Tnavi.

Regarding the number of Tnavi users, he avoided any official statement as “Tnavi enabled equipment has just started shipment”, but he discussed that “in 2006, a time when digital terrestrial can be expected to be diffused on a full-scale, we would like to target several millions of users.”

Matsushita Electric Industry home page
http://matsushita.co.jp/

Tnavi official site
http://www.tnavi.net/

News release
http://www.tnavi.net/contents/contents.html

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