New TM Forum Partnership Boosts Content Focus

The TM Forum announced today that they have formed a partnership with NAB Show to examine the opportunities and challenges content owners and communications service providers face when creating, delivering and monetizing digital services. Through the partnership, the NAB Show will support TM Forum's 'Content Encounter Phase 3,' an interactive demonstration of converged content services management. TM Forum will further support NAB Show to educate content owners and aggregators of their role in the emerging communications value chain. According to STL Partners, an organization that specializes

in business model innovation in the telecommunications sector, the ‘two-sided business model’ that exists between targeted content and advertising-based business models could be worth $250 billion if companies can overcome the operational challenges involved.

"NAB recognizes that communications service providers are an important channel to market for content owners and aggregators, and TM Forum recognizes the need to work with the content world to ensure that service providers are supplying added value to content owners," said Brad Williams, NAB vice president of member benefits and business development. "As show organizers, it is important to provide the forum where these groups can come together, have dialogue, and explore opportunities to grow their businesses. We feel our content community can learn a great deal at TM Forum's Management World Orlando event, and are confident the TM Forum community can establish a number of content partners at the NAB Show."

Jim Warner, vice chairman and head of the content sector at TM Forum added, "This is a milestone announcement for TM Forum and clearly demonstrates our drive to expand beyond our traditional space in order to provide the collaborative solutions to make the value chain truly frictionless from end to end. NAB Show’s support of Content Encounter Phase 3 at Management World Orlando is a significant step in bringing other players in the value chain to the table." TM Forum's Management World Orlando conference will be held November 16-20 2008 at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort. The NAB Show is April 17-23, 2009 in Las Vegas. For more information about TM Forum's Management World Orlando, please visit tmforum. Press and analysts interested in attending Management World Orlando should contact Geoff Devlin – gdevlin@tmforum.org or tel. +44 (0)7894 300 280