IPTV is a fast spreading technology for distributing TV content to consumers. IPTV opens the opportunity for innovative new services that combine multimedia streams with interactive features and Internet services. One particularly interesting class of Internet services for integration with IPTV are online social networks. The integration of online social networks with more traditional TV content into one integrated service, which we call Social IPTV, may well be the future of TV.

In the light of this situation, TU Darmstadt and the Korean research organization ETRI started the “Social TV Service Technologies Based on Next Generation IPTV Infrastructure” project. To share the thoughts with colleagues in the industry working on the same or similar topics the Telecooperation Lab at Technische Universität Darmstadt invited to a joint industry / academia workshop on Social IPTV.

The venue took place at November, 24th with participants from NEC, Philips, and ETRI as well as from the Multimedia Communication Lab and from the Telecooperation Lab – including the Peer2Peer Networking Group – as a host.

The given presentations ranged from IP mobility and Quality of Service aspects via advanced service to integrate social networks like twitter and facebook and more sophisticated adoption of sociability. The workshop continued with a set of demonstrations that have been developed within the joint project of ETRI and Technische Universität Darmstadt.