Terms and Conditions of Entry for the Developer Award

Terms and Conditions of Entry for the Developer Award of the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award

Invitation to enter for the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award (Preface)

Deutsche Telekom AG is launching an innovation competition to take the development of interactive television further forward. The international developer community is invited to work jointly on the future of television with the market leader in Germany. This invitation to take part in Deutsche Telekom’s first IPTV innovation competition is extended to small and medium-sized businesses, start-ups and even interested private individuals. Entrants will gain an opportunity to play a direct role in developing the television of the future. Over 100,000 existing customers and access to a current 17 million households make the enormous potential clear. The best ideas and applications will win cash awards totalling one million euros. The starting date on which to submit project ideas is in March to coincide with CeBIT. Until then anyone who is interested can find out all the details of the competition on this website and can also download a starter kit. “All of us at Deutsche Telekom AG who are working on the further development of interactive television look forward with interest and excitement to you and your ideas and to sharing ideas with you,” says Marc Schröder, Segment Director Communication Services, Products & Innovation Division, summarising the mood at Deutsche Telekom AG.

1. The Competition’s Approach and Objectives

Deutsche Telekom AG would like with this competition to make a contribution toward the further development of the media landscape and the IT landscape that goes with it. The Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award gives start-ups and small or medium-sized businesses or institutions in the IT or media industry an opportunity to develop new ideas and sustainable concepts in the field of interactive television and have them evaluated. In addition, it provides an opportunity to gain implementation experience on one of the largest European IPTV platforms. Deutsche Telekom AG for its part would like by means of this competition to get to know new ideas and solutions in order to use them on its IPTV platform, always assuming that they are suitable for a mass market. At the same time publicity about the competition is intended to promote public awareness of the great opportunities that interactive television presents.

2. Competition Process

The Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award winners will be identified in the course of a multi-stage competition by means of an open, quality-oriented selection procedure.

2.1 Competition Phases

In the first competition phase, the preliminary round, entrants will develop project ideas for applications in the field of IPTV/interactive television for the German market that must be described in detail in meaningful concept outlines. Documents must be submitted in German or English in landscape format (or as converted PDF files). The content structure of the concept outlines must include the following:

• A brief description of the motivation and vision for the concept
• A short personal or company presentation (competences, references and, if appropriate, areas of activity, number of employees, sales figures, form of company, etc.)
• A description of the concept proposal (business idea, use cases, business model, etc.)
• A presentation on technical realisation (block diagram, basic technologies used, functions involved, resources required, scaling, etc.)
• Naming of a project contact and his or her replacement person, with contact data.

Concept outlines must be no more than 30 pages.

Once the application period for the preliminary round has expired, all applications will be reviewed and assessed by an in-house panel of Deutsche Telekom AG experts. The most convincing concepts will be chosen from among the entries to take part in the second competition phase, the intermediate round. Selection will be on the basis of the competition’s objectives and of the criteria listed at 2.4 (below). The mode of assessment will be at the discretion of the in-house panel.

Intermediate round competitors, ten at most, will be issued with an application developer kit with which to develop a prototype. Application developer kits will be provided free of charge. Details will be specified in a separate agreement with intermediate round participants. Intermediate round participants will undertake to document their development work in detail. They agree to their results and proposals possibly being subjected to a concept test using test persons or to comparable tests. They state that they are ready to attend all of the necessary training sessions and project discussions. These events will be held in Darmstadt. Entrants are to be advised of the dates in good time. They also agree to being mentioned by name as intermediate round participants and to their project ideas being described in connection with Deutsche Telekom AG advertising and communications activities.

At the end of the intermediate rounds the participants will present their prototypes in the course of two presentations, a comprehensive detailed presentation and a brief presentation. The two presentations will be made on different days. Participants undertake to take part in these presentations.

The evaluation of intermediate round results and selection of finalists will be made by the jury.

The three entries with the most convincing results will have an opportunity in a third application phase, the finals, to develop and present their project ideas at a so-called single server instance. This single server instance will consist of hardware and software components to be provided free of charge. The details, including technical framework conditions, will be laid down in a separate agreement with the finalists. The finalists undertake to document their development work in detail. They agree to their results and proposals possibly being subjected to a concept test using test persons or to comparable tests. They state their readiness to attend any necessary training courses and project discussions. These events will take place in Darmstadt. The finalists will be notified of the dates in good time. They also agree to being mentioned by name as finalists and to their project ideas being described in connection with Deutsche Telekom AG advertising and communications activities.

The finalists will present their development results in two final presentations, a comprehensive detailed presentation and a brief presentation, each to be made on different days. Participants undertake to take part in these presentations. The jury will select the winner of the competition on the basis of the competition objectives and the criteria outlined at 2.4 (below). The mode of evaluation will be at the jury’s discretion.

2.2 Timetable

• March 4, 2008: Finalisation of entry terms and conditions and official competition start
• April 4, 2008: Final date for entries
• End of April/Beginning of May 2008: End of first competition phase (preliminary round) with the naming of a maximum of ten intermediate round participants.
• Beginning of May 2008: Intermediate round gets under way with the provision of application developer kits. Exact date to be announced in good time.
• End of June 2008: Date for submission of prototypes. Exact date to be announced in good time.
• Until beginning of July 2008: Presentation of development results. Exact dates to be announced in good time.
• Middle/end of July, 2008: End of second competition phase (intermediate round) with the naming of the three finalists; finals begin with provision of the so-called "Single Server Instance".
• Beginning of December 2008 to mid-January 2009: Final presentations of the finalists’ development results. Exact dates to be announced in good time.
• End of January 2009 (Deutsche Telekom AG International Press Colloquium): Announcement of the winner.

2.3 Conditions of Entry

Eligibility: Private individuals and small and medium-sized businesses and institutions that on the basis of their activities in the IPTV market or allied industries have the know-how and competences required to handle the aids provided are eligible to enter. Companies in the industry that by virtue of their annual sales, number of employees or balance sheet total no longer qualify as small or medium-sized businesses are not eligible to enter.

Last date for entry: Entrants must submit their concept outlines (see 2.1 above for content and structure of documentation) electronically to the website www.interactive-tv-award.de using the entry form provided on the website. The application documents must reach Deutsche Telekom AG in full and in a fit state for processing by April 4, 2008. Receipt of documents will be acknowledged.

Person in charge: Each participating company must name an authorised person in charge of its entry and a deputy as contacts. Both must be natural persons. Exclusion: Employees of Deutsche Telekom AG and companies associated with Deutsche Telekom AG as defined in Section 15 of the German Companies Act (Aktiengesetz/AktG) may not, for reasons of equality of opportunity, enter for the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award competition.

Refund of expenses: All expenses incurred in connection with an application or entry are, as a matter of principle, to be borne by the participants themselves. There is no entitlement to a refund by Deutsche Telekom AG.

2.4 Project Aims and Selection Criteria

To give entrants the greatest possible leeway for project ideas the Deutsche Telekom Interactive TV Award competition is based on an open, quality-based selection procedure in which an expert, impartial jury makes decisions fairly on the basis of objective criteria. A special competition focus should, however, be on project ideas in the following areas:

Participation TV
Brief description: Participation TV describes all applications that are directly linked with live transmissions. The user has an opportunity to take part interactively and in real time in the live programme via the TV platform’s feedback channel.

Community / Personalisierung
Brief description: Personal and social network applications are characterised by a high degree of interaction in the personal network and/or by an individualisation of the TV platform that is provided.

Interactive B2B / B2C Models
Brief description: Opening up new revenue streams in interactive TV could mean new earnings opportunities for all stakeholders in this innovative environment. Applications characterised especially by the business model on which they are based come in this category, (such as interactive shopping or advertising channels, pay TV services, ...).

The aim of the project should in particular be to develop new ideas, concepts, features and business models in IPTV or interactive television insofar as they can be implemented effectively in the prevailing underlying conditions. Special attention must here be paid to specific aspects of the German media market and of German media law.

The nature and quality of the implementation of project objectives in the course of the successive application phases are the yardsticks for the choice that the jury must make. The focus must be on the following assessment criteria:

• Usability (the extent to which the project idea can be integrated into existing user experience, simplicity, ...)
• Customer benefit (unique selling propositions, special nature of the concept, ...)
• Quality of the technical solution approach
• Scalability of the technical solution
• Compatibility with the existing IT architecture
• Going easy on hardware resources

From the finalists the jury selects the project idea of which the overall bid across the three application phases has been most in keeping with the competition’s objectives, criteria and leitmotifs. The mode of assessment will be at the jury’s discretion.

2.5 Jury

The jury will consist of experts from different areas of society (probably the media industry, the university sector, representatives of the trade Press, etc.) and expert decision makers from Deutsche Telekom AG. This will ensure an objective and competent evaluation of the ideas and applications submitted. The selection process will be based at every stage in the proceedings on objective viewpoints determined by the objectives, criteria and leitmotifs of the competition.

Jury members who are employed by a participating company or by an associated company as defined in Section 15 AktG may not, for reasons of equality of opportunity, vote on the project idea submitted by that company.

2.6 Prizes

Deutsche Telekom AG is providing prize monies totalling 1 million Euro. This sum will be shared out among the different competition phases as follows:

• Intermediate round contestants: 50,000 Euro each
• Finalists: 100,000 Euro each (in addition to their intermediate round prize money)
• The winner: 200,000 Euro (in addition to intermediate round and finalist prize monies)

Prize monies will be paid at the beginning of the following competition round. Only one proposal or project idea per entrant can be considered for a prize.

2.7 Realisation of the Winning Project

In addition to prize monies the intention is to implement the winning project’s or projects’ project idea either wholly or in such parts as seem likely to promise commercial success. The winner consents to his development work first being subjected to detailed market, concept and/or product tests to the extent that Deutsche Telekom AG deems appropriate.

2.8 Reservations made by Deutschen Telekom AG

Any grants or assistance promised or the prospect thereof held out by Deutsche Telekom AG in connection with the competition are subject to legal provisions, especially to provisions of a regulatory, competition or public procurement law nature, and to official approval should that be required. Deutsche Telekom AG also reserves the right to limit or abandon the competition if in its opinion the competition’s aims can either not be achieved or can only be achieved inadequately. In that case entrants will not be entitled to a refund of expenses incurred in connection with their entry.

The provision of the Microsoft Application Developer Kit for intermediate round contestants and the Single Server Instance for finalists is further subject to the conclusion of binding individual agreement between the parties in question and Microsoft.

2.9 Intellectual Property, Rights of Use

Deutsche Telekom AG reserves all rights to information supplied to competition entrants, including the right to submit patent applications. Rights of use apply only within the scope and for the purpose of taking part in the competition.

Entrants who have reached the intermediate round undertake to offer Deutsche Telekom AG the right of first refusal to purchase or make sole and unrestricted use of their project ideas and project results or partial results. Insofar as Deutsche Telekom AG is interested in doing so, the details will be settled by the terms of a cooperation agreement between partners that includes fair recompense at market rates with due regard for any prize monies already paid. In this case entrants may only make use of their rights with the consent of Deutsche Telekom AG.

Entrants are required to state in their submission documents whether they or third parties hold industrial property rights or copyright in connection with the project ideas they have submitted.

The rights of use of the findings of market, concept and/or product tests and comparable findings that Deutsche Telekom AG comes by within the scope of the competition in analysing entries on the basis of activity of its own belong solely to Deutsche Telekom AG and the entrant in question.

2.10 Data Protection

Competition entrants’ data is stored for the duration of the competition. All participants consent to the use of this data for project purposes subject to due regard for data protection regulations.

2.11 Confidentiality / Liability

All information that entrants receive from Deutsche Telekom AG in connection with the competition is strictly for competition use. No liability for the information being accurate or complete is accepted.

Entrants undertake to treat all information received from Deutsche Telekom AG as confidential. They will not make it available to third parties and will use it solely for competition purposes. Third parties are everyone who is not taking part in the entry in question. The undertaking to abide by confidentiality ends five years after the end of the competition. Details will be specified in a non-disclosure agreement that all entrants must sign.

In addition, entrants who have reached the intermediate round agree to treat their project ideas and project results or partial results as confidential until the end of the competition, to use them solely for competition purposes and to disclose them to third parties solely for this purpose.

2.12 Amendments to these Terms and Conditions

The right to make reasonable amendments to these Terms and Conditions is reserved.

2.13 Severability Clause

Amendments and additions to these Terms and Conditions of Entry must be made in writing. No oral side agreements have been made. Should, contrary to expectations, one or more provisions of these Terms and Conditions of Entry prove to be invalid, the validity of the remainder shall not be affected. In this case it shall be considered as agreed that the invalid provision will be replaced by one that comes closest to the sense and spirit and purpose of the original.

2.14 Legal Recourse

By submitting their applications entrants have no legal entitlement to a prize. The jury’s decision is final. There is no legal recourse.

2.15 Applicable Law / Jurisdiction

These Terms and Conditions of Entry shall be subject only to German law, with Bonn as the place of jurisdiction.

2.16 Binding Character

In submitting their application documents the entrants agree to the Terms and Conditions of Entry, which form a part of their application.