The ATIS, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, launched the IPTV Interoperability Forum (IIF). The ATIS is based in Washington, DC more than 350 communications companies participate. Its goal is to develop and promote technical and operations standards for the communications and information technology industry.

"IPTV will enable consumers to use television as never before," said Bill Smith, the chief technology officer of BellSouth and chairman of ATIS. "The ATIS IIF will provide the neutral ground for carriers, service providers, application developers, content providers and equipment manufacturers to work together and make the wide-scale deployment of standardized IPTV a reality."

The forum wants to create "a reference architecture for IPTV, including interface definitions, and establishing standard metrics and requirements for content security and the quality of customer experience."