Interactive television software developer OpenTV announced on Wednesday that as of Dec. 31, 2001, there are more than 23.5 million set-top boxes worldwide running its applications. Set-top boxes using OpenTV's software are mostly found in Europe, but the company said that in the United States there are more than four million deployments. Compared to last year, the company has seen a 70 percent increase in the number of set-top boxes using its software.
OpenTV's software enables people to shop, access e-mail, play video games and bank on TVs using set-top boxes. OpenTV's software runs on set-top boxes that are used on satellite and digital cable networks.