<PAGE>

                                                                    EXHIBIT 10.1

                                [LOGO] OPEN TV

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:          General Media:                Financial/Investors:
                   David Benton                  Gary J. Fuges,CFA
                   Director of Public Relations  Director of Investor Relations
                   650/230-8003                  650/429-5531
                   dbenton@opentv.com            gfuges@opentv.com

                  OPENTV COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF STATIC

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF., AND LONDON, ENGLAND, JULY 2, 2001 - OpenTV, Corp. (NASDAQ
and AEX: OPTV), the world's leading interactive television (iTV) and media
solutions company, today announced that it has completed its previously
announced acquisition of Static 2358 Holdings Limited ("Static"),a privately-
held leading iTV media and entertainment company.

Static's shareholders and optionholders are receiving an aggregate of
2,719,048 OpenTV Corp. Class A Ordinary Shares and approximately US$13.105
million in cash in connection with completion of the acquisition. The cash
component includes approximately US$1.104 million in termination payments being
made to certain senior Static personnel who are being terminated in connection
with the transaction and excludes certain taxes being withheld in respect of
payments made to Static optionholders in exchange for the surrender of their
Static options.

In addition, pursuant to certain earn-out provisions contained in the Static
acquisition agreements, the principal shareholders of Static may receive
additional consideration of up to 626,872 OpenTV Corp. Class A Ordinary Shares
and approximately US$3.675 million in the aggregate in the event Static
meets certain performance criteria during the quarterly periods ending September
30, 2001 and December 31, 2001.

<PAGE>

OpenTV Completes Acquisition of Static
Page 2 of 2

About OpenTV

OpenTV is the world's leading interactive television and media solutions
company. OpenTV builds a complete software and infrastructure platform that
enables digital interactive television and brings on-demand content to other
digital communications devices.  OpenTV solutions are crafted to meet the needs
of all digital communications networks and include operating middleware, content
applications, content creation tools, professional services expertise, and
strategic consulting.

OpenTV software has been shipped with or installed in 16 million digital set-top
boxes worldwide and has been selected by 43 digital cable, satellite and
terrestrial communications networks in over 50 countries, including BSkyB in the
United Kingdom; TPS and Noos in France; PrimaCom in Germany; Via Digital in
Spain; Stream in Italy; DIRECTV(TM) Latin America LLC; and EchoStar's DISH
Network and USA Media in the U.S. In addition, 32 digital set-top box
manufacturers have licensed OpenTV's software, and more that 1,100 developers
have joined the Company's OpenAdvantage developer program.

Worldwide headquarters for OpenTV is located in Mountain View Calif.
Information on OpenTV is available at www.opentv.com

                                     # # #

(C) 2001 OpenTV, Inc. All rights reserved.  OpenTV, OpenAuthor, OpenTV Runtime
OpenStreamer, and the OpenTV logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
OpenTV, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.

All OpenTV products and services may not be available in all geographic areas.
______________