Security for new digital TV platform
Tele Columbus Group to Use NDS VideoGuard® to Protect its Service Portfolio
Hanover/London, March 6, 2008. The Tele Columbus Group,
Germany’s third-largest cable operator, announces that
it will now
protect its independent networks with conditional access technology
from leading international solutions provider NDS. The digital
TV portfolio
which Tele Columbus will offer on its own platform in cooperation
with Eutelsat as of May will be primarily secured with NDS’
VideoGuard® technology. The operator’s existing subscribers
will not
have to buy new set-top boxes as Tele Columbus will use a customer-friendly
Simulcrypt solution as of the launch of the new platform.
The Tele Columbus Group serves some 3.7 million cable-connected
households, making it one of Germany’s biggest multimedia
service providers.
It operates a large number of independent networks with headends
receiving
signals directly from its own digital platform in partnership
with Eutelsat via
the orbital position at 9 degrees East. To protect digital content
and thus drive
development of a new generation of digital free and pay TV, new
subscribers
within these networks will be supplied principally with equipment
based on
NDS VideoGuard® technology. The platform gives Tele Columbus
the flexibility
to support the launch of future integrated services such as digital
video
recorders (DVR), pay-per-view (PPV) or video on demand (VOD)
as well as
many other added-value services.
“The security offered by NDS VideoGuard has never been
compromised, and it
offers impressive options. This is also why this system is gaining
increasing
significance on the German market,” explains Markus Schmid,
COO and
President of the Tele Columbus Group. The VideoGuard content
security
system currently protects over 82.7 million active digital set-top
boxes
throughout the world. Over 76.4 million receivers around the
globe use NDS
middleware; over 10.4 million digital video recorders are operated
with NDS
technology. “With NDS as our technology partner, we can
also offer the future
programming partners of our digital platform optimal protection
against
fraudulent, illegal use. We are delighted to develop the next
generation of
digital services on this reliable basis,” sums up Schmid.
New set-top boxes provided for new subscribers to the independent
networks
of the Tele Columbus Group will be equipped with the VideoGuard
conditional
access system. Most of these boxes will also feature an Ethernet
connection
interface for transporting content via Internet Protocol (IP)
as well as
interactive applications via back channel interactivity. To maintain
the existing
pool of customers’ set-top boxes and to ensure an orderly
transition to NDS
technology, Tele Columbus will use a Simulcrypt solution with
two parallel
encryption systems. The goal is the smooth development of digital
TV and
triple-play offers for customers as well as continued growth
as a customer-oriented
multimedia and telecommunication service provider.
“Tele Columbus has embarked on a clear path to growth
and we are proud to
support the company with the development of its TV services,” remarks
Yves
Padrines, Director of Business Development at NDS. “Following
recent
deployments of VideoGuard technology in the German market, we
are more
than pleased to have also been chosen by Tele Columbus, a major
player at
the heart of Germany’s cable industry and one of the largest
national cable
providers of multimedia services.”
About Tele Columbus:
The Tele Columbus Group was formed in November
2006 following the merger of Tele Columbus
GmbH and ewt multimedia GmbH under the umbrella of Orion Cable.
With around 3.7 million
connected households Tele Columbus is currently the third largest
cable provider in Germany and
the biggest cable operator on network level 4. In addition to
analogue television, its range of
products includes digital television, internet and telephone
via broadband. Customers can
subscribe to individual products or a real triple-play all-in
package.
About NDS:
NDS Group plc (NASDAQ: NNDS), a majority owned
subsidiary of News Corporation, supplies
open end-to-end digital technology and services to digital pay-television
platform operators and content
providers. See www.nds.com for
more information about NDS.