עוברים ל-NDS
NDS WINS CONTRACT TO PROVIDE CONDITIONAL ACCESS SECURITY ON VIASAT PAY TV PLATFORM Highlights: • NDS provides VideoGuard® secure conditional access for MTG’s Viasat direct to home (DTH) satellite pay-TV platform • NDS VideoGuard to protect content delivered to over 600,000 digital subscribers • Positive addition to NDS’s conditional access customer portfolio London, UK – March 31, 2003: NDS Group plc, a News Corporation company and the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today announced that a contract has been signed with Viasat Broadcasting, the pay and free TV satellite broadcasting division of leading Northern European media group Modern Times Group MTG AB, to deploy NDS VideoGuard® conditional access (CA) on Viasat’s digital pay-TV platform in the Nordic region. VideoGuard conditional access will be deployed by Viasat Broadcasting on its DTH pay-TV platform in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland to protect Viasat’s digital subscribers from piracy and to reduce churn on the platform. NDS’s VideoGuard will initially work in parallel to the existing system using a Simulcrypt headend. This is essential to avoid disruption to the service and in order to start creating a more secure platform. The full rollout will include a total migration of existing digital subscriber set-top boxes to NDS’s CA via an over-the-air download. Viasat chose CA from NDS to help resolve a significant piracy issue. In addition, it will allow Viasat to take advantage of new services offered by NDS’s conditional access solution, including revenue-generating opportunities leading to increased ARPU for Viasat’s pay-TV business. Dr Abe Peled, President and CEO, NDS Group plc, said: “We are delighted to be selected by Viasat to help secure their business and provide added value. We see Viasat as an important new customer for NDS, one that will be a major player in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. NDS’s broad technology base coupled with our ongoing investments will help support the pay- TV business expansion and the future growth of Viasat”. Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “We chose NDS because it is the most secure system available. MTG and NDS share a combined objective to eliminate piracy and we expect this implementation to substantially reduce subscriber churn levels and accelerate Viasat’s digital subscriber acquisition”. NDS’s VideoGuard is currently used by over 31 million subscribers around the world and secures over $11 billion of customer revenues. Announcement www.nds.com page 2 of 2 About NDS NDS Group plc (NASDAQ/NASDAQ Europe:NNDS) is a leading supplier of open end-to-end digital pay-TV solutions for the secure delivery of entertainment and information to television set-top boxes and IP devices. See www.nds.com for more information about NDS. About Viasat Viasat Broadcasting is an operating subsidiary of Modern Times Group MTG AB. MTG is a leading vertically integrated media group with broadcasting, production, content and media services businesses, operating in more than 30 countries around the world. MTG is the largest Free-and Pay- TV operator in the Nordic & Baltic region, and also has Free-TV operations in Russia and Hungary. MTG is the largest commercial radio broadcaster in Northern Europe, the global market leader in DVD subtitling and dubbing, and a leading international Reality-TV production house. Viasat Broadcasting broadcasts 40 channels everyday to 45 million people in 9 countries. MTG’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ shares are traded on the Stockholmsbörsen ‘O-list’ and its ‘B’ share ADRs are listed on Nasdaq. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements The statements contained in this release which are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to the plans, projections or future performance of NDS, which involve certain risks and uncertainties, including risk of market acceptance, the effect of economic conditions, possible regulatory changes, technological developments, the impact of competitive pricing and the ability of NDS and its commercial partners to develop systems and solutions which meet the needs of the broadcasting industry in a timely and cost-efficient manner, as well as certain other risks and uncertainties which are detailed in NDS' filings with the SEC. Company or product names have been used for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. For further information: For NDS Margot Field Giles Morgan/Gemma Craven NDS Group plc Golin Harris Tel: +44 788 191 8158 Tel: +44 207 898 3567/3310 Email:
[email protected] Email:
[email protected] [email protected] For MTG Matthew Hooper Modern Times Group MTG AB Tel: +44 20 7321 5010
That's why it looks like that in the final stage only Seca2 will be used (and we can be sure that the provider will choose Hispasat over Astra). The name of this new platform with 5.000.000 subscribers will be Digital+.