DTT pay-TV – a new mass market
The Kudelski Group identified the digital terrestrial television (DTT) market as a potential growth market in 2007 and started developing solutions specifically designed for this type of platform.
DDT was initially considered to be unsuitable for pay-TV business models due to its limited bandwidth. Today, with improved video compression technologies, growing consumer demand and the fact that licenses are being granted by the governments in an effort to push the development of DTT and accelerate the digitization process, DTT pay-TV has become extremely successful. In 2009, the Kudelski Group provided solutions to major European markets where DTT services have been deployed on a large scale.
Mediaset: DTT pay-TV in action
The Kudelski Group is particularly well established in Italy, where analog broadcasting is set to come to an end in 2012. This market is a good example of how successful DTT has become.
Mediaset is the main DTT operator in Italy. Nagravision supported Mediaset in 2005 when it launched its first pay-TV service based on pre-paid cards, Mediaset Premium. This innovative offer provides consumers with simple and inexpensive access to a range of top-quality content using a pre-paid rechargeable smartcard. This service met with immediate success. In 2008, Mediaset Premium was also launched on DTT networks using Nagravision's conditional access system. This was the first DTT pay-TV service available in Italy. In the same year, Mediaset Premium rolled out Easypay, a new monthly subscription model that can be combined with the pre-paid card system. Nagravision's flexible conditional access solution enables Mediaset to deploy various pay-TV revenue models and as a result benefit from a continuous inflow of new subscribers. Consumers on their end enjoy the wide variety of services made available to them.
Nagravision is working with Mediaset in order to support the growth of the DTT market during the analog TV switch-off in Italy. As analog TV is gradually phased out, Mediaset will be able to target a large proportion of the population with its Premium pay-TV service. During this process, Nagravision will help Mediaset scale up the system so that it can accommodate all new active subscribers.
Supporting a smooth transition to digital
Nagravision was also chosen as the conditional access provider for Italy's satellite system Tivu Sat, which is jointly owned by Italian broadcasters RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media. This service will ensure uninterrupted delivery of all leading Italian free-to-air channels across the country.
Tivu Sat channels will be protected by Nagravision to preserve the rights of sports and movie content providers, thus ensuring that this content cannot be viewed outside Italy. This service is intended for households that, due to their location, will not receive free DTT channels after the analog switch-off.
Spain – launching DTT
Spain's analog switch-off is set to take place in April 2010, and the process of migrating to DTT has proved to be a major challenge for the whole sector. DTT market penetration, however, is already quite high in Spain.
The Kudelski Group has a strong presence on the Spanish market, with Nagravision's conditional access systems protecting the pay-TV content of Digital+, Euskaltel, R Cable, Telecable and Jazztel.
In 2009, The Group signed a contract with Abertis Telecom, Spain's leading audiovisual network operator. Abertis Telecom is deploying a DTT pay-TV platform, TDT Premium, which is similar to Mediaset's service in Italy.
Under new government regulations, all current DTT broadcasters with more than one DTT channel are entitled to offer one channel in pay mode. The first pay-DTT channel to go on-air for Abertis Telecom's TDT Premium platform is Gol Television, a 24-hour sports channel. The Nagravision conditional access solution deployed for Abertis Telecom is being integrated into TDT Premium's homologated set-top boxes and conditional access modules (CAMs) to support the new platform. The set-top boxes and modules are available in retail outlets. Nagravision has collaborated closely with numerous iDTV, set-top box and CAM manufacturers to integrate its technology into these consumer devices.
SmarDTV's SmarCAM-3 modules have been certified for the new DTT pay-TV services in Spain. These modules have been massively deployed in order to support the launch of Abertis Telecom's TDT Premium service.