Media Center: Press Release
Tele Columbus and PrimaCom Choose NDS MediaHighway®, Reinforcing
NDS Middleware Leadership in German Pay-TV
Highlights:
- Leading German cable operators Tele Columbus and PrimaCom select NDS MediaHighway® advanced middleware solution
- MediaHighway to support Tele Columbus and PrimaCom to centrally manage
their set-top box (STB) population across different networks and headends
located all over Germany
- MediaHighway enables Tele Columbus and PrimaCom to introduce new
value-added services such as Digital Video Recorder (DVR) functionality
and Video on Demand (VOD)
- New agreement underscores MediaHighway’s position as pre-eminent
middleware in German pay-TV
LONDON, UK – February 25, 2009 - NDS,
the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV,
today announced that Tele
Columbus and PrimaCom,
together forming Germany’s third-largest cable operator,
have selected NDS’ advanced
MediaHighway® middleware
solution to power their pay-TV business, further reinforcing
MediaHighway’s leadership in the German
pay-TV industry.
In 2008, Tele Columbus and PrimaCom introduced market-leading
VideoGuard® content protection technology from NDS. All
of the VideoGuard-equipped set-top boxes (STBs) of the two
partner companies will also feature MediaHighway. The Group
serves some 3.5 million cable-connected households and operates
a large number of independent networks.
NDS MediaHighway is an open middleware infrastructure, enabling
efficient centralised management of Tele Columbus’ and
PrimaCom’s STB populations across all independent networks
and headends. The two cable operators can now further strengthen
their unified brand because MediaHighway enables the user interface
and on-screen design to have a common look and feel across
all current and future STBs, harmonising the overall TV experience
for subscribers. Other benefits include enhanced efficiency
for STB maintenance and customer care operations.
Additionally, thanks to MediaHighway, Tele Columbus and PrimaCom
have the ability to flexibly introduce new and advanced TV
services such as DVR functionality, Push VOD, VOD, a broad
range of interactive applications such as TV games and many
more service extensions. Third-party applications which can
run on MediaHighway’s open software architecture can
also be included in Tele Columbus’ and PrimaCom’s
service offering. The NDS solution gives the two cable providers
the ability to swiftly launch integrated service enhancements
identically over all existing and future STBs in a single roll-out
operation.
Markus Schmid, CEO of Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, explained: “Following
our choice of NDS VideoGuard, we now have also selected its
MediaHighway middleware in order to benefit from an end-to-end
solution with NDS as one of our main technology partners. NDS
middleware offers many advantages to us, fulfilling the core
requirement for centralised and efficient management of our STB
population, currently being deployed in many independent networks
which have widely varying headend technology. Based on these
two world market-leading solutions from NDS, we look forward
to introducing the next generation of digital services to enhance
the TV experience for our subscribers – and provide a
best-in-class technology infrastructure for our content and
programming partners.”
Yves Padrines, Vice President, Business Development at NDS
and General Manager NDS GmbH, said: “We are proud to
announce that with Tele Columbus and PrimaCom, one of the leading
cable groups in the German market has decided to select MediaHighway
middleware to enhance their businesses and we look forward
to supporting the Group in its upcoming initiatives.” He
continued: “This announcement further strengthens the
position of NDS and MediaHighway in the German market. We are
gratified that Germany’s pay-TV innovators have entrusted
NDS technology to help them deliver a superior viewing experience
to their audiences.”
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About NDS
NDS Group Ltd. creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV
operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes),
DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices.
Over 70 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions
to protect and enhance their businesses. VideoGuard® is the world’s
market-leading conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM)
technology, currently deployed on more than 99 million active devices, and
safeguarding pay-TV service revenues exceeding $40 billion. NDS middleware,
including MediaHighway® which enables a host of advanced services for
subscribers, has been deployed on 108 million devices. NDS DVR technology,
centred around XTV®, leads the global industry with 17 million units
deployed. (Deployment figures as of 31st December 2008)
Headquartered in the UK, NDS remains committed to investing in R&D
with over 75% of its employees dedicated to pioneering work at development
centres in China, Denmark, France, India, Israel, Korea and US. NDS has
also implemented a host of initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint
and helping digital TV subscribers reduce energy consumption.
NDS Group Ltd. is a private company owned by the Permira Funds and News
Corporation. See www.nds.com for more information.
Read about the latest developments at NDS and in the pay-TV industry in
World Vision.
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About Tele Columbus and PrimaCom
Tele Columbus and the listed PrimaCom AG (DE0006259104) are among Germany's
largest cable network operators. Together, they provide some 3.5
million connected households with a TV signal and an increasing number of
customers with digital programming, Internet access and telephone connections
via powerful broadband cable. As national operators with a regional focus
and as partners of the housing industry, Tele Columbus and PrimaCom are
present throughout their core area of Berlin, Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt,
Thüringen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as in numerous core regions
in West Germany. Together, the two partners encourage innovation and lively
competition in the telecommunications market. See www.telecolumbus.de and
www.primacom.de for more information.
|
| For further information: |
|
| NDS |
| Cynthia Ritchie |
T: +44 (0)20 8476 8378 |
| Director, Corporate Communications |
critchie@nds.com |
|
| Breakaway Communications for NDS |
T: + 1 212 616 6006 |
| Kelly Fitzgerald, Managing Partner |
kfitz@breakawaycom.com |
|
| Susbauer PR for NDS |
T: +49 (0)40 3990 6357 |
| Ansgar Gerber, Managing Partner |
a.gerber@susbauer.de |
|
| Tele Columbus and PrimaCom |
T. +49 (0)30 3388 1942 |
| Hannes Lindhuber, Head of Communications |
hannes.lindhuber@telecolumbus.de |