In under three years, NDS has gone from being a bit-player in the German TV market to technology leader. By the end of 2009, NDS software will be behind the services enjoyed by most new pay-TV subscribers in Germany, as well as by increasing numbers of digital free-to-air (FTA) viewers. NDS' penetration is expected to increase in subsequent years, as legacy STBs are replaced with new ones containing NDS middleware.
NDS announced in late April that Kabel Deutschland GmbH (KDG), Germany's largest cable network provider, had chosen the company as the end-to-end solution provider for its digital TV platform.
That was followed in May by a deal with Tele Columbus and Primacom, the two largest independent cable operators, for NDS' integrated DVR solution, XTV, and an agreement to supply XTV, MediaHighway middleware and the NDS VOD solution to Kabel BW, the country's third largest cable operator.
This spate of new business in Germany augments existing deployments of NDS VideoGuard conditional access and MediaHighway middleware at Tele Columbus and Primacom, and of VideoGuard at Kabel BW. In addition, NDS has installed VideoGuard and MedigHighway at Sky Deutschland (previously Premiere), and has a smartcard-less CA installation at Vodafone (formerly Arcor) and IPTV CAS at Telekom Austria's AON TV platform.
NDS technology will power most new pay-TV subscriptions in Germany by the end of this year
Kabel Deutschland (KDG) was founded in 1999, when the cable business of the former telephone monopoly, Deutsche Telekom, was spun off by the German regulator. Today it operates in 13 of the 16 German states, providing television and triple-play services to approximately 9.5 million households. (Not all are direct KDG customers, as many in-house cable networks in large apartment buildings are owned by cable service companies or housing associations.)
NDS to power expansion
The role of the end-to-end system from NDS will be to power the expansion of KDG's digital base. KDG is in the process of transforming itself into a triple-play service provider, the first step of which is to migrate its customer base from analogue to digital. German cable operators are expected to agree on an analogue switch-off date of late-2012 though observers believe it could take somewhat longer.
Tele Columbus and Primacom, which together serve some 3.7 million cable households, chose NDS' integrated DRV technology, XTV, as the platform on which they intend launching Germany's first cable HD DVR service. The HD DVR STB will include an Ethernet connection for future video-on-demand and other IP-based services.
Kabel BW was the first German cable operator to choose NDS VideoGuard CAS back in 2007. Under the most recent agreement, Kabel BW will deploy advanced NDS technologies - MediaHighway, XTV and a VOD system – in order to provide triple play services (including Germany's first major cable VOD offering) to more than 2.3 million subscribers in its home state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
The abundance of free-to-air channels has hindered the development of pay-TV services in Germany
This recent activity represents not only significant success for NDS in the German TV market but also a major shift in the market itself. Despite digital TV having been in existence in Germany for over 10 years, its uptake has been limited and the market has been slow to adopt many of the technologies that are commonplace in other mature TV markets.
With some 37 million TV households, Germany's TV market is the largest in Europe and is highly competitive. Over 90% of German households have cable or satellite TV, and viewers enjoy a comprehensive mix of more than 30 free-to-air (FTA) public and commercial channels.
The abundance of FTA channels has hindered the development of pay-TV services. At present, only some 4.7 million German households subscribe to pay-TV packages, representing 13% of the total TV-viewing population. It took Premiere six years to almost double the penetration of its premium pay-TV offering (from less than 5% to the current 9.1%) and cable operators have achieved penetration of only 4% for their mid- to low-end pay-TV packages.
Advanced technology indicates a move
The move to advanced digital technology indicates that the cable operators may now be ready to promote their digital services a lot more aggressively than in the past.
One sign of the new focus on advanced TV functionality is the collaboration between NDS and Axel Springer Digital TV Guide (ASDTVG,) a leading provider of consumer entertainment technologies and EPG metadata, which was announced on the eve of the ANGA Cable conference in Cologne in late May. The purpose of the collaboration, the companies said, was to promote "personal TV" – which they defined as a "rich viewing experience enabled by state-of-the-art DVRs and EPGs."
The joint initiative will promote a variety of advanced TV technologies to Germany’s broadcasting, pay-TV and cable providers. These advanced technologies, which include addressable advertising and accurate measurement of viewer interaction with both live and time-shifted TV content and advertising, create new business opportunities for operators, ad-supported TV channels and advertisers.
Yves Padrines, Vice President, Business Development at NDS and General Manager NDS GmbH, said that the recent announcements have "taken NDS’ position in Germany to a whole new level and are a strong endorsement of our securing, enabling and interactive technologies. NDS looks forward to supporting our partners as they launch a variety of exciting new services." |
