In media terms, Roger Parry can be considered a “triple play.” He is chairman of three UK media companies: Johnston Press (newspapers), Future (magazines) and Mobile Streams (mobile content).

Beginning his career in advertising at UK giant Saatchi and Saatchi, Parry moved on to journalism and spent eight years as a radio and TV reporter and producer with the BBC and Thames Television. He was then recruited by McKinsey and Company. He spent several years as a management consultant in the London office, leaving consulting to become the Development Director at Aegis Group.

With this background, Parry is eminently qualified to discuss the future of home entertainment. He contributed the following article to The Financial Times, July 4, 2006.

Pose the question: “What’s on the box?” and you will get an answer about that night’s television listings – schedules that were set by a handful of people whose ideas dominate our viewing. Ask the same question in five years’ time and you will get a very different response.

Our homes are to be the site of a revolution as dramatic to the economics of entertainment as the arrival of the gramophone, radio, “talkies” or television itself. The Box of the second decade of the 21st century will not be colloquial UK shorthand for the television set but the description of a ubiquitous bit of kit – central to every home.

Although we will spend no time looking directly at it, the Box will be as important to our home entertainment as the television is today. Indeed, far more important. It may not alter what we watch but it will change, forever, how we watch and pay for it – and it will be a shock to the job prospects of those television schedulers and their employers.

The nature of this omnipotent Box will come as no surprise. If you have Sky+ you are experiencing a prototype. The Box will be a high-speed computer, connected to the Internet via broadband with a substantial memory. Its inputs will include: cable and satellite television and radio, various frequencies of digital terrestrial broadcasting, the entire World Wide Web, and third generation mobile phone signals. Its outputs will feed flat screens and wireless speakers throughout your home and top-up your iPod, MP3 player and laptop personal computer. It will deliver everything we watch and listen to today plus much more. It will also, probably, connect you directly to the library of every film studio, music company and television producer in the world.

So what, you may well ask. What will be different? The experience of watching a television program or listening to a radio show will not change that much. More is not necessarily better.

Broadcasting companies such as ITV and GCap in the UK exist because they rent valuable broadcasting spectrum from the government. They buy programs to fill the time and manage to sell just enough advertising to leave an, increasingly small, profit. Channel 4 exists because the government is kind enough to give it valuable spectrum and it sells enough advertising to make an, increasingly large, profit. And the BBC! Well, the BBC is given almost unimaginable amounts of free spectrum and gets billions a year of tax income to fill its airtime.

When the Box becomes the norm in every home all this will change. You and I will no longer dance to someone else’s tune. We will consume television and radio the way we already consume magazines and newspapers – when, where and how we want to, at a price we are prepared to pay. We will seize back control of our living rooms and kitchens.

Does this miracle come free? Of course not. For sake of argument let us assume it costs £100 a month to subscribe to all this – and, by the way, all your Internet access and phone calls come thrown into the deal. Some people will happily pay this much. But now let us assume you agree that the Box can show you one minute per hour of advertising when it deems fit. Now the charge is only £50 a month. Agree to five minutes an hour and the Box comes free.

Who will supply the Box itself? BT Group, Vodafone, Carphone Warehouse, Microsoft, Sony? There is a long list. My money is on Apple: all that cool design and hot functionality, even a sexy name. How about iHome?

In the Box-enabled future the economic model changes. Advertisers will still want to reach audiences but they will do this through relationships with individual consumers, not with channels. They will get into our heads by getting into our Boxes.

Each Box, broadband hard-wired into our home, will have its own unique Internet protocol address. Then the advertisers will be able to talk directly to us, one-to-one, without a television or radio broadcaster getting in the way. Today they are forced to talk to a relatively random group of people who happen to be attracted to a particular program on a particular channel. In future those advertisements will be sent to your Box with you in mind.

Your Box will know you watch a lot of gardening shows and that you live in the country and that it has stopped raining in your area. When you sit down to watch the news it will show you advertising for lawn mowers. Your friend, who lives in a city, will watch the same news as you but he is getting advertising about holidays in China reflecting his recent viewing and listening habits. 

So here is a technological revolution that is not just likely but certain. In the past five years, conventional broadcasting businesses have seen a huge reduction in their stock market value. Some observers put this down to poor management but, given the inevitability of the Box and what it implies for the future of broadcasting franchises, it is perhaps a wonder that they have any value at all. And, by the way, having a Box will surely not require a license fee to be paid – so where does that leave the BBC?

© The Financial Times Limited 2006. Reprinted with permission.

In 2001 when BSkyB began offering Sky+, its first digital video recorder (DVR), it chose NDS’s XTV™ personal TV solution. This was a logical choice because NDS was already a key technology solutions provider to Sky.

Since its launch, Sky+ has been installed in almost 1.5 million households throughout the UK, making it a strategic addition to BSkyB’s product offering. In the five years since launch, the Sky+ DVR solution has lived up to its potential:

• Viewing hours per week have increased
• Over half of Sky+ homes watch more channels
• Sky Digital premium subscriptions have increased
• More than two-thirds of Sky+ customers are “more satisfied with Sky Digital” than before they had Sky+
• More than one-third of Sky+ sales are a result of personal recommendation

Sky+ is also living up to its promise of generating new revenue streams that increase revenues per user. Its end-to-end security, coupled with local storage, enables new pay-TV and VOD services from the hard disk. With an increasing number of Sky+ households being first-time subscribers, it has also become an important tool for reaching out to consumers who have not previously subscribed to a pay-TV platform.

Brian Sullivan, Sky’s Director of Product Strategy and Management is responsible for strategic and commercial development of Sky’s new and existing offerings in the UK and Ireland digital pay-TV markets.

Sullivan joined Sky in 1996. Previous positions at Sky include Channels Marketing Director when he was responsible for revenue maximization. He was also instrumental in Sky’s migration to digital broadcasting.

Before joining Sky, Sullivan worked for Eagle Direct and Showtime in the US. He recently took time to discuss current and future developments at BSkyB with World Vision.

World Vision: I’d like to begin by asking you to give some details about BSkyB. Specifically, how many subscribers do you have, how many channels do you offer them, and perhaps who your viewers are.

Brian Sullivan: BSkyB has been the UK’s leading pay-TV provider for more than 17 years. Our first pay-TV milestone was the launch of Sky Multi-Channels in 1993, but there have been many significant developments since then. We launched Sky digital five years later with 140 channels. In 2001 we launched Sky+, a fully integrated digital video recorder. In May 2006, we launched Sky HD [high definition] and in mid-July we announced Sky Broadband.

Today Sky has more than 8 million pay-TV customers. That means almost one out of every three UK and Ireland households gets their TV from Sky.

We offer well over 400 channels including mainstream entertainment, movies, world leading sports services, and niche channels for just about every individual taste. We also offer the largest single source of digital radio and the first fully integrated interactive news and sports programs.

Our viewers are a reflection of the general UK population. They come from every demographic group and every economic stratum.

What types of programming do you offer?

Sky began our pay-TV service with a core set of three channels: Sky One, Sky Sports and Sky Movies. These services have been expanded and added to --mostly with the introduction of digital TV. We now have 12 dedicated movie channels, five sports channels, three versions of Sky One with different schedules, Sky Channel portfolio (Sky Sports news services, Sky News and Artsworld). As a service for UK customers, Sky TV offers a lot more. At this point we can say that we have a selection of the best channels originating in the UK and abroad.

What does Sky+ actually offer your subscribers?
 
Our customers expect Sky to be a leader in both entertainment and innovation. Sky+ brings these concepts together very successfully.

As a form of entertainment TV is still the most satisfying experience for just about everyone. But its delivery – half-hour or hour-long programs scheduled on rigid basis -- hasn’t kept up with changes in our lifestyles in the last 10 years. The fact is, we have the same amount of free time we had before, but now it’s broken into smaller chunks and spread across the day or week. Until the introduction of the DVR, TV didn’t really keep up. Sky+ readapts to how our lives are now, and that’s why customer satisfaction levels are skyrocketing.

Sky+ was introduced about five years ago. How did you envision it would affect your market? Did this put you ahead of the competition? How did it affect your offering and your market?

When Sky+ was first introduced, it was a fantastic experience that not too many people really understood. This was different from the introduction of DVD players which were really just a replacement for VCRs. In general marketing terms, Sky+ is a more difficult concept to grasp. It was really about re-tailoring TV to fit the customer’s lifestyle. We had to spend time educating the market. It was essential for our customers to see the product being demonstrated.  

What happened is that our customers actually became our best advocates. They could explain Sky+ features to anyone they had contact with -- and they did. This has proven to be our most successful means of marketing. The fact is 40 percent of our sales come from personal recognition from current customers recommending the service to someone who doesn’t have it yet.

To emphasize my point, after the first year, we had 29,000 customers. Four years later, we have more than 1.5 million.

What are the most popular features offered on the Sky+ DVR and what additional features or trends are you considering?

Most Sky+ customers fall into two groups. The first group time shifts programs on a given day. This means they record a program that airs when they are busy and watch it when it’s more convenient – the same day. The second group time shifts across the entire week. They record programs that are on when they’re not home to play back later.

Ultimately what attracts customers to Sky+ is their ability to decide when they want to record, time-shift and play back programs. They are also enthusiastic about other features we offer like pausing a live TV program when they get a phone call and resuming exactly where they left off once they finish the call, series linking to record all the episodes of their favorite shows, and most recently Remote Record.

What is Remote Record?

Remote Record, which was launched in early July, enables customers to set up a recording when they aren’t home. This has obviously answered a core need. The feedback from customers has almost exceeded our expectations.

Remote Record lets customers book programs in one of three ways: by mobile phone, by sending a text message, or by accessing our website. This service is free for Sky+ customers. [The only charge is to send the text message.]

What we have found is that features like Remote Record add increased flexibility to a product that was designed for flexibility. It’s the perfect complement.

We plan to spend the rest of the summer and fall introducing and signing customers up for Remote Record. Beyond that, the trends are for even more control and flexibility. No matter what, we will always have a 100 percent focus on ease of use for our customers.

I understand that you’re very enthusiastic about the launch of Sky HD. What effect do you expect it to have on the TV viewing experience? Also, is this a mass market offering? What type of programming will it include?

We launched Sky HD a few months ago. It is absolutely central to the Sky offering because it delivers what customers want most: the best viewing experience.

If you think back to when we launched Sky digital, its main attraction was better sound and picture quality. The same is true for Sky HD in that it takes the next step in offering better picture and sound. But this is really a major step forward. Customers can really have a cinema-like experience at home.

I absolutely see Sky HD as a mass offering. First of all, we expect there will be almost 3 million HD-Ready TVs in UK households by the end of the year. The sets are there. What they need is the content, and Sky is absolutely the best company to deliver the content they want.

Our HD services already cover general entertainment (Sky One HD), all major sports (Sky Sports HD), just about every Hollywood movie available (Sky Movies 9 and 10 HD). In addition we launched the two leading HD documentary channels (National Geographic and Discovery) as well as the HD version of Artsworld. This means we have the widest selection of HD programming anywhere in Europe.

The launch for Sky HD TV was originally scheduled for 2008 but was been brought forward. What facilitated the change?

The main reason for launching sooner was customer demand. Consumers were buying sets that could get better content but the content wasn’t available. Our customers expect us to be leaders in innovation. Having become known for offering our customers so many “firsts,” it was natural for Sky to lead the UK in the HD area as well.

Another critical factor in bringing forward the launch of HD was the successful introduction of a new set of technologies including MPEG4 which allows us to take advantage of virtually unlimited bandwidth on satellite to offer our customers truly diverse programming selection.

Can you give some details about the HD TV DVR such as the size of the disk and what viewers will be able to do with this new DVR?

We decided that if we were going to launch HD we were going to do it on basis of Sky+ which is our best viewing experience. This means that all HD STBs are DVRs as well. The box itself has more than 300 GB storage of which 160 is reserved for the customer and 140 GB is set aside for future services. This means customers can record up to 30 hours of HD programs and up to 80 hours of standard definition (SD). We have future-proofed the Sky HD boxes by including broadband connectivity. This keeps it open for a wide array of future services.

What role has NDS played in helping Sky improve your offering? Specifically, how has Sky changed over the last 10 years, how has NDS changed, and how have these changes affected the relationship?

Sky’s relationship with NDS goes all the way back to our original launch 17 years ago. At that time both companies were relatively small and just starting out. Together we’ve changed the pay-TV landscape – not just in the UK – but all over the world.
                       
NDS has been at the heart of Sky’s development at every major step of the way – including our original multi-channel service, the launch of digital TV, the introduction of Sky+ and most recently, HD. NDS is part of just about every aspect of our future roadmap for customer services and is at the heart of Sky’s commitment to innovation.

For more information:

XTV          http://www.nds.com/personal_tv/personal_tv.html
Sky+        http://www.nds.com/personal_tv/skyplus_case_study.html

London-based Chris Forrester is a well-known technology journalist. He reports on all aspects of the TV industry with special emphasis on content, the business of television, and emerging technologies. In World Vision No. 29 and World Vision No. 30 he discussed the future and importance of high definition television (HDTV). In this issue he takes a look at the future.

Have you made a Skype call yet? Barely two years ago the service was known only to Geeks and Anoraks, and yet now it is almost in the mainstream, with millions of callers on line at any time of the day. The potential damage that Skype’s ultra-low cost VOIP system could do – and perhaps is doing - to the world’s traditional telcos, is immense.

Skype is a perfect example of a product coming out of left-field and potentially completely altering a business model we are totally familiar with. In fact, Skype is positive proof that many “normal” business paradigms are shifting faster than ever. But there’s also something of a dichotomy taking place, where many technology companies, while happily delivering new-fangled gizmos almost every day of the week, are also beginning to realize that the market cannot absorb the changes and delights on offer.

That, at least, is one of Prof. Peter Cochraine’s opinions. Prof. Cochraine, co-founder of Concept Laboratories and unashamed “futurologist,” warns us all when he says “Beware of what you think we know.” He rightly says we are in the middle of a period of fast behavioral change, where technology itself is changing much faster than us. “The old rules and systems no longer work,” he states, arguing that many digital sectors are in a “chaotic phase” and almost everything in our sector is becoming commoditized.  

In the area of television, entertainment and the media generally, he says that our future knowledge is – at best – good for only about five years. Take that “knowledge” out towards the 10-year mark and it’s probable that some of the necessary R&D is in the lab now, but about 50 percent of what’s likely to emerge is totally unknown, except possibly to the pair of Geeks currently working in a spare room on the next Google, eBay, Skype or Slingbox. Take another look at the crystal ball for a 20-year period and Cochraine says that next to nothing is in the lab. For a 40-year look into the future, Cochraine states bluntly: “We are mostly guessing and dreaming.” The problem we all face is that whatever technology we are involved in it is not going to slow its ever-faster development. “There will be more change in the next 20 years than in the past 200,” says Cochraine.

This should worry the Hell out of all of us. Where already products like Slingbox will be embraced by some as they give us the ability to shift content around the world, Hollywood and its rights’ lawyers are justifiably worried to death. The digitization of everything creates great opportunities – and huge potential growth - but immense risks.

This in itself is not new, for every reader of this page recognizes the terrors involved in copying digital media.  But look just a few years out to an age where storage capacity has improved 10-fold, or 100-fold as Peter Cochraine confidently predicts, and the implicit business risks in the storage sector alone. Today’s consumer DVR hard drives might hold 100 or so hours of content. But tomorrow’s world might easily see 1,000 hours of storage. That’s no big deal, and something that we can all comprehend. But boost than another 10-fold and you begin to get REAL storage. Where we can easily store Hollywood’s best-ever 5,000 movies (are there actually 5,000 best-ever movies?). Or perhaps a device will emerge claiming storage of all of Hollywood’s output because that’s the way some 14-year old Geek will view his peer-to-peer sharing system.

Take mobile technology. We all recognize that devices are getting smaller, smarter and cheaper. Yesterday’s desk-top technological marvel is incorporated in today’s ultra-thin cellular phone. My latest XDA PDA device has as much functionality as a highly-specified computer. Yet just a few years ago I was dependent on 56k dial-up “narrowband” connectivity. Then it quickly grew to 256k, and 512k, and 1Mb, and now 10Mb, and now I expect more. I look enviously at the good citizens of Seoul with 100Mb. But what if the connected world expanded to Gigabyte levels of bandwidth, where truly instant access to all the world’s books (courtesy of Google) or unlimited instant information (courtesy of Microsoft) via electrifying speeds (courtesy of Intel) made today’s publishing models obsolete?

Cochraine predicts exactly that future, where by 2015 many will be “wearing” some sort of “super iPod” that contains all of the world’s recorded music.  Perhaps I should say that the 15-30 year-old young fashonistas would be carrying these devices, and probably multitasking with wearable “head-up” spectacles, projecting movies in 3D or game-playing with distant chums. It doesn’t take a genius to track what’s happened these past 10 years in wireless technology, where we have transitioned from giant monopolistic public or commercial radio broadcasters to a zillion users listening to their own playlisted music – often illegally captured.

At the same time there has been an explosion in Internet radio, where podcasts rapidly grew from niche to mainstream adoption. We have each seen our three or four main TV networks multiply into hundreds of thematic offerings (although perhaps some of us still retain a fondness for the original handful). Our young children are maturing into a lifestyle where there is unlimited choice but also the cost of accessing such content is no longer prohibitive.

A couple of years ago an article in The Economist discussed “The death of distance,” predicting the costs of telephone calls would plummet. Skype has proven that theory to be sound, and there are plenty of packages around, says Cochraine, that can bundle up assorted “free” access offerings (“Free 1,000 minutes for 30 somethings a month”), but more importantly we are all more important. We call the tune. We expect the best. We no longer want to be dominated by the monopoly. It’s all about us, the consumer, says Cochraine. It is also about “us” the producers of content, circulating it at very low cost to our pals, our peers, and our interest groups. Cochraine says that we are moving very quickly to an age where amateur and semi-professional content-producers will morph into a society of personal and small group participants. Will they be seeking content protection? Will they want to monetize their creativity, or just give it away for free to boost their ego?

Cochraine does not predict the end of life as we know it, Jim. But like “Star Trek’s” Capt. Kirk, who had a “wearable communicator” -- which is now almost a reality -- what else does the future hold?

IPTV is an example of the convergence of broadband and broadcast TV and is one part of what is known in the industry as the “triple play” -- when one company can offer TV, Internet and telephone services.
                           
NDS has recently introduced Synamedia™ Metro, an integrated, secure middleware solution for both broadband and TV operators. By combining the power of broadband with TV broadcasting, IPTV does two things: It enables telcos to enter the TV market and it makes it possible for broadcasters to add on-demand and IP-communications to hybrid broadcast/broadband set-top boxes.

The role of middleware

In order for any new IPTV or VOD offering to succeed it needs a strong middleware solution to manage the EPG, games and other interactive applications that subscribers have come to expect from digital TV. In order for IPTV to be competitive from the start, robust middleware is essential. An untested, weak middleware solution will just not deliver the winning ticket.

“NDS developers came to the conclusion that first generation IPTV middlewares are not scalable and lack important features,” says Jonathan Beavon, Director, Marketing, NDS Broadband Internet Group. “They wanted to implement the best scalable architecture that is based on proven NDS technology,” he says. “We have an advantage because our technologies are deployed on a mass scale.”

Based on MediaHighway™

One of the advantages of Synamedia Metro is that all of these innovations are built on NDS MediaHighway set-top box software which is already developed and deployed. It includes application development tools and is supported by the MediaHighway Development Community.

“What this means is that both telcos and broadcasters can offer the features that will really make them competitive: EPGs, interactive TV applications, VOD, DVR or network DVR capabilities,” Beavon says. “What’s more, they can offer all of this for both SD and HD television.”

“MediaHighway is important for our Synamedia Metro offering,” says Nigel Smith, VP NDS Broadband Internet Group, “because it is already used by some of the world’s most successful broadcasters.” He explains that telco operators can benefit from the experience that NDS has gained in delivering middleware solutions to over 38 million subscribers, “and be sure that they can launch advanced TV applications at least comparable with their competitors – while taking advantage of the two-way nature of IPTV.”

Offering expertise, knowledge
                                                                                                    
Smith says that NDS has been working with telcos around the world for the last six years as they begin to deploy IPTV solutions. “What we offer them is our expertise as well as our deep knowledge of television technology. Only an open solution like Synamedia Metro will meet the requirements for providing the IPTV and hybrid services telcos want. Because it is fully standards-based and has open interfaces, the operator can choose to mix and match components and not be locked into a single supplier.”

“Synamedia Metro’s unique architecture integrates NDS technologies into a solution that enables operators to deploy a single, integrated IPTV system,” Beavon says. “This saves them time and money in the crucial early phases of their new service.”

Synamedia Metro was demonstrated on a Samsung STB at GLOBALCOMM 2006 in Chicago in June. The same box will be demonstrated at the NDS booth at IBC in Amsterdam, September 8-12 (Stand 1.171).

Bases of Synamedia Metro

Synamedia Metro offers integrated IPTV middleware as a turnkey solution for telcos. It integrates with an IP STB or a hybrid broadcast-IP STB. Synamedia Metro includes VideoGuard digital rights management with applications development based on NDS MediaHighway middleware. Features include:

• EPG:   Synamedia Metro’s consolidated, intuitive Electronic Program Guide gives instant access to TV channels, VOD items and broadband communication services. It has powerful search functions and on-screen information bars. Other features include user-friendly shortcuts, customizable views for multi-channel navigation and picture-in-picture elements. 
• Digital Rights Management. Synamedia Metro relies on NDS VideoGuard® technology to provide content protection, rights management, device authentication and advanced fingerprinting. VideoGuard facilitates negotiations for high-value content on the best possible terms, based on NDS’s global reputation for stringent, end-to-end security.
• Standards-based and Open. Synamedia Metro is built with open software interfaces and is based on internationally recognized standards. It uses the latest video codecs, integrated into high definition decoder chips, for bandwidth economy, keeping STB prices low. It also uses standards-based content protection technology to facilitate choice and interoperability with a wide range of hardware suppliers, thus driving down the total cost of IPTV deployment and ensuring faster and easier integrations.

For both broadband and broadcast operators, no solution meets the needs of the IPTV market better than Synamedia Metro which is already developed and deployed.

For more information:

Synamedia            http://www.nds.com/broadband/broadband.html
MediaHighway        http://www.nds.com/middleware/middleware.html

A Reflection for IBC 2006

In the broadcast press and at international trade shows like IBC, one of the main questions people ask is: What do pay-TV consumers really want? What is interesting is that there seems to be agreement on the answer: They want to view premium content anytime, anywhere on any device.

But there is another question that is no less important: What do broadcasters and service providers want? Again there seems to be consensus: They want to become multi-platform service providers by offering the best premium content and a dazzling array of TV services over a variety of networks to the complete range of consumer electronics (CE) devices. Sounds pretty straightforward.
                                
So what enables operators to offer the services they need to stay at the front of the pack? While content and services may be the name of the game, what protects these services so that operators don’t loose revenue on their investment?

One of the best answers is NDS VideoGuard®. For the past 15 years, VideoGuard has established a solid, worldwide reputation in pay-TV delivery. Today NDS has more than 64 million active smart cards deployed on more than 50 TV platforms in 25 countries and 15 languages.

Why has NDS VideoGuard made such impressive progress in the global pay-TV market? Put simply, because VideoGuard, which offers the industry’s most advanced suite of conditional access (CA) solutions now also includes digital rights management (DRM) solutions. [To see for yourself, visit NDS at IBC, September 8-12, Amsterdam, Stand 1.171.]

A bit of history

Traditionally – going back five to 10 years -- conditional access provided service protection from the operator’s headend to the subscriber’s home. But digital convergence is changing all that. Today, consumers record digital broadcasts on their DVRs. They download (legally or otherwise) films, video clips, and music via the Internet and play what they have downloaded on their PCs. They view family pictures on their TVs and watch streamed content on their PCs. They take premium content with them on personal media players and watch TV on their cell phones. In short, today’s pay-TV market is no longer about sitting down to watch whatever is available in a given time slot. Today, successful pay-TV is about offering flexibility and choice. The name of the game is: anytime, anywhere, any device.

For content providers – the studios, networks, music labels and artists – this flexibility means ever-expanding markets. In this new environment, if subscribers want flexibility, what the content providers want is to sell their products as widely as possible, so that each piece of content becomes a money-maker.

Originally – again going back just a few years -- digital pay-TV was based on a relationship between the service providers – telcos, satellite broadcasters and cable MSOs -- and their subscribers. They encouraged their subscribers with fancy EPGs, DVRs, games, VOD and interactive TV. The list is still growing because the better the relationship, the less churn.

But today that is only one part of the equation. With the proliferation of CE devices, content providers don’t anticipate any relationship with consumers. What they’re interested in is selling their products to as many people as possible. While they may not require a personal relationship, what they do require is persistent protection of their content from its point of origin to the time it is consumed. This is what VideoGuard provides: the TV industry’s most advanced suite of conditional access and DRM solutions to protect both service and content wherever and whenever they are consumed.

Time-shifting, place-shifting

What makes the new market so interesting is that viewing habits have changed drastically. This is the age of personalized content. Subscribers want an experience that is tailored to their needs. They are looking for the options like time-shifting and place-shifting. Put simply, they want flexibility and options.

Today’s VideoGuard DRM from NDS meets these needs. Both new and established pay-TV service providers can deliver the flexibility and control their subscribers want. With a single VideoGuard headend, operators can deliver content and services securely over any infrastructure to virtually all relevant CE devices, including PCs, STBs, PMPs and cell phones. We’re not talking about watching TV in one room anymore. At home, on the way to work, on vacation, at a friend’s. This is the “watch TV anytime, anywhere generation.”

Cases in point

NDS VideoGuard is tailored to fit a variety of devices: mobile phones, PMPs, STBs, DVRs, and PCs.

As an example, VideoGuard PC turns the PC into an advanced entertainment center while the platform maintains the same high level of service and content protection. Using hardware-based DRM technology, subscribers can simply plug their VideoGuard Key into any PC or notebook computer’s USB port to enjoy all the pay-TV services available: broadcast TV, VOD, EPG, and DVR. Operators please note: For maximum convenience, stored content can now be securely transferred from the DVR to the PC.

With VideoGuard, the PC has new potential: It can become a secure media player, a DVR, and ultimately a server on a home network.

Because of this flexibility, VideoGuard PC is a good answer to the question, “What do pay-TV consumers want?” Clearly, they want their content to be available seamlessly, simply and constantly.

NDS demonstrates at IBC

Under the banner of “enabling and securing premium content anytime, anywhere and on any device” at IBC 2006 (Stand 1.171), in addition to VideoGuard, NDS is also demonstrating a number of its deployed solutions that are pay-TV market leaders around the world:

• XTV deployed DVR technology featuring:
• Sky+ HD. BSkyB’s newly launched HD service featuring Europe’s first HD secure integrated DVR based on NDS XTV technology.
• DIRECTV Plus. The most advanced DVR featuring a sophisticated EPG, enhanced search and recommendations capabilities, push VOD and next generation games. A market leader in the US.

• Synamedia™ Metro. NDS’s new end-to-end middleware solution for IPTV VOD, DVR, Network DVR and Archive TV. See Synamedia™ Metro Provides Winning Ticket for IPTV in this issue of World Vision.

• XSPACE. Operators can now deliver the best Internet-based video content to STBs by effective integration with their TV service.

• Advanced interactive games. Included are games deployed on DIRECTV+, Sky Italia, and BSkyB platforms as well as next generation games such as NDS XtreamPlay™. A golf game on an XTV DVR will also be featured using XTV Ready™ connectivity technology.

If you’re interested in what pay-TV subscribers, broadcasters, service providers and content providers want, visit NDS at IBC (Stand 1.171). You’ll see deployed solutions that make NDS more than just a market leader. They make NDS a world leader.

For more information:

VideoGuard     http://www.nds.com/conditional_access/conditional_access.html
XTV                http://www.nds.com/personal_tv/personal_tv.html
Synamedia      http://www.nds.com/broadband/broadband.html