Nagravision Selected by HD+ in Germany

CHESEAUX, Switzerland — Nagravision, a Kudelski Group division/company (SIX:KUD), announced on August 28 that HD PLUS GmbH, an SES ASTRA company, selected a Nagra Media turnkey end-to-end conditional access system (CAS) to support the operator’s new high definition (HD) offering in Germany. Named HD+, the SES ASTRA service will deliver HD programmes to TV households and is scheduled to launch in late autumn. This selection expands the companies’ already ongoing relationship.

“The Nagra Media solution provides outstanding broadcast security. It enables us to offer the technical services for programming diversity and flexible business models especially tailored to broadcasters and consumers needs,” said Wilfried Urner, Managing Director of the newly founded ASTRA operating unit HD PLUS GmbH in Unterföhring near Munich. “With HD+, we will create new possibilities for TV channels in the growth area of HD and help to increase the programming provided to TV viewers. HD+ lays a new base for the reception of highly valuable HD programmes.”

The first commercial channels to be carried by the HD+ service are RTL and VOX, which will start to broadcast their HD programmes in autumn this year. In January 2010, the channels Sat.1, ProSieben and kabel eins will follow. Presently ten leading set-top box manufacturers have engaged with Nagravision to begin the integration and certification processes clearly demonstrating their support for the HD+ business model.

The HD content requires signal protection and digital rights management enabled through encryption. Receiver manufacturers will offer Nagravision enabled HD+ smart cards with their set-top boxes to decrypt the HD programming for home viewers. This model has proven to work well for both consumers and operators in regions or countries such as Italy and the UK.

“Nagravision’s innovative solutions enable operators to offer attractive services contributing to a horizontal retail market. We’ve seen repeatedly in multiple deployments and regions how attractive a smart card / set-top box combination can be to consumers eager to adopt digital technology. The technology provided by Nagravision will allow SES ASTRA to offer HD TV in Germany – an obvious added value to consumers because it makes television more attractive,” said Pierre Roy, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Nagravision. “Nagravision is ready to deal with a large number of requests from set-top box manufacturers and we will continue working with any manufacturer at fair and non-discriminatory terms.”