Dish TV India and SITI Cable select Conax Cardless content protection

Essel Group’s Dish TV India – Asia Pacific’s largest DTH brand – and leading MSO SITI Cable select Conax Cardless content protection for pay-TV expansion

OSLO and DELHI — Conax, part of the Kudelski Group, and a leader in total service protection for digital entertainment services worldwide via broadcast, broadband and connected devices, today announced that Dish TV India Limited, Asia Pacific’s largest DTH (direct-to-home) TV provider and SITI Cable have selected Conax (for Cardless content protection) as one of the key partners for their pay-TV expansion in the region. Based on flagship Conax Contego™ security hub, the Conax Cardless conditional access technology will be a key and essential security component integrated in the chipsets, which will enable use of multiple layers of content protection in the new Dish TV and SITI Cable cardless set-top-boxes. The arrangement signifies a continued commitment between the Essel Group and Conax to further their long-term partnership and jointly bring new generations of technology to the Group’s platforms.

Conax Cardless technology employs a unique combination of hardware security and software security providing a hardware root of trust for the best level of protection. The secure software is executed within a purpose-built hardware protected environment (Secure Execution Environment) within the chipset. The Conax Cardless technology provides seamless co-existence with legacy smart card population, all based on a single, unified back-end, meaning in any operation only one back-end is necessary.

“With the increasingly competitive landscape in the operator segment, and the need for access to premium content and at the same time keeping operational costs low, it is essential to employ flexible solutions that also offer a high level of security as we look to continue to grow our business”, says Jawahar Goel, Managing Director, Dish TV. Conax has been a long term partner and we believe their strong security solutions will provide an important layer of security to our growing pay-TV business already servicing over 13 million subscribers.”

“As we continue to advance our footprint in the Indian cable TV market and venture into digitization in phase 3 and phase 4 markets it is essential that new and cost-effective security solutions are available to us. SITI Cable is pleased to further its existing relationship with Conax and implement the Conax cardless technology going forward in our markets,” says V S Wadhwa, CEO and Executive Director of SITI Cable.

“Conax’ long term relationship and partnership with the Essel group reaches a new milestone today as we look to further strengthen both the Dish TV and Siticable platforms and help expand its customer base with a new high security, flexible and revolutionary solution, says Morten Solbakken, President and CEO, Conax. With this unique concept they are well positioned to capture additional new market share and protect the premium content demanded by savvy consumers. We are honored to work together with Essel Group in the next step of their journey.”