Irdeto Leads Southeast Asia's Pay-TV Conditional Access Market

Region’s migration to Digital TV and strong growth momentum account for company’s dominance

HONG KONG – CASBAA 2008 — Irdeto, a subsidiary of multinational media group Naspers (JSE: NPN), and a leading expert in content and business model protection solutions and services, has the largest market share of new pay-TV subscribers in South-east Asia’s conditional access (CA) market according to leading independent research firm Media Partners Asia. An estimated two million new subscribers were added to the region’s fast-growing digital TV sector with more than 65 percent protected by Irdeto technology. This firmly positions Irdeto in the number one spot as the market leader in Southeast Asia’s CA industry, with an overall 64 percent market share.

According to Media Partners Asia, the pay-TV sector is expected to grow rapidly as the wave of digital TV continues to surge unabated throughout the region. Emerging countries such as Indonesia and Thailand are expected to see strong growth momentum in this sector over the next 10 years. The digital pay-TV penetration rate in Indonesia should grow from 1.8% to 16.3% by 2017 while the penetration rate in Thailand is expected to grow from 3.5% to 8.7%.

Mirroring the trend in the region’s pay-TV market, Irdeto has seen a sevenfold increase in its South-east Asian customer base during the past three years. These Southeast Asian operators are leveraging Irdeto’s proven solutions to protect their revenues, speed-up their ability to offer differentiated services and grow their business’ bottom line.

One significant Irdeto partnership in the booming Thailand market is with Truevisions, one of the fastest growing operators in the region, with over one million current subscribers and an additional 700,000 new customers projected in the remainder of 2008. Irdeto successfully delivered its PVR solution, in collaboration with OpenTV and Humax, enabling TrueVisions’ subscribers to experience enhanced features like content recording and playback and the ability to pause live content.

“This is an exciting time for Irdeto and our industry as countries in Southeast Asia embrace the digital TV era. Our recent customer wins reflect our solid reputation as the ‘go-to’ provider for secure conditional access technology,” said GrahamKill, CEO of Irdeto. “Drawing from our intimate knowledge of content protection, value generation and customer support, Irdeto is well-placed to help both emerging and large broadcasters in this fast-growing region to improve their operational efficiencies, and realize the full revenue potential of pay-TV.”