Viaccess announces CI Plus support with Neotion at IBC 2009

IBC, Amsterdam

PARIS — Viaccess, a France Telecom (Paris and NYSE: FTE) company, leader in conditional access and Neotion, the leading provider of highly-sophisticated System-on-a-Chip (SoC) MPEG-4 processors today announced the support for Common Interface+ (CI Plus) on Conditional Access Modules (CAMs). A demonstration of Viaccess CI Plus commitment with Neotion will be displayed during the IBC 09 Forum (Sept 11- Sept 15, Booth 1.A51).

The founders of the CI Plus LLP and CAM manufacturers are driving market development of the new CI Plus standard that implements both a sophisticated protection mechanism between the CAM and the digital television receiver as well as advanced interactive capabilities. CI Plus adds essential user experience and significantly enhanced security means to the DVB-CI Standard, being richer user interface controlled by the operator, strong copy-protection for HDTV, and numerous tools to maintain a vertical control on devices accesses.

“Neotion & Viaccess have begun a cooperative work for a CI Plus module launch. The Neotion experience in CI+ technology combined with Viaccess leading edge conditional access solutions results in an appealing CI+ solution for the demanding operators,” said François Moreau de Saint Martin, VIACCESS CEO. ” We are looking forward to expand our partnership with Neotion and have a long term and fruitful cooperation.”

“Neotion is an active member of the CI-Plus LLP as one of the six stakeholders. We are today the leading advanced CI modules specialist to match customers’ new aspiration leading towards Multiroom, Hybrid VOD, catch-up TV, TV 2.0, etc..,” said Loic Bernard, Neotion CEO. “Our collaboration with Viaccess is key because it will drastically change the way the whole Pay TV experience gets deployed in a TV centric market pattern.”