Kudelski reports 2015 half year results

CHESEAUX, Switzerland — The Kudelski Group (SIX: KUD.S), a leading provider of media content protection and value-added service technology, announced today its 2015 half year results.

FURTHER WINS IN CORE DIGITAL TV MARKETS

The Group entered into several new contracts and completed new deployments in the digital TV segment In Europe, the ongoing service provider consolidation trend is confirming NAGRA’s role as platform of choice for the merged entities.

Altice Group has confirmed NAGRA’s strategic supplier position through a framework agreement allowing Altice to benefit from NAGRA’s latest generation of security solution for all types of devices and all types of broadband networks. NUMERICABLE-SFR Group has selected Medialive Secure Player as a multiscreen solution to seamlessly deliver its TV services across all devices (incl. mobile phones, tablets).

The MediaLive-powered “Yomvi by Movistar+” platform is now being rolled out to Telefonica’s existing subscribers. The Yomvi service has extensively proven MediaLive’s scalability to the peak concurrency required by mainstream live sports events with a record of half a million unique devices for a Real Madrid-Barcelona soccer match.

Highlights from emerging markets include:

• DishTV, one of India’s largest satellite operators with 26% market share and a long standing OpenTV customer, is launching push VOD services in August relying on an end-to-end Kudelski Group solution.
• GTPL Hathway Private Limited, a major pan Indian cable MSO, crossed the one million subscriber mark on the anyCAST platform and selected an OpenTV solution for deployment in 2015. Also in India, the HITS NXT Digital platform is launching in August with pre-integrated anyCAST content security and OpenTV middleware.
• NAGRA anyCAST has been selected to protect the new DTT platform of Canal+ Africa.
• Continental Satellite Limited (CONSAT) in Nigeria will, after a successful launch in 2014 using anyCAST content protection and following the continued adoption of the service in Nigeria, enhance its CONSAT TV satellite service with SmarDTV CAM modules.
• Securing over 10 million active devices and 40 DTH Cable, Terrestrial and IPTV operators across Latin America, Conax continued its LATAM growth with two new contracts in the region. In addition, the new Conax multi-DRM solution was deployed in the Caribbean with additional solutions under deployment in the Americas. The Conax partnership with Chinese operator StarTimes continued to evolve around new DTT deployments as well as next generation consumer propositions in China and Africa.

DEPLOYMENTS OF NEXT GENERATION TECHNOLOGIES

In this first half, the Group’s iDTV units completed first deployments of next generation technologies including 4K (ultra-high definition) video transmission, all-IP fiber networks, Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) and Wi-Fi Conditional Access Modules (CAM).

At Skylife in South Korea, NAGRA’s studio-endorsed 4K-ready anyCAST content protection secures the world’s first live 4K UHD satellite offer.

Starhub launched an IPTV service on their all-IP fiber network leveraging NAGRA’s MediaLive, OpenTV 5 connectware and anyCAST content protection solutions to seamlessly deploy their latest digital TV offering across multiple network types.

The DISH Anywhere multiscreen service leverages the MediaLive Secure Player to enable DAI and audience measurement for VOD services, capabilities that are increasingly important for content licensing from the major studios.

Mediaset enjoyed a successful commercial launch of the first CI Plus Wi-Fi CAM offering both Mediaset Premium broadcast services and Mediaset Premium Play broadband services in one single module. SmarDTV’s innovative Wi-Fi enabled Premium SMART CAM turns every digital TV into a “Smart TV” controlled by Android or iOS devices.

INTEGRATED SECURITY, CONNECTWARE AND MULTI-SCREEN BUNDLES GAINING TRACTION

End-to-end solutions based on ready-to-deploy bundles of anyCAST security, OpenTV5 connectware and MediaLive multiscreen are seeing increasing market traction in Asia and Latin America:

• VTVCab in Vietnam launches a range of basic and advanced cable services based on NAGRA anyCAST and Conax Contego security with OpenTV5 connectware unlocking the advanced services and MediaLive underpinning the OTT services. SmarDTV’s CI+ CAMs are enabling a direct-to-TV solution with Samsung Electronics.
• América Móvil Colombia is launching a cable platform based on anyCAST security, OpenTV5 connectware and MediaLive OTT services.
• C&W Panamá’s next generation payTV and multiscreen service features a rich and seamless cross-device user experience through a turn-key solution enabling fast deployment of advanced digital TV services.

JOINING FORCES WITH ECHOSTAR IN THE SET-TOP BOX SPACE

In May, SmarDTV completed the acquisition of Echostar’s European set-top box operations, thereby extending the Group’s set-top box portfolio with a feature-rich set of gateways and set-top boxes. Concurrently with the acquisition of these entities, EchoStar acquired 22.5% of SmarDTV’s capital.