Nagravision selected as CAS supplier for Tivù Sat

Monday, February 23rd, 2009
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  • TivùSat free-to-air satellite service is scheduled for market introduction in June of 2009
  • New TivùSat service insures uninterrupted delivery of all leading Italian free-to-air channels across the country during and after analog switch off
  • To protect content rights and keep programming viewed in Italian territory, channels will be scrambled and access protected by Nagravision conditional access system

CHESEAUX, Switzerland — Nagravision, a Kudelski Group (SWX:KUD) company and the world’s leading independent provider of value-added content protection solutions, will provide the conditional access system (CAS) for Tivu Sat. Tivu Sat is the free-to-air (FTA) satellite service jointly owned by Italian broadcasters RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media.

Scheduled for market introduction in June of 2009, the free service will be offered to all households unable to receive the digital terrestrial television (DTT) FTA channels during and after the analog terrestrial switch off that is planned for completion by the end of 2012. Channels available on the new Tivu Sat set-top box are the same as the ones viewed free today on DTT set-top boxes. Channels include RAI 1, RAI 2, RAI 3, RAI 4, CANALE 5, ITALIA 1, RETE 4, LA7, BOING, IRIS, along with many others., The Tivu Sat channels will be scrambled with Nagravision and decoded with smartcards to enforce the rights of sports and movies suppliers, thus ensuring that content shall not be viewed outside of the Italian territory.

“Nagravision with its industry leading CAS solution and overall market expertise was the logical choice for this project,” said Alberto Sigismondi CEO at Tivu. “They have demonstrated that whether supporting services with thousands of subscribers or hundred of thousands of subscribers, their content protection services scale as needed.”

It’s estimated that up to two million families may require the TivuSat set-top boxes as a consequence of the analog switch off. The retail price of the smartcard, though not currently defined, is expected to remain low, while covering the cost of the cards. No subscription fees will be charged to the consumer and there is no expiration date on the smartcard.

“The analog switch off is coming, and yet, millions of households will require support and services to keep their analog sets receiving signals,” said Carlo Stramaglia, Head of Nagravision Italy. “It’s an honor to be selected for this ambitious project and to play a key role in keeping services available to these families.”