NDS PVR Technology in More than 10 Million Set-Top Boxes

NDS started developing PVR technology in 1998, but deployment picked up speed when DirecTV, then a sister News Corp. subsidiary, dropped TiVo for the NDS XTV platform in 2005. NDS PVR technology also has been installed in about two million BSkyB receivers in the U.K. and has been deployed in Sky Italia and Measat Broadcast Network Systems. Measat operates the Astro pay-TV service in Malaysia. Measat also recently signed an agreement to add NDS VideoGuard conditional access by fall, replacing Kudelski Group’s Nagravision system, company officials said.

The PVR technology is combined in NDS’ Metro platform with conditional access, middleware and electronic program guide technology. Metro is being launched as part of SES Americom’s IP Prime satellite-based IPTV service. IP Prime, which is being distributed through the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), began a limited rollout last year. Among those marketing the 300-channel IP Prime have been NRTC members CenCom, Jackson, Neb.; Cheyenne River Tribe Telephone Authority, Eagle Butte, S.D.; and Home Communications, Galva, Kan. But Yelcot Telephone, Yellville, Ark., is expected in the next few weeks to be among the first to introduce the service through a local headend linked to SES Americom’s uplink/national authorization center in Vernon Valley, N.J., said Dan DeHaan, NDS principal systems engineer. The Yelcot service, which also provides voice and DSL, will use Amino set-top boxes including a PVR model with a 160 GB hard drive, DeHaan said. The Metro platform also is being tested in Europe without the Caller ID and emergency alert features that are available with the U.S. version, DeHaan said.

SES Americom also is expected to be among those deploying NDS’ USB memory stick-based VideoGuard key to IP Prime customers later this year, Tranter said. The VideoGuard key, which was initially available in 1 GB configurations through Israel-based satellite service provider Yes, is essentially a USB-based DRM-protected smartcard that allows for the transfer of content between devices. Disney has used NDS’ conditional access technology in the SD USB memory stick titles that are available for the company’s Mix Max portable video player, Tranter said.

HD Radio receivers with NDS conditional access built into iBiquity Digital’s processor chip are expected to start production in the spring, said Dov Rubin, vice president and general manager of NDS Americas. The receivers will be available at retail by mid-year, he said. “Generally, HD Radios have not taken off like they expected, but now that the new chip is in production we expect that to grow,” Rubin said. “One of things that needs to be done is educating the radio public that conditional access doesn’t mean it’s pay radio. What we're trying to explain to them is there are many uses for making money such as targeted advertising. It’s not pay radio that we're trying to introduce through a back door, but rather the ability to use radio effectively.”

The NDS software platform for DirecTV’s broadband- connected HR20 and HR21 set-tops is being deployed as part of a video-on-demand service. DirecTV On Demand launched last fall in beta and is expected to be widely available by early Q2, a DirecTV spokesman said. The VoD service offers about 2,000 movies priced $1.99 to $4.99, he said. The hard drive- based HR20 and HR21 receivers have capacity for 100 and 200 hours of MPEG-4 video, respectively. DirecTV On Demand uses NDS encryption technology, Rubin said. “There are a lot of complexities with having to forward video-on-demand movies because it has to be pre-encrypted,” he said. “So we came up with a technology that allows them to do that and have the movies play back in the home.”