NDS, Cignal Battle Piracy

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today reiterated that its market-leading conditional access (CA) technology, NDS VideoGuard® continues to successfully protect Mediascape, the Philippines’ premier digital satellite pay-TV provider, ensuring that the service remains unaffected by piracy.

Mediascape has a complete end-to-end solution from NDS centred around NDS VideoGuard conditional access, which secures over 60 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms worldwide and 111 million active devices, plus NDS MediaHighway® set-top box software and an NDS customised electronic programme guide (EPG).

Benjie Fernandez, Managing Director, Mediascape, said “Our Cignal Digital TV service has had a strong start and is now the fastest growing pay-TV platform in the country. On the back of this strong growth, and with our service secured by NDS, we are planning to launch new services that will increase Cignal’s value proposition to our subscribers and further enhance our profitability. These new services are made possible by NDS technology.”

According to CASBAA, the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia, pay-TV piracy in Thailand and Pakistan continues to undermine market growth. In the Philippines, revenue leakage from piracy costs the government approximately US$39 million per year and is an ongoing issue which seriously affects operators’ revenues and their potential to grow their subscriber base.

Mediascape is actively combating piracy using NDS technology. In less than 7 months, Mediascape have shut down 60 illegal rebroadcasting operations. NDS has been at the forefront of the fight against pay-TV piracy for two decades and has a zero-tolerance policy on piracy. As well as continuing to ensure that its technologies are resistant to hacking, NDS actively works with both legislative bodies and law enforcement agencies to ensure that its customers’ content and platforms remain unaffected by piracy.

Simon Twiston-Davies, CEO, CASBAA, said: “Through its on-going technical solutions, NDS is an important contributor to the protection of content and revenues in Asia and the rest of the world.”

Sue Taylor, NDS Senior Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific, commented: “Mediascape is at the forefront of the fight against piracy in the Philippines. NDS continues to work actively to combat piracy and in turn to ensure Mediascape continues to enjoy zero piracy on its platform.”