Fixed Mobile Convergence

NDS (News - Alert), a provider of technologies and applications for pay-TV operators, announced the launch of its next generation DRM solution for multi-platform pay-TV, VideoGuard Connect, which the company calls as the “digital rights management (DRM) for multi-platform pay-TV.”

VideoGuard Connect is designed to enable TV operators to capitalize on the opportunities presented by multi-platform pay-TV. VideoGuard Connect provides end-to-end protection of an operator’s service, utilizing the unique security capabilities of each individual platform, company officials said.

The service enables platform operators to deploy linear channels, on-demand content and download services on the most popular devices, delivered over the open Internet utilizing content delivery optimization technologies from NDS, the company said.

With VideoGuard Connect, TV operators can extend their pay-TV services to connected media devices. It enables the secure ingestion, delivery and consumption of premium content over both managed and OTT networks whilst maintaining subscription privileges across devices.

“VideoGuard Connect allows TV operators to incorporate OTT into a more compelling and complete suite of TV services without compromising the security or reliability of the platform,” said Nigel Smith, VP and chief marketing officer, NDS, in a statement.

“Highly rated by an independent security audit and approved by all of the major US studios, VideoGuard Connect enables our customers to extend their businesses into the OTT space and onto multiple devices,” Smith added.

Additionally, VideoGuard Connect enables a unified security solution for pay-TV platforms. It provides a rich roadmap and ongoing support for the introduction of new services and devices. In addition, VideoGuard Connect provides the headend tools to support integrated management and workflow functions that are needed to provide full operator control over content distribution and consumption.

VideoGuard Connect is interoperable with solutions such as the NDS Unified Headend and the NDS Service Delivery Platform. The solution provides a holistic approach to multi-platform content protection supporting the most popular devices including embedded devices, the PC, Mac, games consoles, iOS (iPad, iPhone) and Android (News - Alert) mobile and tablet devices.

The solution was selected by BSkyB, the UK and Ireland’s leading multi-channel, multi-platform television service provider, to secure their recently launched Sky Go service on iOS devices. In addition, DIRECTV, a leading provider of digital television entertainment services, has selected VideoGuard Connect to protect and enable its multi-platform OTT and home networking services.

Recently NDS announced it has joined the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) as an Associate member. NDS is the first conditional access (CA (News - Alert)) vendor to join with the immediate motive being that NDS is already involved with international cable operator Liberty Global, whose Multimedia Home Gateway (News - Alert) uses MoCA technology.

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