Press Release

Irdeto Builds Global Momentum In Digital Media Market Company celebrates 40 year anniversary and continues to innovate

A pioneer in the pay TV industry and global leader in conditional access (CA), Irdeto has rapidly expanded its portfolio over the past few years to provide additional capabilities such as digital rights management, business support systems, set-top box software solutions, middleware, software security and broadband media services to more than 500 premier customers worldwide, enabling them to protect and monetize digital content.

With more than 95 patents and patents pending, Irdeto is on the forefront of providing industry leading changes. During the past 40 years of operation, Irdeto has been a leader in technology innovation, delivering many firsts including implementation of the very first DVB-CA system, the first IPTV deployment and the first Mobile TV CA solution.

“Irdeto is well poised to continue to build on our strong foundation and achieve global momentum through our expanded solutions and services,” said David Canellos, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Irdeto. “We remain focused on providing secure content management and distribution solutions that enable global broadcasters, carriers and content providers to reach consumers with the content they want, in the format of their choice. Today’s news is indicative of Irdeto’s global strength, and we look forward to continued success in all our key regions.”

The new SmartStart On Demand digital pay-TV platform enables cable operators and content rights owners to provide consumers with virtually unlimited entertainment options, from the latest movie releases to unlimited archived programming, all viewed on demand from the comfort of home. As with the entire family of Irdeto SmartStart end-to-end solutions, SmartStart On Demand operates on a highly customizable interface, allowing for a consistent look and feel across a secure network of set-top boxes in multiple languages.

In an effort to offer SmartStart consumers the highest quality experience across cable, satellite, terrestrial and IP networks, Irdeto is partnering with a variety of application providers including Mirada, a multi-platform operator of consumer transaction-based services, Icareus, a TV-centric interactive services provider and Visiware, a provider of games for pay television, design and development for interactive TV and turnkey solutions for user interfaces. With these partnerships, Irdeto’s SmartStart customers will experience improved revenue streams and have access to a variety of cutting-edge game, weather and news applications that encourage further interactivity and enhance the overall customer experience.

Further demonstrating Irdeto’s customer momentum, the company has announced a long-term expanded contract with Ziggo, the Netherlands’ largest cable television operator and provider of data communication, radio, TV, Internet and telephone services for consumer and business markets. Building on five years of success, the latest contract extension will feature a broad portfolio of content protection products and services, resulting in advanced television entertainment options for the operator’s subscriber base.

Currently, Ziggo connects 3.2 million homes to its analogue TV services and has over 1.4 million digital television, 1.4 million Broadband Internet and 900,000 telephony subscribers.

“Offering our Dutch customers an innovative and reliable television, Internet and telephony solution is a top priority for Ziggo, and extending our relationship with Irdeto is a testament to the company’s ability to offer the highest level of functionality and security,” said Ziggo chief technology officer Paul Hendriks. “In addition to our commitment to customers, content providers are also demanding this from Ziggo and, thanks to Irdeto, we can fulfill this need.”

To round out Irdeto’s global and regional developments, the company announced it is embarking on a new partnership for system integration with discovery sysko (syskoplan/Reply), known throughout the region for its leading digital asset management platform. Irdeto will partner with discovery sysko to develop user interfaces and provide customers with a more customized user experience. Together, the two companies will support digital content providers and owners with flexible solutions that best meet the needs of an evolving marketplace.

“Our partnership with discovery sysko reaffirms our commitment to providing innovative, customized solutions for advanced television entertainment,” added Canellos. “We look forward to leveraging the natural synergies that exist between Irdeto and such a respected player in the mobile space to offer our customers a greater range of capabilities than ever before.”

Please visit Irdeto during IBC 2009 in Amsterdam from September 11-15, Hall 1, #D51 to view live demonstrations and to meet with an Irdeto representative.

About Irdeto

Irdeto empowers companies to protect and monetize their digital assets and maximize return on content with innovative and reliable software technologies, content management and distribution solutions and end-to-end solutions and services.  The company’s products include conditional access, digital rights management, business support systems and set-top box software solutions. Through group company Cloakware, it provides software and datacenter security solutions, More than 500 customers worldwide trust Irdeto to secure and enable the delivery of their valuable content across digital broadcast, IP, mobile, enterprise and government networks. Irdeto solutions currently enable simple to advanced business models on more than one billion devices and applications.

Founded in 1969, Irdeto employs over 900 people in 25 offices across the globe, including the dual corporate headquarters in Amsterdam and Beijing. The company is a subsidiary of multinational media group Naspers (JSE: NPN), which includes a wide range of pay TV, Internet, instant-messaging, technology and publishing businesses.  For more information, please visit http://www.irdeto.com.

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