Broadcasting

February 7, 2007
Digital TV boosts Conditional Access Technologies

SCOTTSDALE -- The strong worldwide growth of digital TV services is driving demand for conditional access (CA) products and technologies, reported In-Stat. At the end of 2006, there were over 175 million households watching digital TV services, the high-tech market research firm said. While the growth of digital TV households is certainly good news for pay-TV service providers, it also poses an important challenge: How to protect their valuable video content from piracy or illegal usage.

"The common industry solution to this challenge is through the use of conditional access technologies," said Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. "CA technologies can protect video content by specifying that certain criteria be met before a viewer is granted access to that content."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• CA product revenues have been increasing steadily and were projected to reach US $937 million at year-end 2006;
• NDS Group plc, a subsidiary of News Corporation, is the world's leading CA vendor. NDS currently has 35 peercent of the total worldwide CA market;
• The emerging Telco TV / IPTV market segment is becoming a key proving ground for a number of recent CA technology start-ups companies;
• Worldwide pay-TV industry CA revenues are forecasted to reach US $1.5 billion in 2010.