Microsoft and Nagravision Team Up for Digital Pay-TV

[Aquanox]

Nagravision, the world's leading independent provider of value-added content protection solutions, and Microsoft Corp. announced today a joint commitment to enable technology solutions that help provide the secure reception of digital pay-TV programs on personal computers and devices running Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Nagravision and Microsoft will work together to enable the development of cost-effective products and services that use both parties' technologies for the delivery of premium television content to personal computers running the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system and its ecosystem of connected devices, including Xbox 360 and Portable Media Centers. The agreement includes a plan for joint marketing and business development activities.

The convergence of pay-TV and personal computers brings new business opportunities for content owners, network operators, electronic devices manufacturers, retailers and technology providers. A critical piece needed to fully capitalize on this convergence and enable compelling end-user scenarios for the delivery of high-value digital content is the availability of a solid, scalable conditional access (CA) to Windows Media Digital Rights Management technical solution. Such a CA-to-DRM bridge solution narrows the gap between the pay-TV platform and the increasing number of Media Center PCs and their connected digital devices.

"This relationship allows our customers to increase their options for content distribution within the home and capitalize on the emergence of their subscribers' expectations to access content on any device," said Pierre Roy, Nagravision's chief operating officer. "In fact this CA-to-DRM bridge links the best of both worlds: Nagravision's proven CA technology for content delivery and Microsoft's home network concept for distribution within the home."

"We're tremendously excited to work with such an industry leader to further the vision of digital entertainment anywhere," said Rick Thompson, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Windows Client Extended Platforms. "This partnership will help the industry enable authorized distribution of premium TV content to Media Center PCs and a variety of connected retails devices, benefiting both consumers and network operators."

Today at IBC2005, Microsoft and Nagravision are demonstrating the first results of their collaboration: a proof-of-concept device, implemented on Microsoft's reference design by Digital Keystone Inc. This demo shows CANAL+ Group's TV programs being securely broadcasted through Nagravision's conditional access system before being securely "bridged" into Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) content protection technology to enable authorized access on Windows Media Center PCs and their ecosystem of connected devices. This Nagravision CA-to-DRM bridge, shown on Nagravision's booth #1.420, supports current business models and enables quality-perfect, authorized access of premium TV content. It allows network operators to take advantage of the innovation around media consumption on Media Center PCs and their entire ecosystem of connected devices.

Source: TeamXbox