NDS (News - Alert), specializing in technology solutions for digital pay-TV, announced that SKY Television, a subscription based television provider in New Zealand, has selected NDS XTV DVR technology for powering its new MYSKY HDi High Definition quad tuner DVR.

 

NDS also provided an enhanced Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for the MYSKY HDi DVR besides managing the systems integration for the launch of SKY’s HD services. The new MYSKY HDi is HD and SD compatible and it offers the facility to watch one program live while simultaneously recording two shows using its multiple tuners.

 

Viewers can receive on-demand content as well. The MYSKY HDi was launched commercially on July 29, and it is capable of delivering five MPEG-4 high-definition television channels to subscribers.

 

The MYSKY HDi employs the same NDS technology as the iQ2 DVR which was launched by FOXTEL in Australia. It is understood that the two pay-TV broadcasters collaborated on the design and deployment so as to shorten the time to market.

SKY New Zealand proposes to deploy about 80,000 MYSKY HDi DVRs in the next 12 months. It is a hybrid design including satellite and IP which enables SKY to offer its subscribers access to content which can be downloaded to the set-top box using the broadband connection.

 

The new technologies used complement SKY’s usage of VideoGuard a conditional access technology from NDS. SKY relies on this technology to protect its valuable pay-TV content. VideoGuard offers protection to content to more than 86.9 million devices for pay-TV operators world wide.

 

“The combination of hundreds of hours of great HD content with unrivalled technology from NDS, enabling viewers to pause, play back, fast-forward, rewind and record, is a sure fire winner for our customers,” said Charles Ingley, SKY's director of technology. 

 

“We have relied on NDS to secure and enhance our pay-TV services for many years and have witnessed first-hand why NDS remains at the forefront of innovation. We are now taking advantage of these technologies to deliver exciting new services to our subscribers in New Zealand,” he emphasized.

 

Peter Iles, general manager of NDS Australia, added that his company was happy that its latest XTV technology and EPG design were added to SKY New Zealand’s digital entertainment service alongside VideoGuard security. The partnership with FOXTEL on this DVR and EPG design has sped up the time to market for SKY’s HD DVR service for the benefit of all its viewers. 


NDS Group is a majority owned subsidiary of News Corporation. It supplies open end-to-end digital technology and services to digital pay-television platform operators and content providers. 

 

SKY Television is viewed in several New Zealand homes through digital satellite network and UHF. SKY is a pay television operator, offering a wide range of sports, movies, music, on-demand and general content across more than 100 channels. 

Shamila Janakiraman is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Shamila’s articles, please visit her columnist page.