Technicolor reaches 100 million digital set-top box milestone

Technicolor, formerly Thomson, a worldwide leader of services to content creators, has reached the milestone of delivering 100 million digital set-top boxes over multi networks since it entered the market in 1994.

Technicolor’s success is largely thanks to the contracts it has won with major clients in a global marketplace. In North America, Technicolor’s first digital satellite STB customer, DIRECTV remains a loyal customer today. In Latin America, Technicolor provides set-top boxes to key players including DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Brazil and Sky Mexico, while in Europe, it has nurtured relationships with leading names including UPC Broadband and News Corp. affiliates such as BSkyB, as well as HOT, in the Middle East, and Astro of Malaysia and Tata Sky in the Asia-Pacific.

For many of its global customers, Technicolor has established long-term relationships and garnered repeat business thanks to its ongoing product evolution for all technology platforms, including digital cable, satellite television, terrestrial broadcasting and IPTV.

For the full press release, click here.

New white paper expose security risks within next-generation set-top boxes

Consumer demand for media-rich home entertainment services is driving innovation and new revenue opportunities in the set-top box (STB) industry. Next-generation STBs will integrate video content from multiple signal sources such as broadcast television, premium video-on-demand and Internet-based services, provide value-added capabilities like time-shifting, and allow content to be distributed to a variety of viewing devices including multi-room TV networks, personal computers, portable media players and other mobile devices.

Cloakware's latest whitepaper, Security Impacts of Next-Generation Set-Top Boxes, describes the market and technology trends that are influencing set-top box designs and explains how advanced features are creating new content security challenges for set-top box manufacturers. This paper is intended for product and business managers, security architects, development managers and other technical staff who are directly involved in the specification, design and development of advanced set-top boxes.

This white paper is available for download at: http://security.cloakware.com/whitepapers/set-top-box-security/intro.php

Cable Europe and Screen Digest release digital cable TV subscribers numbers

Customer subscriptions for digital cable TV jumped 18 percent to 16.3 million across Europe in the first half of this year, as subscribers migrate to enhanced services.

Figures published by Cable Europe, the cable industry association representing operators reaching more than 70m households, and compiled by Screen Digest, the media market analysts, revealed a record growth for the European cable industry in digital television.

Cable Europe, the cable industry association representing operators reaching more than 70 million households, welcomed the figures as evidence that cable platforms can attract new customers for digital TV, internet and telephony services.

Manuel Kohnstamm, President of Cable Europe, said: “Demand for digital services is showing that customers are upgrading their older analogue services faster than ever. The new digital services enable the industry to provide a richer audience experience.”

Of Europe’s largest pay-TV markets, Screen Digest reported 32 percent growth in Germany to 3.4 million customers; 12 percent in France and Spain to 1.6 million and 1.05 million customers respectively; a 15 percent increase in the Netherlands to 1.8 million; and 3 percent growth to 3.36 million customers in the highly competitive UK market.

The growth rates in digital TV services were broadly mirrored in cable internet and cable telephony, which rose 6.7 percent and 9.2 percent respectively for Europe as a whole between the end of 2007 and June 30, 2008.Rising digital demand contrasted with a 5 percent decline in analogue cable TV services in the first half of the year, according to Screen Digest’s figures.