Nagravision and Mediaset renew contract to support growth of Italy's Digital Terrestrial Pay TV Business

(24 feb 2009) - The Kudelski Group today announced that Mediaset has extended its contract with Nagravision. The renewed partnership demonstrates the companies continued success in the Italian digital terrestrial television (DTT) Pay TV business. At present, Mediaset Premium has over 2.7 million active users representing more than 400 million Euros revenue in 2008. The flexibility of Nagravision's conditional access solution allows Mediaset to support current and new business models.

'Nagravision has been a valuable partner since 2004. They have helped us to grow our Pay TV business with a clever mix of technology know-how and market experience,' said Franco Ricci Managing Director at RTI. 'As we continue to offer new services, we are confident that Nagravision's solution will exceed our expectations and provide us with ever more ways to satisfy our customers' demands.'

Using Nagravision's conditional access system configured for the various services Mediaset would like to offer, Mediaset Premium is moving from a pure impulse pay-per-view (IPPV) model to a combination of IPPV and Easy Pay subscription plans. In the IPPV model, consumers purchase pre-paid cards with limited credit that can be recharged. The pre-paid, anonymous smartcards particularly suit the retail market as logistic and operational costs can be limited. By adding Easy Pay subscription plans, consumers can select from offers that range from 10 to 24 Euros per month. The 24 Euro offer includes a full package with kids, gallery and football programming. Consumers can enjoy a variety of services, while Mediaset gains a steady stream of monthly subscribers.

'Mediaset is taking the next step in offering its customers more choices to pay for their premium TV services. Our CAS solution can be configured in a variety of ways to support their current requirements and scale for their future plans,' said Thierry Legrand, VP of Sales SMEA at Nagravision. 'We look forward to continuing our work with Mediaset and assisting with DTT Pay TV growth in this region.'

Working closely with Mediaset, Nagravision will ensure support for the DTT Pay TV growth during the Italian analog TV switch-off. The gradual switch-off of the analog TV will allow Mediaset to target a wide area of the population for its Pay TV Premium service. During this process Nagravision will support Mediaset in scaling the system to accommodate all new active subscribers.