Paris, Cheseaux, Switzerland, March 12th, 2004 - Top Up TV has chosen Mediaguard, Nagra France's conditional access system, to equip all of its set top boxes.
Top Up TV, a new service expected to launch in March, will offer ten of the best UK TV channels for a no-ties month-to-month subscription of just £7.99, plus a one-off £20 connection fee.
Top Up TV's channel line-up includes UK Gold, E4, Cartoon Network, Discovery, UK Style, UK Food, Bloomberg, Boomerang, Discovery Home and Leisure and Turner Classic Movies plus the option of the adult service Television X Channel, which will be available as an additional service. The services will be broadcast across Top Up TV's five 24-hour video channels.
Top Up TV will use the former ITV Digital boxes equipped with Mediaguard which are still deployed in UK TV homes. In the coming months, Mediaguard will also be ported on additional set-top boxes allowing access to the Top-Up TV service offering. These boxes will be sold on the UK retail market.
All Freeview customers need to do to receive Top Up TV is check their set top box has a slot for a viewing card and then call the subscription hotline or register online at www.topuptv.com. The set-top boxes of former ITV Digital subscribers will be automatically upgraded with the latest version of Mediaguard upon activation.
Top Up TV deputy chairman, Ian West said: "A secure conditional access system and quick time-to-market deployment are critical to the success of our venture. By choosing Mediaguard, we benefit both from Nagra France's expertise in digital terrestrial TV networks and from the base of former ITV Digital boxes already deployed in the UK. This is a win-win solution for us."
Pierre Roy, Chairman of Nagra France and Chief Operating Officer of the Kudelski Group's Digital TV services said: "Top Up TV's choice of Mediaguard is a clear demonstration of the value of this technology for terrestrial operators. Their endorsement underlines the Kudelski Group's leadership in the provision of open conditional access system solutions for digital television operators worldwide."
The conditional access system designed by Nagra France for Top Up TV includes a distributed network architecture, with the Subscriber Authorisation System located in Edinburgh and the multiplexer in London.
Pioneering digital terrestrial television worldwide, Mediaguard premiered in the UK in 1999 with the launch of On Digital.
About Nagra France
Nagra France is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Kudelski Group, the world leading provider of conditional access solutions for digital TV operators and content providers.
Nagra France develops and markets the Mediaguard conditional access system. Mediaguard has been a leader in the Digital TV Conditional Access market since 1996. Its customers include satellite, cable, terrestrial and ADSL operators such as the Canal+ Group, Astro (Malaysia), Orbit (Middle East) and BGCTV (China).
Kudelski SA is traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX "KUD") and is listed on the SMI (Swiss Market Index). It is also included in the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) Index.
For more information, please contact :
Top Up TV:
Anna Gibson ([email protected])
+44 (0) 208 8834 1034
Nagra France:
Marie-Vincente Pasdeloup ([email protected])
Tel : +33 1 71 71 56 32
www.nagra.fr