The Hindu Business Line : Irdeto bets on India’s growing digital TV market

New Delhi, March 21 Irdeto, the Amsterdam-headquartered content-security provider for broadcast, broadband and mobile environments, is for the first time offering end-to-end solutions starting with its customers in India.

In addition to its security solutions, it’s offering middleware, or the set-top box core necessary to access services, and customer care and billing solutions to pay TV platforms, such as DTH and digital cable.

The large TV market and its move towards digitisation, and the fast growing subscriber base of Direct-to-Home players, at least three of whom are Irdeto’s clients, is set to make the country the most important in the APAC region for the company in a few years.

While DTH provides for 70 per cent of its revenues, Irdeto also sees a good opportunity in cable. “It is amazing how many standalone cable operators want to follow MSO and voluntarily digitise their service. We get requests from areas such as Siliguru, Nagpur, Assam,” said Mr Sanjiv Kainth, Country Manager, India, and Head, South Asia. Clients already include MSOs such as Hathway, Sumangali Cable in Chennai, the Kolkata-based MSO Manthan, and Seven Star in Mumbai amongst others.

The company also provides solutions at the broadcasters’ end, and its list of clients include NDTV, Sahara, TV Today and Sun as well as new channels from UTV, INX and Bag.

The company’s CEO, Mr Graham Kill, has relocated to Beijing, making the city a second headquarter for the company. It is a reflection of the growing importance of the APAC market. And India could soon outpace China, predicts Mr Kainth.

Declining to share revenue figures, he said business had grown 100 per cent, and was expected to maintain the same growth rates the coming financial year. Plus he pointed out, “Pay TV is greatly dependent on content, and India has a much greater advantage.”

Double headcount

The content security provider, which started with just a handful of people has customers care, sales and engineering team, and Mr Kainth is expecting to double headcount in six months. Irdeto, is now also offering mobile TV solutions for DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) phones. Mobile TV, it believes is all set to take off as soon as the policy is decided.

“With telcos ramping up at the rate of 7-8 million, and with much of that audience being a “young” population, the opportunity is huge,” said Mr Kainth. According to a survey it conducted in Korea, 60 per cent of mobile TV users were watching television not while on the move, but at home, as a private viewing of the content.

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