Irdeto Access, a world leader in content security and subsidiary of multinational media group Naspers, announced that 2004 was a year of strong performance. During its last financial year, 1 April 2004-31 March 2005, key players in the broadcast, IPTV and mobile industries worldwide chose Irdeto Access' content protection solutions.
Fifty new customers selected Irdeto Access to protect their premium programming against piracy during last financial year. These are both large and medium-sized content providers in IPTV, cable, satellite, terrestrial and mobile. This brought the company's client base to 174 worldwide on 31 March 2005.
Key global client wins include TeliaSonera Sweden (IPTV), Essent, Casema, Multikabel, Intrakabel (DVB Cable) and Telecom Italia Media (DVB Terrestrial). ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines with operations worldwide, adopted Irdeto PIsys for Digital TV to secure their Pay TV content, replacing its incumbent system in Europe and Australia.
In its last financial year, Irdeto Access reinforced its position as a global leader in content security. It established a Latin American regional headquarters in Sao Paolo, Brazil. In South Asia, the company opened a sales and customer support office in New Delhi, India and expanded its presence in China with a new Beijing development center. As a result of this investment, Irdeto Access saw a dramatic increase in the adoption of its solutions in emerging markets like Latin America, signing deals with leading companies such as StarOne, Hispamar and TVN Chile.
"Our excellent performance in the 2004-2005 financial year reflects our drive to offer solutions and business models that truly generate content revenue and result in a high level of customer growth and satisfaction," said Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto Access. "Our recent acquisition of LockStream Corporation's assets gives us a strong foothold in the wireless market, providing a sound portfolio of diverse content protection tools, helping service providers increase their subscriber base and ultimately their revenues."
In addition to Irdeto Access' significant growth and customer wins, the company exhibited its leadership through a number of other key accomplishments in FY 2004-2005:
-- Irdeto Access acquired the assets of LockStream, a leading provider of mobile Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, based in Seattle, Washington. The resulting line of products represents a complete selection of content security solutions for the mobile market based on the OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) standards
-- The company launched the Irdeto Epsilon Card with FlexiFlash technology. This revolutionary new product offers operators an alternative to physical smart card swaps, allowing software to be securely updated over the air after cards have already been deployed
-- Irdeto Access unveiled Irdeto PIsys for IPTV with Irdeto SoftClient, a software-based content security solution for Broadband IP networks
-- The company was included in a recent report from Digital Tech Consulting, titled "The Business of Digital Copyright." Irdeto Access received a "grade A" rating and was described as "well integrated into (the) international content-security landscape."
For further information on Irdeto Access and its content security solutions, please visit
www.irdetoaccess.com.