Innovation as the basis of future income

For Nagravision, innovation goes far beyond the technology aspect. It is also a creative approach adopted throughout the value chain, including offers made by Nagravision to its customers or solutions that the company proposes to operators to enable them to maximize their own services.

The ability of the Kudelski Group and Nagravision to perpetually reinvent itself has enabled it to successfully accompany the technological revolutions and changing consumer habits. From a manufacturer of professional portable tape recorders, it has become a provider of integrated digital TV solutions.

Although investments in developing new technologies are costly, they are also the key to over 56 years of longevity. Investments in research and innovation have been progressively intensified, even in periods of unfavorable market conditions. The emphasis on the medium and long term is the key to success.

This philosophy remains more relevant than ever. Nagravision is currently running particularly ambitious R&D programs, whose positive effects will be felt throughout the coming years. These programs include the development of security and access control systems, two essential aspects of the Kudelski Group’s core business.

Two new product lines, the Nagravision Mobile and IPTV solutions, illustrate the potential of these efforts. In no more than two years, these solutions have set the standard for television on mobile devices, making Nagravision a pioneer and market leader in the mobile pay television DVB-H world (deployments approaching 1.2 million units). Additionally, Nagravision has strongly invested in the development of solutions based on the US MediaFLO and Chinese STiMi standards.

In terms of fundamental security technology, the year 2007 was marked by the roll-out of two new families of security solutions for digital television. These are very important steps for the long-term protection of content distributed by our operator customers and for the development of the Nagravision’s product portfolio. These new technologies offer optimum security levels to considerably reduce the risk of simultaneous security attacks over geographically distant networks.

Other developments also have an impact on how these contents are consumed. On demand services, digital video recorders and interactive program management enabling the viewing of pre-recorded content have emerged and have brought about a new freedom for the user. For operators, these new features have added substantial value to the content offered.

With these changes, the traditional market has soared to reach an ever larger and more diversified public and to integrate concepts coming from other ecosystems such as new media and the Internet.

For example, convergence of TV and PC is one of the major innovations introduced during the past year, providing additional growth to Nagravision’s solutions portfolio.

The new Experience

The next stages of the evolution are already taking shape. Internet gives mass access to a multitude of specialized content and allows users to increasingly customize their consumption and their browsing environment according to their personal tastes and habits. These users can finally combine passive and active consumption modes. Researchers speak of a “new experience”, a trend that, in the logic of convergence, already has repercussions on the world of television.

In the field of television also, interactivity and content personalization are going to occupy a growing place. Targeted interactive advertising will play an important role, as is already the case in the Internet world.

The Kudelski Group and Nagravision have held the vision of this “new experience” for many years. The most recent developments and stake acquisitions, such as those taken in OpenTV, confirm this strategy and enable the Group to stay one step ahead of evolving market needs.