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NDS Group is a DRM and conditional access firm. Its major shareholders are Permira, who hold 51%, and News Corporation who hold approximately 49%. The company is headquartered in Staines, United Kingdom. The CEO of NDS is Abe Peled.

Its major product is the VideoGuard conditional access system, which is used on most of News Corporation's digital satellite TV systems. It is also used on many non-News Corp systems. In addition, VideoGuard is used in broadband IPTV, mobile solutions and cable. New solutions to secure content on PCs, PMPs and other devices have recently been displayed at CES and IBC.

As of 31 March 2007, there are more than 70 million active VideoGuard smart cards. NDS also makes the XTV PVR–DVR, which has been cumulatively deployed in more than 6.5 million set-top boxes. XTV is more commonly identifiable under the names Sky+ (in BSkyB) and DirecTV+ (in DirecTV). NDS has deployed or activated more than 50 million set-top boxes with its MediaHighway middleware.

NDS also supplies interactive TV applications, platforms, and development tools. NDS has over 3000 employees, with offices in the UK, Israel, India, United States, France, Denmark, South Korea, China, Hong Kong and Australia.

Leading customers include DirecTV (in the USA), BSkyB, Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland, SKY Latin America, SKY Network Television (in New Zealand), Viasat (in Sweden, Norway & Denmark),TotalTV, Foxtel (in Australia), China Central Television (CCTV), Yes and Hot (in Israel), SkyLife, CanalSat (in France), Astro (in Malaysia), Cablevision (in the USA), Tata Sky, Airtel, Hathway and Den (in India).

Profile and history

NDS offices in Har-Hotzvim high-tech park, Jerusalem

Name

The company started out as News Datacom (NDC) in 1989, and later changed its name to News Digital Systems, hence its current name.

Management

Abe Peled is Chairman and CEO of NDS. He leads a team of executives located at the company's R&D and sales offices worldwide.

Subsidiaries

NDS owns Orbis Technology, a leading provider of online gambling technology, Jungo, who provide software for residential gateways and CastUp Inc, a leader in providing comprehensive solutions for rich media production, publishing and distribution in today's most popular formats.

Piracy

NDS has in the past been accused of breaking other companies' satellite encryption schemes.

Canal Plus lawsuit

The Guardian, an independent UK broadsheet newspaper, reported that Canal Plus accused NDS of deliberately extracting the UserROM code from the MediaGuard cards and then leaking it onto the internet.^[1] The Guardian story contained accusations that the NDS laboratory in Haifa, Israel had been working on breaking the SECA-produced MediaGuard smartcards used by Canal+, ITV Digital and other non-Murdoch-owned TV companies throughout Europe.

Canal Plus brought a $3 billion lawsuit against NDS. Canal Plus later dropped the action when News Corporation agreed to buy Canal Plus's struggling and heavily pirated Italian operation Telepiu^[2][3].

Echostar lawsuit

On 2008-05-15 a jury in California found that NDS had violated an anti-piracy section of the Cable Communications Policy Act and California state law against piracy, cleared NDS of other charges, and awarded $1,500 in damages.^[4] Echostar had sued NDS for $1 billion for piracy and copyright infringement of the Echostar viewing card codes and for aiding the distribution and supply of pirate Echostar viewing cards for the Echostar-owned Dish TV.

Tax evasion

NDS's offices in Israel were raided in October 1996 after allegations of tax evasion were made. NDS later made a $3 million "no blame" settlement with the Israeli tax authorities.^[5]

See also

Economy of Israel

References

1. ^ Cassy, John; Paul Murphy (2002-03-13). "How codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/13/media.citynews. Retrieved 2008-02-25.  
2. ^ "Vivendi settles row with NDS". The Guardian. 2003-05-02. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2003/may/02/5. Retrieved 2008-05-20.  
3. ^ Tryhorn, Chris (2002-04-30). "Murdoch lines up Sky Italia". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/apr/30/broadcasting.rupertmurdoch. Retrieved 2008-05-20.  
4. ^ "EchoStar Wins Battle, Loses War In News Corp. Piracy Case". Multichannel News. http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6561344.html. Retrieved 2008-06-21.  
5. ^ Chenoweth, Neil (2002-04-15). "Breaking the pay-TV code-breakers". The Australian Financial Review.  

External links

• NDS Group
• NDS Website
• NDS rejects Nagrastar claims & lawsuit
• Murdoch firm ordered to hand over documents in TV piracy row
• NDS faces probe over TV hacking allegations
• NDS said to have paid cash to piracy site - Email 'evidence' links News Corp. to ITV pirates
• Details of Canal Plus lawsuit
• Murdoch security chief linked to TV piracy site
• Murdoch Security Chief Linked to Anti-Competitive Actions
• Messier mire for Murdochs
• Observer interview with Abe Peled
• Australian Financial Review article on Canal Plus lawsuit and history of NDS
• Profile of Shafran Ltd. on Israeli government website
• Wired article on NDS-Nagrastar Lawsuit