Tata Sky, a pay TV has chosen NDS to supply XTV DVR solution for its advanced new-age service that offers full Personal Video Recorded (PVR) functionality to its Indian viewers.

 

Tata Sky is a Joint venture between the TATA Group and STAR (News - Alert) offering Indian viewers a world-class television viewing experience through its satellite television service using MPEG-2 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT 4A at 83.0°E. It claims to have more than 2.7 million subscribers and forecasts 8 million connections by 2012.

 

NDS (News - Alert) XTV technology enables Tata Sky to offer its viewers the power to plan and control TV viewing experience with features such as Record Live TV and Pause & Rewind Live TV. It features MPEG4 technology, and a memory capacity that can accommodate recording of programmes and movies.

 

Vikram Kaushik, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Sky Ltd, said: “The introduction of PVR technology will revolutionise the TV viewing experience in India. The PVR’s recording and playback features will allow our subscribers to time-shift their TV viewing, and thanks to the pause and rewind features, viewers can be sure that they won’t miss any of their favourite shows any more, and that they can catch all the action in live TV broadcasts.”

 

In the recent years, NDS powered Tata Sky with its other hi-tech solutions including VideoGuard conditional access, MediaHighway middleware, an advanced multilingual electronic program guide (EPG) as well as market leading interactive TV infrastructure.

 

Sue Taylor, senior vice president and general manager of NDS Asia Pacific, said: “NDS technology, supported by our strong local presence in India, has enabled Tata Sky to deliver the highest quality of TV service as well as giving them the freedom to develop exciting new options to be implemented in the future. NDS is proud to play a pivotal role in providing Tata Sky with an innovative platform that helps them enhance the viewer experience.”

 

NDS officials confirmed that the company has invested over $120 million in India and plans to increase investment in its Indian R&D Center and commercial offices over the next three years to support the accelerating digitisation of pay-TV across the nation and worldwide.