Singapore – Irdeto announced that Hebei Broadcasting and Television Information Network (Group) Co., LTD and Xinjiang Broadcast & Television Transmission Network have chosen the Irdeto DVB conditional access solution for their digital migration process. With these agreements, Irdeto is slated to deliver two million smart cards to both of these cable networks over the next 24 months. Hebei is China’s sixth largest province with 67.4 million people and with nearly 6.5 million cable TV subscribers. Hebei Broadcasting and Television, a provincial-level cable TV network operator, selected Irdeto to simulcrypt with its existing conditional access system and has agreed to purchase 1 million smart cards to be delivered within the first 18 months of deployment. Xinjiang province in Western China is home to an estimated 1.3 million cable TV subscribers. The Irdeto DVB conditional access solution was selected by Xinjiang Broadcast & Television Transmission Network to securely facilitate the sale of premium content to its subscribers. “As China’s digital migration continues to pick-up momentum prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Irdeto will continue its support of cable operators like the ones in Hebei and Xinjiang to protect their content and revenues as they move into the new era of digital TV broadcasting,” stated Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto. As of 2007, China had 151 million cable subscribers with the number expected to grow to 197 million by 2012, according to research by Media Partners Asia Ltd (MPA). Over the same period, the number of digital cable TV subscribers is expected to dramatically increase 540% from 25 million to 135 million.