Where does opportunity lie? Irdeto expects a lot of opportunities with the MSOs currently as they are in the active process of digitizing their cable networks. Irdeto is fully on board to provide our solutions in Conditional Access, DRM, Middleware, Billing and Subscriber Management technologies to help MSOs address key requirements. We believe that the momentum for mobile TV services will grow in Taiwan once frequencies and licenses are allocated. There is tremendous potential in the telco industry. The digitalization of the broadcast industry in Taiwan, is expected to bring about various business opportunities worth an estimated US$11.8 billion. Since the official opening of our Taiwan office, Irdeto gained a much better understanding of customer requirements and broader market issues in Taiwan. With Taiwan moving into the digital era, Irdeto held a number of private workshops with various MSOs to assist operators in the digitization process. During these workshops, we share our expertise, case studies and provide education through lessons learnt from helping operators in Europe, China, India and South East Asia to digitize. In addition to addressing the technical issues, our workshops have focused on new business models and strategies based on achieving maximum return on investment beyond the traditional subscription models using Irdeto technologies. Irdeto has also produced a video DVD about piracy, together with our customers to help educated the market on the need for content protection, for distribution in the upcoming weeks. Government body the NCC has set 2013 as a target for digitization, how much is underway? And can that target realistically be met? MSOs account for 80 percent of the cable market in Taiwan. Irdeto is aware that the majority of the top MSOs in Taiwan have already started the process of digitizing their cable networks. Irdeto believes that by 2013, most of the MSOs in Taiwan would have digitized at least a portion of their subscribers’ base, to the minimum percentage level required by the NCC. However, MSOs that are financially strong, stand to benefit the most from the ability to cross sell multiple services from a digitized convergence platform. Taiwan Fixed Network Media (TFN), is one such example and the company is looking to digitize their entire network by as early as 2011. TFN is part of a huge conglomerate in Taiwan, a group of companies who has assets in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband, Insurance and Banking businesses. What form will digitization take? The networks will be two-way enabled. Set Top Boxes will be equipped with Docsis modems built in, services will include Standard Definition as well as High Definition TV, Personal Video Recorders (PVR), Video on demand, Voice over IP telephony services and full suite of innovative interactive applications using the internet return path will be possible. Are some tech companies more suited to the needs of certain sectors of the TV industry? Yes, there are companies who are oriented towards supplying for the short term needs and other companies better suited to supply the longer term requirements of operators in the market. As Taiwan is in early phase of digitization process, there may be inexperienced operators who may not be able to differentiate between Set Top Boxes (STB) or Conditional Access Systems (CAS) in the market or have little understanding of the long term security issues. Some may even view pricing as the major consideration for decision making. Based on the lack of awareness, there may be companies that take advantage of this situation by offering products with poor security records or attractive prices on solutions that have limitations in supporting future business models. What does Irdeto see as its place in the mix? With Irdeto’s expertise in the market in helping operators to digitize worldwide, and 64 percent overall market share of CAS business – the largest presence across SEA with over 400 customers globally, we offer solutions with robust security features and cross-platform portability to help our customers expand their businesses. Short term thinking and compromise on content protection, have cost operators millions of dollars in lost revenues and millions more for having to replace inferior technology due to weak decision-making at the beginning. We established an office in Taiwan as a commitment to our long term approach and the workshops we are conducting to educate the MSOs and operators will highlight our competitive advantage in the market and differentiate us from our competitors. What are the challenges still inherent in Taiwan – are regulatory tussles still a problem? The cable operators in Taiwan are heavily regulated, where there are price cap restrictions and challenges such as having to provide the first STB free of charge. On the other hand, the telecommunications sector in Taiwan is deregulated – TV signals can be provided using IPTV platforms without any of the restrictions faced by the cable operator. This situation can make investment and business planning extremely challenging for MSOs and cable operators in Taiwan. How are current projects progressing and what other opportunities are on the horizon? The TFN media project is moving along very well. Together our partners ADB and Osmosys, the Set Top Box and the Middleware being deployed will be the most advanced Interactive High Definition TV service available and the Docsis 3 Cable modem being implemented by TFN will allow for download speeds of up to 100 Mbps. The soft launch of service is expected in the second quarter of 2009. In February this year, Indigo Mobile Technologies, the leading wireless communications device design service provider deployed Irdeto’s OMA DRM client solution to protect its mobile content delivery platforms. Irdeto’s OMA DRM is ideally suited for today’s mobile content, including ring tones, mobile games, music and videos, and offers a balance of security, features, and interoperability. Indigo Mobile Technologies implemented Irdeto’s OMA DRM solution onto the I-Mobile SENSE80 mobile phone, the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS-based smartphone and has delivered its first shipment of the smartphones with OMA DRM to their customer SAMART in Thailand. Irdeto has recently installed our CAS Head End system for testing with another major MSO in Taiwan and we will be making announcements about this in coming months. TVAplus