What percentage of NDS’ business is its traditional core business, versus new and evolving solutions and services? With over 50 percent of our 4,000 staff working on software and middleware solutions, you can see this is a key part of business. We don’t break down revenue by product as there is crossover between the technologies and we are really talking about an end to end solution with CA and the value added services brought about by middleware and set top box software. Being at the forefront of new platforms rolling out, which markets are the most dynamic at the moment – which are the most stagnant? Let’s talk about India for a start. This is really more than one market place, DTH in India is an amazing growth story. We have the two leading industry platforms, TataSky and Bharti, as customers there. Both operators are the market leaders in value added services in India offering DVR (digital video recorder), interactive TV, multilingual EPG’s and a host of other services. Their technology is a key differentiator against other platforms. We have seen very aggressive growth and plans for continuing growth on both DTH platforms. In terms of cable – growth has been fairly slow in the last 12 months. Cable has been somewhat affected by the economic situation, the devaluing rupee and also the lack of financing. We are seeing some of the major cable companies preparing for IPO – DEN and Hathway for example, whereas others such as Digicable have tapped private investment funds. We are expecting an upturn, but the last 12 months has been slow. In more established markets like Malaysia and Australia we have seen growth in the new technologies adopted as well as additional subscriber growth. The main services added have been value added services designed to increase ARPU like DVR, VOD and iTV solutions. It is not just a powerful CA which is important – a key advantage is that in these marketplaces companies with the vision to implement such additional services have weathered well. A market that has suffered is Korea, which has been fairly slow in cable and DTH, although IPTV is rolling out and live broadcasting is now available. We have great hopes for the China market. The industry in China is going through an important transition moving from basic encryption and now adding two way value added services, which is where the NDS advantage comes into play for operators looking to differentiate their services. China will be an enormous market place; NDS has re-affirmed our commitment to China with the development of Shenzhen R&D centre and commitment to local solutions. In SE Asia there is a lot of excitement around Indonesia, it is a great satellite marketplace and with the beginning of digitization I think it is a market place to watch in the next 12-24 months. Which NDS services and solutions are the most sought after at the current time, which have been hardest hit by the recession? We don’t publish results but we have achieved our company targets and have had the best year ever. We are also expecting significant growth next year. (NDS’ FY ends 30 June.) While some markets have not performed as well as originally forecast, this has been compensated by other markets performing better than expected. We have found this to be a geographic rather than product-related situation. Our most sought after solutions are the NDS value added services which help generate additional ARPU for operators. For example in India, platforms that have rolled out CA only services have a significantly lower ARPU than those with an end to end NDS solution. NDS technology is one factor in the creation of value to subscribers and these VAS, like DVR, reduce churn and provide a point of differentiation for platform operators. How have new operator roll-outs been affected by the recession? I’ve already mentioned Korea and Indian cable where there has been a slowdown in the past 12 months. However, this seems a pause rather than a stop. Already we are seeing signs in both markets there is again a forward momentum after a slow 12 months. Or are (telcos for example) in a situation that they can’t afford not to innovate, despite the downturn? We see the most active telcos in Korea. Foxtel and Telstra in Australia, Bharti and Reliance in India, realised that IPTV rollout would not be possible in the short term, thus launched DTH platforms. Korea is the mass deployment of IPTV. We haven’t really seen it elsewhere yet. Telstra continues to own 50 percent of Foxtel (News Corp 25 percent, Consolidated Media Holdings 25 percent) and to dominate the Australian pay TV market. It has had a mobile service with now 33 channels since 2006 and cross promotes services such as triple play with discounts, reward points and a single bill. In India, the two largest privately owned telcos, Bharti Airtel and Reliance, which provide mobile, fixed line and some broadband services, are consolidating their IPTV customer proposition. India currently has around seven million broadband subscribers, of which the vast majority receive only 256kbit/s, and almost all receive less than 2 Mbit/s, which is about the threshold to be able to provide a single standard definition TV channel acceptably (without any possibility for concurrent broadband). That is why these two telcos launched DTH services first. What are the changing demands of operators that NDS has evolved to meet? India and China are huge markets – and markets where ARPU is very low. We have had to design and deploy local low cost solutions to meet these market needs. We have developed new technologies, set up local R&D, and are working with new STB manufactures. Our goal, and what we have achieved, is the reduction of the technology costs to the operator in these markets. In certain marketplaces like Australia and Malaysia we are looking at how to generate additional ARPU and advanced solutions for the operators there. So we have been stretched to meet price points for low cost mass market and top end markets to produce solutions that will really help monetise the VAS’s and truly increase ARPU. DVR is a good example of a value added service which has a significant positive impact on operator ARPU. And how have NDS’s product offerings evolved to meet those demands? One of the areas we are developing is advanced advertising solutions. We are looking at how we can generate additional revenue for the platform and operator, not through additional subscriber based revenue, but through revenue generated by advertising, targeted advertising and ad substitution. Once you have a digital infrastructure in place you can offer all these new types of services in advertising, PVR and interactive applications. These solutions all generate additional revenue for the platform and broadcaster. Some of these solutions are still in their infancy but as the digital base grows, will become more important revenue streams for operators. Which products and solutions are you most excited about at the current time? And what other evolutions or developments are on the horizon? I have always been excited about DVR, and DVR with push VOD is very exciting. The other solution I have mentioned is digital advertising. There are a number of opportunities presented by new digital advertising solutions. Audience measurement systems allow more targeted advertising, ad placement can vary across live and DVR recorded content. There are also regional applications for advertisement insertion and replacement as well as integration with new media applications for internet and mobile. This is why NDS has a strong focus on software and advanced technologies. Secure CA is a business imperative. However CA is also the foundation for support of a wide range of business models and that is integrated into the value added services of a platform. Other future solutions on the horizon include DRM (digital rights management) straight into the TV with solutions like Infinite TV offering a hybrid experience. Delivering TV content over the Internet is also generating interest and ways have been looked at to incorporate this into the traditional delivery of services. NDS is developing a future-looking system to deliver content to multiple devices including connected TVs and portable media devices. This project is called Infinite TV. Infinite TV provides an infrastructure that brings together CE manufacturers, operators and content owners. Users enter the portal, register themselves and their devices, and provide some preferences and demographic data. When they’re on the move, the system knows who is watching, and makes intelligent, relevant decisions for them. It keeps their playlists updated and refreshed with premium targeted content and advertising.