NDS announced at IBC the availability of its conditional access (CA) add-on module, NDS VideoGuard Pre-Paid. The offering will enable pay-TV operators to provide customers with more payment options.
Brand-ID Europe, a provider of prepaid payment services, supplies the back-office payment component with its CHKVIEW solution together with a full range of scratch card and e-voucher options.
Based on the existing VideoGuard CA technology, VideoGuard Pre-Paid allows pay-TV operators to reach new market segments with pay-as-you-go TV services. With this offering, subscribers can purchase and store credit for future viewing options or for immediate activation.
Once they decide to purchase content, the set amount will be debited from their stored credit. VideoGuard Pre-Paid then sends the entitlement rights from the operator’s headend directly to the individual’s smart card inside their set-top box (STB) and allows the viewer access to the chosen content.
By deploying this particular add-on module with the VideoGuard system, operators can offer flexible prepaid options such as pay-per-view, pay-per-time, pay-per-channel, pay-per-bouquet or pay-per-subscription, depending on their package preference.
The VideoGuard Pre-Paid solution requires minimal changes to the operator headend infrastructure and is fully compatible with existing NDS products. Operators can also choose from a wide variety of payment options for their customers, including pre-entitled scratch cards and smart cards, e-vouchers activated via mobile text messaging, Web portals, instant messaging or IVR lines.
