September 11, 2009

NAGRAVISION AND DEUTSCHE TELEKOM PARTNER TO BRING THE TVISTER RECOMMENDATION SERVICE TO TV SCREENS

  • IBC 2009 demonstration features new tvister widget on an OpenTV-powered HD set-top box through the NAGRA Media Widget platform
  • tvister recommendation widget offers consumers a personalised TV experiences that keeps them satisfied and encourages them to come back for more
  • widget services increase the operator brand awareness and loyalty and translate into direct revenue, ads revenue and cross-selling opportunities.

Cheseaux, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany – 11th September , 2009 – Nagravision, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD) company and the world's leading independent provider of value-added content protection solutions, and Deutsche Telekom AG, one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies, today announced they have partnered to port the tvister recommendation service to TV screens. The companies will jointly demonstrate Deutsche Telekom's tvister service implemented in a widget at the IBC 2009 exhibition in Amsterdam, September 11 – 15, in the Nagravision booth 1.D69. Delivering personalized widget services to TV consumers increases the usage rate which translates into direct revenue, ads revenue, and cross selling opportunities for digital television service providers.

tvister is an intelligent TV program guide currently available on the internet that provides news about shows, stars, series or movies. Based on what the TV viewer is watching, and using an advanced algorithm, the tvister widget recommends programs available in the schedule. Program recommendations may include channels from pay TV, free TV, VOD catalogs, pay-per-view, etc. At the IBC, the tvister widget can be seen running through the NAGRA Media Widget platform on an OpenTV-enabled HD set-top box powered by OpenTV Core2™ middleware.

"Consumers of all ages are multi-tasking and seeking information about the programs they are watching, while they are watching them. The new tvister widget provides a wealth of information at a glance to both satisfy their curiosity and provide instant gratification," said Christoph Schmidt, Senior Vice President Personal & Social-Networking Applications by Products & Innovations, Deutsche Telekom AG.

Deutsche Telekom developed the tvister application which is available as a public beta under http://www.tvister.de. The tvister widget uses electronic programming guide (EPG) data as well as other information available on internet. The service fulfils legal constraints in terms of EPG data usage. This first generation of recommendation widgets can be deployed quickly, without a complex backend infrastructure and does not require the user to login providing anonymous and purely content related recommendation services.

"Widgets bring manageable bits of the internet to consumers’ TV screens and through our NAGRA Media Widget platform we are providing an end-to-end tool chain for operators to seamlessly embed those widgets into their digital TV offer”, said Ivan Verbesselt, Senior Vice President Marketing at Nagravision. “Beyond an elegant way to componentize the user experience, operators can use widgets to increase brand awareness and loyalty by offering personalized experiences that keep subscribers satisfied and coming back for more."

What is a widget?
A widget is a small, intuitive, easy-to-use software application that lets consumers play with graphics and information online. It creates a targeted and familiar environment with recommendation of relevant data for consumers making them more likely to return to a certain service of interest. Widgets can now also be integrated into the television experience to access internet-based content directly from the TV by leveraging the NAGRA Media Widget platform, a recent enrichment of Nagravision’s Federated Services Architecture.

About Deutsche Telekom AG
Deutsche Telekom is one of the leading integrated telecommunications companies worldwide with almost 150 million mobile customers, almost 40 million fixed-network lines and over 17 million broadband lines (as at: June 30, 2009). Deutsche Telekom's three product brands, T-Home, T-Mobile and T-Systems, offer its customers around the world modern telecommunications products and services from a single source – fixed-network telephony, broadband Internet, mobile communications and ICT solutions. As an international group of companies in around 50 countries throughout the world, Deutsche Telekom generated more than half of its revenues of EUR 61.6 billion outside Germany in 2008. By the end of June 2009 over 261 000 employees are working for Deutsche Telekom worldwide.

About the Kudelski Group and Nagravision
The Kudelski Group (SIX: KUD.VX) is a world leader in digital security and convergent media solutions for the delivery of digital and interactive content. Its technologies are used in a wide range of services and applications requiring access control and rights management to secure the revenue of content owners and service providers for digital television and interactive applications across broadcast, broadband and mobile delivery networks. The Kudelski Group is also a world technology leader in the area of access control and management of people or vehicles to sites and events. It additionally offers professional recorders and high-end Hi-Fi products. The Kudelski Group is headquartered in Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. Please visit www.nagra.com for more information.

Nagravision, a Kudelski Group company, is the leading supplier of open conditional access systems, DRM and integrated on-demand solutions for content providers and digital TV operators over broadcast, broadband and mobile platforms. Its technologies are currently being used by more than 120 leading Pay-TV operators worldwide securing content delivered to over 114 million active smart cards and devices. Please visit www.nagravision.com for more information.

Contacts:
Ivan Schnider
(contact for trade media)
Nagravision SA
Head of Marketing Communications
+41 21 732 09 40
[email protected]

Daniel Herrera
(contact for general interest media)
Kudelski Group
Head of Corporate Communications
+41 21 732 01 81
[email protected]

Santino Rumasuglia
(contact for investors and financial analysts)
Kudelski Group
Head of Investor Relations
+41 21 732 01 24
[email protected]

Dawn Danaher
Media Relations for Nagravision Americas
+1 714 378 5841
[email protected]