Media protection, multiscreen and revenue assurance solutions specialist Irdeto has confirmed that My-HD, a leading satellite pay-TV platform in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), has selected its Media Protection to secure the launch of over 30 premium HD channels via Arabsat to the region.

My-HD partnered with Arabsat in March 2013 to launch its High Definition (HD) services. Although the MENA region is seen as presenting a vast opportunity, the region is also facing a tough battle against pay-TV piracy. In a proactive move to stay ahead of this challenge, My-HD began shipping its HD set-top boxes (STBs) earlier in August integrated with Irdeto Cloaked CA, a cardless conditional access (CA) solution, which provides dynamic content protection without the cost and complexity of managing physical smart cards.

“The My-HD and Arabsat partnership will shape the future of HDTV in the MENA region, and we required a long-term partner that could deliver a combination of strong security, experience and scalability as well as minimise total cost of ownership,” said Cliff Nelson, CEO My-HD. “Irdeto’s Media Protection technologies are well-respected in the market and its widely-deployed Cloaked CA solution was the clear choice for us. We’re proud to be the first operator in MENA to deploy software CA and join the other innovative leaders around the world doing the same.”

Graham Kill, CEO of Irdeto said that as the MENA region transitioned to HD, operators such as My-HD were leading the way in not only delivering the highest quality entertainment to their customers, but in championing cardless security as the future for secure transmission.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, CA/DRM, Content, DTH/Satellite, Pay TV, Piracy