As predicted by Interspace, Modern Times Group (MTG), the Nordic pay-TV operator, has ditched Viaccess in favour of NDS for its conditional access (CA) system. MTG, through its broadcasting and pay-TV subsidiary Viasat, admitted last May that piracy had been a major issue for the operator in terms of pay-TV. The decision is hardly a surprise.

In November, (Interspace issue 757) MTG COO Anders Nilsson said, “The current situation is far from ideal. Our CA system is not delivering what it is supposed to do right now. This is something we are extremely unhappy with.”

MTG has decided to act and hopes the decision to go with NDS will eliminate the piracy problem that has plagued it over the last two years. The deal is still subject to contract, but represents a major coup for NDS as deals in Europe’s pay-TV sector are not easy to come by right now. MTG admitted that net additional subscribers had been lower in 2002 compared to 2001. According to MTG, this had resulted “from higher churn rates due primarily to piracy.”

In terms of its actual results, ViaSat announced in the fourth quarter it added net 28,000 new digital subscribers for its DTH pay-TV services in Scandinavia. Its pay-TV operations generated net revenues of SEK 549 million ($64.4 million) in the fourth quarter. For the whole of 2002, MTG generated net revenues of SEK 2.166 billion ($254 million) from its pay-TV operations. It now has 617,000 digital subscribers for its DTH services in the Nordics. The Viasat premium package now consists of 28 channels. Viasat added the Disney channel to premium offering in the last quarter.

There was some good news though for Viaccess, the French CA vendor has announced a deal with satellite operator Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB) to supply the operator with its CA technology.

–Mark Holmes