Irdeto awarded the single largest smart card deal in China

Irdeto,a provider of content security for digital TV, IPTV and mobile networks, has revealed that Irdeto will provide one million smart cards to Shaanxi Broadcasting & TV Information Network Company, to secure the migration to digital TV of the country¹s first unified provincial cable TV network. This agreement marks the single largest contract for smart cards awarded to any content protection vendor in China and strengthens Irdeto¹s position in securing China¹s fast-growing digital TV market.

Under the terms of the deal, Irdeto will provide its Epsilon smart cards, the company¹s security devices to Shaanxi, one of China¹s largest digitalization projects covering an area of 4 million TV households. Irdeto will be the exclusive content security provider for the first phase of Shaanxi¹s digitalization project, projected to last for two years and including one million TV households located in 11 prefectural level cities.

"We¹re pleased to partner with Irdeto to implement the first step of Shaanxi¹ s digital migration. Irdeto is a well-respected content security provider due to its proven security track record. We believe our cooperation will put us in a better position to achieve our goals, not only for today but also for tomorrow," said Li Qi, General Manager of Shaanxi Broadcasting & TV Information Network Co., Ltd.

"This is another significant milestone, for Shaanxi as well as China, moving towards digital migration," said Graham Kill, Chief Executive Officer of Irdeto."Shaanxi already selected Irdeto two years ago to secure the initial roll-out of its pay TV services. There have been 60,000 digital TV users who are using Irdeto smart cards in Shaanxi province. We are pleased that they have extended their trust in us, earned by living up to their expectations in terms of security and delivered services. We are very honored to be part of Shaanxi¹s plans in digitizing the entire province"

Irdeto¹s Epsilon Card, is based on the industry¹s advanced microchip technology, also used by mobile phone companies and banks. It employs Irdeto¹s FlexiFlash technology, which aims to allows smart card software to be securely updated over the air after cards have already been deployed. This enables security and functionality changes to the smart card software without the operational costs usually associated with a physical smart card swap, thus speeding the deployment time of piracy countermeasures or new services.