Orbit denies switching out of Nagra to Irdeto

Ajouz continued:

We are simply simulcrypting Irdeto to take advantage of the existing and widely available Irdeto platform. We will continue to use Nagra especially in regions where we do not yet have an Irdeto license such as Egypt. Our current plans are to move away from a proprietary box strategy to a standard box strategy that meets Orbit's specifications."

Orbit's new box strategy embraces approved Irdeto-ready boxes from Humax and Technosat, which will be freely available in the retail market. There is a huge legacy of Irdeto boxes in the market thanks to the widespread availability of subsidized Irdeto boxes from rival pay-TV platforms Arab Radio & TV and Showtime Arabia.

Ajouz stressed that Orbit's adoption of Irdeto conditional access for the new scheme is wholly based on local commercial realities and opportunities and is not connected to the Nagra-based conditional access utilized on Orbit's current boxes.

As to the new boxes, he added: "Some have a promotional smart card included in the package which gives them a free, trial period. The conditional access is supplied by Irdeto, [which] does [have a market lead] here in the Middle East. It means that all the pay-TV operators can now be received on a single box. Meanwhile, we will simulcrypt to the older Canal Plus boxes, with Nagra encryption. The appeal for us is that there s a huge platform of Irdeto boxes out there that we can tap into and this is helping drive some of our business right now."

Ajouz had previously suggested that Nagra in the Middle East had been compromised. "The sad truth is that almost all current CAS used by operators in the region have been compromised equally by card sharing-based piracy and not just Nagra."