As you begin counting pay TV services in the West of Europe and then sweep East, it doesn’t take too many countries before you reach a territory that offers Pay TV the way cellular service is offered, pre-paid.
And NDS this week has decided that its VideoGuard conditional access needs to reflect that, so it has added a pre-paid version. We think the practice will gradually move West, and enable pay TV players to take in lower income bracket households which want Pay TV, but also the flexibility to drop it for a short period or only to order certain programs.
NDS said its operators in both emerging and mature markets need to provide customers with more payment options and will partner with Brand-ID Europe, which it describes as a provider of pre-paid payment services, which will supply the back-office payment component with its CHKVIEW system, together with a full range of scratch card and e-voucher options.
VideoGuard Pre-Paid allows subscribers to purchase and store credit for future viewing options or for immediate activation. Once they decide to purchase content, the set amount will be debited from their stored credit. VideoGuard Pre-Paid then sends the entitlement rights from the operator’s head-end directly to the individual’s smart card inside their set-top and allows the viewer access to the chosen content.
‘As consumers continue to enjoy the benefits of pre-paid options in the mobile market, pay TV operators are seeing additional opportunities for such offerings in their space. By offering customers more payment option flexibility, operators can quickly reach a new type of customer and begin to immediately see an increase in revenue,’ said Nigel Smith, Chief Marketing Officer of NDS. ‘With VideoGuard Pre-Paid, our customers can deliver more customised packages to a broader target audience while still taking advantage of VideoGuard’s market leading business and security features.’
Operators can choose multiple payment options, including pre-entitled scratch cards and smart cards, e-vouchers activated via mobile text messaging, web portals, instant messaging or voice response lines.
It’s a sign of the times, and we expect all of the major conditional access players to have similar systems within a few years.