SKY New Zealand Chooses NDS to Power New High Definition DVR

NDS, announced that SKY Television, New Zealand’s leading subscription television provider, selected NDS's DVR technology to power its new MYSKY HDi High Definition quad tuner DVR. NDS has also provided an enhanced Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for the MYSKY HDi DVR and managed the systems integration for the launch of SKY’s HD services.

The new MYSKY HDi is HD and SD compatible and its multiple tuners allow viewers to record two shows simultaneously while watching a third one live, and to receive On Demand content. Launched commercially on July 29, the MYSKY HDi delivers five MPEG-4 High Definition television channels to subscribers.

The MYSKY HDi DVR is based on the same NDS technology as the iQ2 DVR recently launched by FOXTEL in Australia. The two pay-TV broadcasters collaborated on the design and deployment to accelerate time to market.

SKY New Zealand aims to deploy at least 80,000 MYSKY HDi DVRs in the next 12 months. MYSKY HDi is a hybrid design (satellite and IP) which will allow SKY to offer subscribers access to additional content which can be downloaded to the set-top box via their broadband connection.

“The combination of hundreds of hours of great HD content with unrivalled technology from NDS, enabling viewers to pause, play back, fast-forward, rewind and record, is a sure fire winner for our customers,” said Charles Ingley, SKY’s Director of Technology. “We have relied on NDS to secure and enhance our pay-TV services for many years and have witnessed first-hand why NDS remains at the forefront of innovation. We are now taking advantage of these technologies to deliver exciting new services to our subscribers in New Zealand.”