A digital television provider in France provides smartcards for its customers to access encrypted channels
A French digital television provider has recently seen its sales jump by 800,000 receiver units on its smartcard encrypted viewing system.
SES Astra provides digital television systems to viewers in Europe through its TNTSat encrypted viewing system. To activate digital and high-definition channels, the company provides a smartcard and a satellite receiver that allows customers to view previously encrypted channels. SES Astra’s recent smartcard receiver unit sales have reached 2.3 million since implementing the program in March 2007.
Company officials recently explained the convenience of the smartcard channel system that has attracted a rapidly growing customer-base. Ferdinand Kayser, president and CEO of SES Astra, said in a statement "the consistently strong growth shows that French households outside the reach of terrestrial networks adopt TNTSat as a solution to easily switch to digital television."
"With the ongoing transition to digital television, further growth can be expected in the second half of 2010 and in 2011," he added.
Smartcards have recently been implemented as an access solution to other devices. Last week, a new biometric smartcard system was released in South Africa with biometric ID features to prevent unauthorized access to account information through ATMs.
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