NDS Group, a News Corporation company and a provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has announced that Chongqing Broadcast and TV Network Transmission Co, a cable television provider for China's fourth largest city, has selected NDS's end-to-end digital broadcasting solutions to migrate from analog to digital cable TV broadcasting.

The new digital system will meet the needs of Chongqing Cable's rapidly expanding network, already China's largest single HFC network - forecast to grow from the current 3.5 million cable TV subscribers to six million over the next five years, states an official press release.

"The launch of digital cable TV is a major component of the establishment of the Chongqing information infrastructure, and it is also one of the Eight Grand Projects of the 2003 Annual Plan of Chongqing municipality," Chongqing Broadcast and TV Network Transmission Co general manager Du Hongzhi was quoted as saying in the release. "It is a good job done by the municipality for its citizens and it will not only enhance the development of Chongqing broadcasting and the TV industry, but it will also boost the future course of information and digital delivery in Chongqing," he added.

By deploying NDS systems, Chongqing Cable TV will offer viewers over 80 channels with basic and premier tiers. New interactive TV services planned include an interactive electronic program guide, stock information service, sports, weather reports, news reports and audio broadcasting. CCTV, China's national broadcaster, and the neighbouring Sichuan Provincial Network also use NDS end-to-end broadcast solutions.

"Chongqing is the most populous municipality under the Central Government of China with a unique position in driving the development of the western region. We are very honored to be selected by Chongqing Cable TV to provide them with a proven end-to-end digital broadcasting solution," NDS China general manager Gary Zhou was quoted as saying.

"Digital interactive TV will grow rapidly in China, and NDS is proud to participate in its development," he added.

"After an extensive evaluation, we finally chose NDS as our technology partner and to deploy its end-to-end digital pay TV technology solutions within our network. I believe that the partnership with NDS will speed up the development of Chongqing digital TV services, and it will also enable us to broadcast more digital programming and to provide more services to fulfill the ever-increasing demands of the over 30 million people in Chongqing," said Chongqing Broadcast's Du.

The NDS end-to-end solution deployed by Chongqing Cable TV includes Open VideoGuard™ conditional access, NDS Core™ middleware, StreamServer™ digital broadcasting management system, Scheduler™ programming playout system, iTV interactive platform with call back support as well as Chongqing Cable TV's interactive electronic program guide being developed by NDS Beijing engineers. NDS VideoGuard is one of only two foreign conditional access systems recommended by the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT).

Chongqing municipality is one of only four municipalities in China that reports directly to the central government, rather than provincial government. Chongqing Cable TV network covers the entire 40 districts and counties of Chongqing municipality. There are 3.5 million cable TV subscribers to Chongqing Cable TV, 200,000 of which already have access to the company's two-way broadcasting network. President Jiang Zemin once said of Chongqing: "We must exert efforts to build Chongqing into the economic center of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River".

NDS Group is a leading supplier of open end-to-end digital pay-TV solutions for the secure delivery of entertainment and information to television set-top boxes and IP devices.