Wider than expected losses at OpenTV weighed heavily on Kudelski as revenues at the conditional access company halved in 2007. The Swiss-based company, already under pressure from the security breach at German pay-TV platform Premiere, said that net income fell to SFr67.4 million from SFr138.5 million in 2006. On a positive note sales increased by 33% as new business revenues exceeded targets.
Earlier this week middleware provider OpenTV, in which Kudelski is a leading shareholder, reported a loss of $5.2 million..
Kudelski has recently moved to a rental model for its conditional access system and smart cards rather than the retail model that it has previously held. The company is looking to the model to ease the pressure and negative publicity brought about at Premiere and other deployments that make up the 84 million active cards/devices Kudelski currently has in the market.
Net revenues within the Digital TV sector increased by 14.5% to SFr573.4 million; European sales increased by SFr322 million with satellite operators in Eastern Europe enjoying strong growth.
