Kabel Deutschland KDG, Germany’s largest cable operator, plans to launch CI Plus in the first half of the year. It is the first German cabler to officially confirm the usage of the standard.
“Customers will have the best possible viewing experience with world class transmission standard,” said Dr. Marc Mikulcik, VP of Retail at Kabel Germany, to the German press. “CI Plus will bring together high-class devices with a premium TV picture.”
By adopting CI Plus, customers are free to choose the reception equipment they want, as long as it supports CI Plus. This includes integrated digital TV sets, set-top boxes (cable tuners) and PVRs. KDG already deploys a retail model whereby subscribers buy their own equipment, although rental options for cable tuners are also available. At the moment, KDG uses Nagravision encryption of it s digital premium channels.
KDG serves 13 German federal states and reaches approximately 9 million connected households in Germany, of which 844,000 subscribe to digital TV.
Other operators such as Unitymedia, TeleColumbus, PrimaCom and Kabel BW are also looking at CI Plus, but have so far not committed themselves. In The Netherlands, CI Plus has now become the de facto standard, with the majority of cablers option for it.
