Back on DVB business
The CI Plus organisation has been holding discussions with the DVB Project with a view to the Geneva-based organisation once more fostering the technology.
The DVB confirmed to Broadband TV News that talks had taken place, but these are still said to be at a preliminary stage, and are not expected to proceed until after the publication of the 1.3 specification at the end of the year.
Neotion, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, SmarDTV and Sony had taken on ownership of the next generation common interface technology as the CI Plus Forum in the summer of 2007 after failing to reach an agreement within the DVB over its future direction. The V1.00 CI Plus Specification was published in January 2008 and offers a more secure option that its predecessor as well as additional features such as the ability to offer tailored graphics in MHEG-5 and MHP.
In November 2008 the Forum was disbanded in favour of a limited liability partnership (LLP) under UK law with the intention of becoming the CI Plus Trust Authority for the licensing, testing and certificate procurement regimes of the technology.
Over the past 18 months pay-TV operators have increasingly turned to CI Plus, which is compatible with an increasing number of television sets, cable, satellite and terrestrial receivers. The security technology is up and running on operators including UPC Cablecom, Kabel Deutschland, Sky Deutschland, Canal+, Ziggo and Com Hem. In the New Year CI Plus will make its UK debut with Top Up TV.
