CAS has hardly entered the Indian Cable TV and DTH industry and we are already talking about piracy and Hacking. There is no doubt; the subject is of great importance to everyone including the stakeholders as well as the governments. An important fact is that inspite of advancements in technology, security breaches, hacking of the CAS codes and piracy have been the biggest concerns even in the most advanced markets. Hackers are always ahead of technology.
This is also a fact that there is no security that can not be breached. After all it is the human brains that design the security systems and it is the human brains who breach them too. It's a question of who does it faster. The CAS companies know this fact as well. They even employ very efficient hackers to find the survivability of their product. Aim is to let the product survive the longest before it gets hacked and replace it with the new one before it is hacked. So various systems have been followed by different CAS companies like Irdeto, Conax, NDS etc. Irdeto has a system of rolling over of Smart Cards; they replace the smart cards every two or three years trying to be one step ahead of the hackers. This way they don't have to face a mess up, replacing millions of cards in one go when hacking actually takes place. Similarly, Conax replaces with new versions of software in the market every few years. Software CAS is another option to protect content on Cable. There is no smart card here and hence replacement or upgradation of version or keys is faster, done through downloads sent through the network. For internet, Digital Rights Management (DRM) techniques are used to protect the content. DRM has become essential for all new media technologies like IPTV, Mobile TV, ipods etc. We bring views of experts in content security in this issue.
How badly the political games depend on the media was evident last month after the internal feud in the DMK family became public. The IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran had to resign. But it is well known that during his tenure, Sun TV spread its wings not only in Television segment but also in DTH, mobile communication, print media, FM Radio etc. With DMK planning their own channel and also promote Raj TV group, how will the media scene change in Tamil Nadu, will be worth watching.
Prasar Bharti is the first broadcaster in the country to launch mobile TV with eight channels. It is a great achievement as very few countries in the world have so many channels on mobile TV.
This month we will be meeting you all at the Broadcast Asia event in Singapore from 19-22 June and see the latest in the technology.
Best Wishes.......
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