Viaccess, a France Telecom company, leader in conditional access announced today that ART (Arab Radio and Television Network), the leading broadcaster of premium Arabic family programming and entertainment worldwide, will deploy Viaccess’ Praha card to secure its Pay TV satellite platforms in the middle east region.

In the next coming months, ART and VIACCESS will strenghten their current collaboration to smoothly migrate the operator’s satellite platforms and set-top-box (STB) population to the Praha Card (Proactive Against Hacker Attacks), one of the leading conditional access systems which is proactive against card sharing and enables hacker attack analysis.

Viaccess and ART have been long-time partners in the North African region for more than 11 years as ART selected VIACCESS to securely deliver pay-TV content. ART produces over 6000 live and recorded shows every year including family oriented dramas, series, plays, sports programs, music videos, and documentaries. The network has the largest Arabic movie library in the Middle East and (as part of the AMC conglomerate) has been associated with leading film production houses in the Arab world for well over 30 years.

“Our world class content protection products will bring premium content to ART consumers” said François Moreau de Saint Martin, VIACCESS CEO. “The extension of our partnership with ART for the Middle eastern market is the ultimate proof of the benefits provided by our security technology.” .

“Being the main player of Pay TV in the MENA region, ART Network needs to be the pioneer in adopting the latest technology that is shaping the future of our industry” said Abdul Aziz Yamani, AMC CEO. “ The shift is of strategic implications , and VIACCESS technology meets our requirements and objectives.”

© 2008 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)