SVP Alliance Announces SVP-Ready Products in Production and Six New Licensees

• Broadcom will be the first manufacturer to ship SVP-compliant devices which will also be SVP system qualified into products for volume production in Q4’06
• STMicroelectronics will also begin shipping SVP-compliant chips for volume production in 2006
  
• Pace Micro Technology and Samsung first set top box manufacturers to implement SVP-compliant chips in next generation products
  
• Broadcom, Conexant, Humax, Pace, Samsung, Thomson become first official licensees of SVP chip and consumer products
  
• SVP Alliance grows to 35 with six new members: Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), Chips&Media, Homecast, Kaon Media, Mediatek, and Prime Electronics and Satellitics Inc.
  
• New Chairman to head up the Alliance
  

(New York City and London) September 28, 2006 – The SVP Alliance made several key announcements today, gaining important market traction as Broadcom, Conexant, Humax, Pace, Samsung, Thomson have become official licensees of SVP technology.  Chipset manufacturer Broadcom will start shipping SVP-compliant chips in volume in 2006. In addition, STMicroelectronics has announced that they will offer SVP-compliant chips in 2006 for consumer electronics manufacturers. These chips provide the highest level of security to protect valuable content that moves from device to device. 

Additionally, Pace and Samsung are the first device manufacturers that will be producing next generation set top boxes with SVP-ready chips implemented into their design.

The Alliance also announced signing six new members, bringing its membership to 35 and further strengthening the organization’s influence in the important realm of digital content protection.  The new members include: Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), Chips&Media, Homecast, Kaon Media, Mediatek, and Prime Electronics and Satellitics Inc. 

Now heading up the Alliance is Dr. Jas Saini who was appointed the new SVP Alliance Chairman.  In his role as Alliance Chairman he will work to build the membership of the Alliance and broaden the adoption of the SVP technology as a standard for content protection within the consumer electronics and digital entertainment industries.

“We are announcing a number of very significant milestones today for the SVP Alliance, and I’m very pleased to be at the helm of this group at such a critical time,” said Dr. Saini.  “We look forward to building on this momentum and establishing SVP as a leading standard for content protection, bringing more options to consumers, and providing new revenue opportunities for content providers, CE vendors and chips manufacturers.”

Dr. Saini is Vice-President for Consumer Devices for NDS Ltd. In this role he is responsible for co-ordinating the company strategy and establishing strategic alliances in relation to consumer devices necessary to provide end-to-end solutions. He brings to the SVP Alliance over 15 years experience in the field of digital products and over 25 years in the electronics industry. 
Details on the new members of the SVP Alliance include:

• Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) - is a leader in the design, development and supply of high-quality set-top boxes to the world-wide digital television market.
  

• Chips & Media – a leading video multi-standard video codec solution provider, providing its advanced ultra low power multi-codec video IP's to top-tier semiconductor companies.
  

• Homecast – the global manufacturer of digital set-top-boxes.
  

• Kaon Media - the world-wide market leader of the development of digital broadcasting receivers, digital video-recorders for the digital terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasting industries and IPTV.
  

• Mediatek – one of the world’s largest fabless Integrated Chipset companies, dedicating its resources to the research and development of comprehensive digital media integrated chipset solutions.
  

• Prime Electronics & Satellitics Inc. – Total Solution System Integrator for Digital Satellite TV, CATV, SMATV, Wireless Digital Home Applications, and Microwave Accessories.
  

SVP is an open specification that allows consumer electronics device manufacturers to easily provide content security by deploying an SVP-compliant video processor chip.  The content itself is protected, rather than the physical link between devices, ensuring the content owners of their intellectual property rights and providing content distributors with the use of flexible business scenarios. SVP works with any digital format, any transmission method and is interoperable with other content protection solutions.

The SVP Licensing Authority LLC (SVPLA) has made licenses for its secure, open content protection specification available online.  They are available on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis (RaND), as well as on a low cost non-royalty basis, which will help to drive implementation. For more information about SVP licensing, please visit www.svpla.com.

About The SVP Alliance

The Secure Video Processor (SVP) Alliance is a group of media and technology industry leaders committed to the widespread use of digital content on consumer devices.
The objective of the SVP Alliance is to adopt, use and promote the SVP standard and develop interoperability with other DRM and content protection solutions. By ensuring its broad adoption, and proposing its specification to relevant standards and other industry bodies, SVP will become a leading international standard for content protection. The SVP Alliance is a not-for-profit organization supported by over 35 global enablers of digital entertainment. For more information about the SVP Alliance, please visit  www.svpalliance.org.