MUMBAI: NDS plans to invest heavily in China with new hires and new facilities to meet the growing demand for digital-TV services in China.
NDS will triple its investment in local people and infrastructure in 2010 as it increases development of solutions, partnerships and services for customers in China and the rest of the world.
The company will be looking at expanding its partnerships with local Chinese businesses including consumer electronics (CE) and chipset manufacturers, application developers and systems integrators.
Earlier this year NDS had increased its headcount by 73% in China in 12 months, reflecting strong demand for its products and services locally. Staff numbers will increase further in 2010, with local hires as well as the relocation of a percentage of existing NDS R&D resource from India and Israel.
NDS has identified a key growth opportunity through partnerships with Chinese companies in the consumer electronics space, semiconductors, systems integration, and digital-TV applications markets. NDS has already partnered with Changhong, a set-top box (STB) and CE manufacturer, to develop a range of interactive applications for the Chinese market, targeted at convergence and the Next Generation Broadband (NGB) initiative. NDS will market these applications to other regions, as part of a drive to increase export opportunities for Chinese CE and STB manufacturers. NDS is also partnering with leading value-added TV service provider DOXTV, to bring DVR and push VOD functionality in China.
With this new investment, NDS will increase employee numbers at the R&D facility as well as increasing its presence in locations that are close to customers, including in Beijing and Shanghai.
China is experiencing phenomenal growth in digital pay-TV, outstripping all other markets. According to Media Partners Asia, China is the largest market worldwide with over 66 million digital pay-TV subscribers. By 2014 this is predicted to reach 198 million subscribers. In parallel, cable TV revenues will increase from $9 billion in 2009 to $17 billion in 2014.
“We believe that Chinese digital-TV technology will have a major impact on the global pay-TV market, as other countries start to seek out Chinese knowledge, experience and products. We already have significant resources in China, and accelerating our investment now and in the future allows us to rapidly increase our support for the dynamic and growing Chinese digital-TV market,” said NDS China chairman and senior vice president and general manager Asia Pacific Sue Taylor.
