Digital television provider NDS, a majority-owned subsidiary of News Corporation, has opened a new facility in Shenzhen to deal with research and customer support in the growing Chinese pay-TV market.
NDS will increase staff levels in China by over 50% to support the new site, forming part of NDS' ongoing expansion in China. The increased investment in China will enable Chinese consumer electronics and set-top box manufacturers to work more closely with NDS' global integration teams and gain access to important new export markets. This move mirrors the successful precedent already set for South Korea's CE industry following NDS' establishment of its R&D facility in Seoul in 2001.
Service providers are increasingly focused on monetizing digital content following the introduction of the Ping-Yi process which will see the deployment of digital TV throughout China by 2015. In order to help them achieve this goal, NDS will undertake development and integration projects dedicated to creating revenue-enhancing, quick-to-market services and applications like customized interactive services, games and user interfaces among other service enhancements.
According to the Guideline Research, China had 45 million digital cable connections in January 2009 and around two million IPTV subscriptions.