MUMBAI: NDS, which provides technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has announced that Canal Overseas, the international arm of the Canal+ Group, is introducing a personal video recorder (PVR) service with a Flash-based Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) developed by NDS.

This is the first PVR service for Canal Overseas markets across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific will benefit from this service in the near future.

Canal Overseas has deployed a new version of NDS MediaHighway set-top box (STB) software to power its satellite pay-TV service. The new version of MediaHighway automatically downloads new software to each STB, enabling the STBs to detect the addition of an external hard drive and format the drive for use as a PVR.

Canal Overseas subscribers who wish to upgrade to a PVR service can now rent a Western Digital 500 GB hard disk to connect it to their dual-tuner Pace STB via its USB port.

The new version of NDS MediaHighway also provides the foundation for Canal Overseas to offer catch-up TV services in the future.

The Flash based EPG design and production is the result of collaboration between Canal Overseas, Canal+ CYFROWY’s design teams, NDS design studios in Paris and NDS’ R&D facility in India.

Canal Overseas CTO Marc Noblet says, “The delivery of the PVR service and Flash EPG is a great achievement. With the PVR, we offer a service most appreciated and expected by our customers. Indeed the PVR service will change their way of consuming television and allow them to make the most of their subscription."

NDS senior VP president, Europe, Middle Eeast, Africa and Latin America Caroline Le Bigot commented, “MediaHighway is ideal for initiatives such as Canal Overseas‘ innovative Electronic Programme Guide which was designed with ease-of-use in mind. When content and services are easier to find, subscribers are more likely to access them, increasing revenues and reducing churn.”