The deal will see the bundling of Conax’s Connected Access next-generation IPTV security client with ZTE’s complete offering targeting the global telco TV market and enable it to position for new markets. It is designed to provide ZTE’s operator offering with comprehensive content protection for IPTV and over-the-top (OTT) services through an architecture offering converged security with conditional access and DRM. This gives a single security client for all operator content to the connected set-top box (STB).

The first joint operator deployments are under preparation and commenting on the deployment of Conax technology, Fang Hui, vice president of ZTE Corporation said: “As we aim to tap the broad opportunities forecasted in the coming years for the IPTV market, ZTE sees strong synergies in partnering with Conax to provide their leading security technology for our global IPTV offering. Conax’s security reputation, reliability and extensive experience in additional segments provide interesting opportunities for harnessing future growth. The market holds significant opportunity for rapid expansion within IPTV, thus we are very pleased to introduce the new offering to the global arena.”

As Conax was closing its deal with ZTE, parent company The Kudelski Group was announcing a patent cross licence agreement with AT&T in the field premium TV entertainment. The agreement for which financial terms have not been disclosed, provides AT&T worldwide access to Kudelski Group’s patent portfolio that covers fundamental aspects of end-to-end video distribution. “We are extremely pleased to enter into this agreement with AT&T” said André Kudelski, Kudelski Group chairman and CEO. “This further validates the strong relevance of our patent portfolio to satellite, cable, and OTT video distribution.”