NAGRA acquires Sigma SIS
October 3, 2011
NAGRA, the Kudelski Group company, has acquired Sigma Systems’ Subscriber Information Service platform (SIS) business. As part of the business partnership, Sigma Systems will continue its product development and deployment support associated with the launch of the SIS business for NAGRA.
“NAGRA is committed to enabling advanced advertising capabilities, addressability in particular, for service providers worldwide,” said Paul Woidke, SVP and GM, Advanced Advertising for NAGRA. “Sigma Systems is the preeminent developer of an SCTE-130 compliant SIS platform. By entering into this partnership agreement and integrating SIS into our advanced advertising offering, we are ensuring that audience qualification is an integral part of our solution – and that it can be leveraged to deliver the right message to the right audience. Combined with our existing advanced advertising components, the SIS acquisition sets a new benchmark in turnkey advertising solutions that can be available to our customers not only in the United States, but worldwide.”
“Sigma has worked closely with service providers and leading standards bodies like SCTE and CableLabs® to deliver a market-ready SIS solution. We believe the integration of the SIS platform to the NAGRA product suite delivers the solution that service providers need to advance television advertising and addressability and bring the industry to the next level,” said Pankaj Gogia, VP, Strategy of Sigma Systems. “Sigma’s expertise with subscriber information management will enable NAGRA to advance the SIS product while continuing to assist in operator deployments.”
The SIS is an essential component to NAGRA’s advanced advertising strategy, giving service providers the ability to aggregate disparate sources of customer information—such as location, subscriber demographics, services and usage trends—into a single view for audience qualification. This in turn allows service providers to match relevant advertising with the appropriate audience. Combined with NAGRA’s existing advertising solutions and capabilities, including campaign management, ad decision and ad management services, and interactive advertising systems, SIS allows service providers to deliver the right advertisement to the right audience, increasing viewer engagement and interactivity. What’s more, the SIS was designed for multiplatform and multi-device use, in both linear and non-linear (VOD) environments, giving it an edge in today’s multiscreen environment.
The SIS is based on the SCTE-130 standard and has been extensively tested in the CableLabs Advanced Advertising Interop Program, providing a proven framework for the deployment of advanced advertising services.
NAGRA’s advanced advertising solutions are based on OpenTV products which it acquired in 2009.