Premiere Makes its Move to Snag News Corp

Plans are on the way for Premiere AG Germany to develop and implement a new encryption technology which would prevent the piracy of content as well as further strengthen German ties with United States media conglomerate – its biggest shareholder, News Corp. The Premier AG broadcaster will also begin to introduce NDS Videoguard, which is also being developed by News Corp subsidiaries, according to the statements they released the previous Tuesday. This news came out after media reports that claimed News Corp was also interested in boosting its shares of Premiere, aiming to move it to 25 percent from 22.7 percent. This, according to analysts, would give News Corp a considerable amount of control of the broadcasting giant and also boosting its entire range of stocks as well.

The shares of Premier also rose up to 2.5 percent and rested at 14.12 euros at late 10:21 MT. This is also an indicator of their being able to outperform the mid-cap index of Germany, which is also up at 0.1 percent.

The On-going Fight Against Hackers

Premiere executives also said a couple of months ago that their viewers have also been busy hacking into the signals, which then impacted their sales and prompted them to issue smart cards. It will then use the NDS along with a newer version of the Nagravision smart cards, which is supplied by Kudelski, a Swiss software developer.

According to chief technology officer Hans Seger, their decision to work with both providers will also mean strengthening their hand in the on-going fight against hackers all over the world. Thanks to these efforts, people who end up using hacked receivers will come to realize that they have ended up throwing their money out the window.

This contract with NDS is valid for one decade. The contract they have with Kudelski will expire in the year 2012, but this can also be extended depending on a certain number of factors, according to Premiere. News Corp is a New York-based company which also owns the renowned 20th Century Fox studios, as well as the MySpace social networking site and London Times newspaper. This was bought at 14.58 percent during last January by Premiere. Since that time, the stakes have risen to 22.7 percent. This company also plans to raise that stake to at least twenty five percent as an effort to expand its hold on the biggest television market in Europe, according to the Wall Street Journal report.