NDS and Associated Press Conduct Successful Worldwide Data Broadcasting Network Trial; Electronic Newspaper With Video Transmitted In Seconds Via Satellite

Business Wire, August 4, 1997

WEST DRAYTON, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 1997--NDS Limited, the parent company of NDS Americas, and a leading worldwide provider of end-to-end solutions for digital broadcasting, today announced the successful completion of a major trial of its Data Broadcasting Network (DBN).

Carried out in conjunction with Associated Press Television (APTV), the trial broadcast a data carousel of multimedia content simultaneously with APTV's international news video feed. The signal was uplinked from Teleport London International throughout North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim using the TDRSS 4, Spacenet 3 and AsiaSat 2 satellites. The main content of the data carousel was an electronic copy of The Sunday Times including an MPEG video clip.

The trial exceeded expectations, with the data transmitted at 6 Mbit/sec in addition to a sample 2 Mbit/sec video signal from APTV. The test was conducted using only a quarter of a single satellite transponder's bandwidth. Much higher bit rates (30 Mbit/sec per transponder) will be tested in future trials, which translates to the capability of transmitting an entire CD-ROM to a PC in under three minutes.

At these bit rates a software package, such as Microsoft Office, could be simultaneously distributed to a whole continent within minutes. Future delivery mechanisms for cable and digital terrestrial television will also be able to use DBN in parallel with television programming at similar data rates.

"There is a noisy debate as to whether the PC or the TV will win in the race to provide information and entertainment to the wired home of the future," says Dr. Abe Peled, CEO of NDS Ltd. "The marketplace will decide on the future winners.

"Data broadcasting will play a large part in the provision of multimedia information and electronic entertainment for both home and office users to PCs and TVs. The great advantage of our Data Broadcasting Network technology is that not only does it offer Internet information services at low cost, but that it works today."

"We see this type of technology as a key part of our future business strategy," said Michael Liebreich, director of marketing and strategic planning for Associated Press Television. APTV's strategy is to meet broadcasters' needs across the full range of video, text, photographic, graphics and software.

"DBN is attractive because it offers us a way of delivering all this content to our customers in one easy stream. The tests have shown that DBN works today and at speeds that open up a range of possible new services to our customers. We are excited to be working with NDS and look forward to future developments."

The trial transmitted the following data carousel:

-- The Sunday Times Internet edition with multimedia enhancements

(15 MByte in 20 seconds)

-- Fox baseball clip (5.4 MByte in 7 seconds)

-- TV Guide Promo (5 MByte in 7 seconds)

-- Simpson's MPEG video clip (3 MByte in 4 seconds)

About Associated Press

APTV was launched in 1994 as the video news arm of the Associated Press. It now provides international news video to over 170 broadcasters in 55 countries. It has established itself as the premier quality service, aggressive in its news gathering and achieving high editorial and production standards.

In addition to its international news service, APTV offers a sports news and highlights service, Sports News Television (SNTV) as a joint venture with Transworld International Ltd. (TWI). It also offers satellite services, a comprehensive video news archive, custom reports from around the world, and special services at major events such as the Hong Kong changeover.

The Associated Press is the world's oldest and largest news gathering organization with 93 world-wide and 143 US bureaus. APTV is part of Associated Press's overall strategic plan to provide the world's media with a comprehensive array of news gathering services. AP now supplies video, television graphics, text, audio, photos and computer software. It is headquartered in London and employs 300 staff and contract journalists.

For more information on APTV, contact Pippa Maries: APTV, Associated Press House, 12 Norwich Street, London EC4A 1BP; email: Pippa_Maries@ap.org; tel 44 171 427 4041; fax 44 171 583 0207.

About NDS

NDS Americas is located in Newport Beach Calif. and is part of the company's worldwide operations with corporate headquarters based in the United Kingdom. The company provides complete end-to-end solutions for digital broadcasting and has worldwide R&D, manufacturing and support facilities. NDS is a recognized leader in digital video compression, conditional access, and has proven systems integration and global support capabilities.

NDS is providing its advanced technologies, products and services to 18 of the 30 current and planned digital satellite and terrestrial broadcasting systems around the world. Some of NDS' key customers in the Americas include DIRECTV, INTELSAT, Galaxy Latin America, NetSat and Innova.

In addition, over 8 million subscribers around the globe use NDS conditional access systems to receive pay TV satellite and cable services. NDS plays a major part in developing open systems and the international standards for the digital broadcasting arena, providing the technology and market know-how to implement standards such as MPEG-2, DVB and DTTV.