Tivù Sat delivers over half a million smart cards for MHP set-top boxes

Tivù Sat has shipped over half a million smart cards to DVB-MHP set-top box manufacturers for the Italian free-to-view satellite platform after just four months of operations.  In a statement the Hot Bird-delivered platform said it had dispatched 570,000 cards, some 270,000 more than had been anticipated. Tivù Sat went live in August 2009, immediately causing controversy when public broadcaster RAI withdrew some of its channels from the Sky Italia pay-TV platform, which has struggled to add new subscribers over the last six months.

The 570,000 figure compares favourably with the UK¹s Freesat, which took 18 months to reach 600,000 households, though the French TNTSat was installed in 1 million homes after 16 months of operation. It should be remembered that the Tivù Sat figures refer to shipments and not installations.

Source: http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2009/12/10/more-than-half-million-tivu-sat-cards-shipped/