Widevine secures IPTV content for Portugal

March 5, 2007 – Widevine has been selected to secure premium Hollywood programming for Portugal’s first IPTV service, Clix SmartTV, offered by telecommunications provider Sonaecom.

Portugal’s has one of the highest penetration rates of PayTV in Southern Europe and 1.4 million broadband access lines. Telco’s like Sonaecom are seeing the potential for IPTV penetration and are determined to take advantage of technological advances in order to compete in the IPTV market. According to Sonaecom, its national network reaches 1.6 million homes in Portugal at present, delivering multimedia content secured by Widevine to set top boxes, PCs and mobile devices.

Sonaecom’s IPTV service, Clix SmartTV, claims to allow subscribers to access a range of broadcast television, video on demand (VOD) and subscription video on demand (SVOD).

“Sonaecom wanted to take advantage of explosive broadband growth and deliver a truly converged multi-service network offering. Widevine’s ability to protect multiple formats, multiple platforms and multiple devices using a single protection solution is a key factor in our growth plans for Clix SmarTV,” says Susanna Barbato, Sonaecom’s Director of IPTV. “And because content acquisition is one of the most critical elements of an IPTV deployment it was important to select a content security vendor that could ensure we can meet future expansion requirements to the PC and mobile platforms.”