NAGRA, a Kudelski Group company and the world’s leading independent provider of content protection and media and entertainment solutions announced Tele Columbus, a German operator, has chosen NAGRA as its solution provider and prime integrator to launch PUR TV, its new hybrid cable and multiscreen solution.

This will broaden Tele Columbus’ offering beyond cable to provide subscribers with advanced Hybrid/OTT features.

By enabling Tele Columbus to provide customers with a richer entertainment experience beyond a basic cable offering, PUR TV is poised to increase subscriber loyalty, expand reach, and open new monetization opportunities.

NAGRA’s SaaS OpenTV Video and Security Services Platforms are integrated with 3SS’s 3Ready app platform to deliver an end-to-end, cutting-edge service across TV and streaming devices.

“The television business has changed dramatically in the last few years. With PŸUR TV, we now have a powerful product to offer our customers an outstanding entertainment experience and continue to grow in the face of competition,” said Markus Oswald, Chief Executive Officer at Tele Columbus. “With PŸUR TV, traditional linear television is greatly enhanced with new features and combined with OTT content to create a comprehensive entertainment experience for our customers,” adds Lars Lanske, Head of TV & on Demand Products at PŸUR, who is in charge of the project.

NAGRA’s OpenTV Video Platform is the core solution to address Tele Columbus’ aggregation challenges. 3SS’ 3Ready Framework is a complementary key technology foundation for the service, delivering a custom-designed and unified experience across hybrid set-top-boxes and major streaming devices.

When combined, the result is a compelling and flexible Android TV and multiscreen solution that offers AI-enhanced personalized discovery and a superior UX.

“NAGRA’s best-of-breed partner ecosystem and global industry experience puts us in a unique position to truly understand the challenges customers, like Tele Columbus, face. Our mission is to bring together cohesive and tailored solutions that help them reach business goals,” said Nancy Goldberg, Executive Vice President, and Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at NAGRA. “Together with 3SS, Harmonic, Broadpeak, and Sagemcom, we’re delivering truly world-class video entertainment to Tele Columbus subscribers.”
Tele Columbus’ new service will feature OTT services, including Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube, as part of its hybrid DVB-C (cable) plus OTT Android TV STB, Smart TV, and iOS and Android mobile device delivery. The hybrid solution will complement live TV with advanced features, such as catchup, start over, timeshift, PVR, and full compliance with the requirements of content owners and/or German legislation.

“We are extremely proud to have been selected by Tele Columbus to deliver this landmark next-generation project,“ said Stefan Blickensdoerfer, 3SS CTO. “The joint proposition of the NAGRA Open TV Video Platform deeply integrated with 3Ready represents a truly leading-edge, future-ready solution which will enable Tele Columbus to achieve its business objectives, now and going forward while ensuring superior user experiences for subscribers.”

Olivier Taravel, SEVP, Audio Video Solutions Business Unit, Sagemcom, commented: “We have been partnering with NAGRA for years in providing advanced digital TV set-top boxes to operators, and we are proud to have been chosen by Tele Columbus as a supplier of their next-gen 4K UHD Android TV hybrid STB for the deployment of PŸUR TV”.

In addition to NAGRA, 3SS, and Sagemcom, the multi-vendor solution includes Harmonic’s transcoding and packaging headend and Broadpeak CDN.