The DIRECTV Group, RAI and ESA, the holders of key DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)-S2 intellectual property rights, announced today the fundamental terms of a comprehensive licensing offering under their combined patent rights for DVB-S2 standardized technology.
The offering will set limits on cumulative royalties paid for the licensing of intellectual property rights in order to speed adoption of the DVB-S2 standard. DVB-S2 is the second generation DVB system for broadband satellite communications, covering digital TV and HDTV broadcasting, interactive services, and professional links by satellite.
The three rights holders will jointly offer a license under their combined portfolios of intellectual property rights necessary for the implementation of DVB-S2. For consumer applications, such as satellite television set-top box receivers, a license under the combined portfolios will not exceed $0.50 per product in quantities exceeding 500,000 over the term of the license and not to exceed $1.00 per product in lower quantities. Licenses for consumer applications will be granted for five-year terms. Renewals will be granted on fair and reasonable terms based on then-current market conditions.
Free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters will not be required to pay a separate service license fee to broadcast to licensed receivers. The per product royalties and the arrangements for broadcasters are geared to help launch DVB-S2 technology and follow the commitment of the rights holders to offer licenses on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
"We feel that it is important to confirm to the marketplace that the cumulative royalties for the licensing of known essential IPRs will indeed be fair and reasonable," said Dr. Alberto Morello, Director of the RAI Research Centre.
"DIRECTV developed essential DVB-S2 coding technology to significantly expand the capacity of its direct-to-home broadcast business. By confirming that a license under the DIRECTV, RAI and ESA patents will not exceed $0.50 per consumer product -- with no additional service royalties or other service fees owed by free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters -- manufacturers and service providers will now be able to set their business models to take advantage of this important technology," added Romulo Pontual, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of DIRECTV.
"We expect that these conditions will foster a rapid adoption of this innovative standard by the global satellite broadcast and telecommunication industry," concluded Giuseppe Viriglio, ESA Director of Telecommunication and Navigation.
The licensing model under the combined portfolio for interactive and professional applications such as pay-TV, data broadcasting/internet access and satellite news gathering will be announced shortly. DIRECTV, RAI and ESA, however, confirmed that the cumulative royalties for the related equipment (e.g., modulators, demodulators, etc.) are not expected to exceed 1-2% of the equipment cost.
For broadcast applications (using QPSK and 8PSK modulations only) the licensing program will be administered by DIRECTV (contact John T. Whelan, john@baysidelaw.com). For the other cases, including, for example, professional/interactive applications and advanced broadcasting using 16APSK and 32APSK, the program will be administered by each entity (contacts: DIRECTV: John T. Whelan, john@baysidelaw.com; RAI: Alberto Morello, a.morello@rai.it; ESA: Luz Becker, luz.becker@esa.int). The rights holders are nearing completion of work on a form of license agreement. Entities which believe they hold patents essential to the DVB-S2 technology are encouraged to contact Mr. Whelan at john@baysidelaw.com.
By DIRECTV
Posted December 23rd, 2006 by Nymphadora
