France Télécom and TDF to Join S2 Licensing Patent Pool
S2 Licensing announced today at DVB World 2012 that two additional patent owners have agreed to license their essential DVB-S2 patents through its worldwide patent licensing program. France Télécom and TDF SAS will each license their DVB-S2 essential patents through S2 Licensing, joining current patent owners DTVG Licensing, Inc., the European Space Agency (ESA), and Radiotelevisione Italiana SpA (RAI).
"The addition of the France Télécom and TDF patents into our license offering will not result in additional royalties to present or future licensees," explained John T. Whelan of S2 Licensing. "We are extremely excited to offer these essential patents through our licensing program. This adds to the already tremendous value offered to our customers."
For the convenience of adopters, S2 Licensing offers a license under the combined portfolios (over 100 international patents) of DTVG Licensing, Inc., ESA, and RAI, and soon France Télécom and TDF. The license is available to all parties practicing or planning to practice the DVB-S2 standard, and provides favorable and non-discriminatory terms to all licensees. For consumer applications, such as satellite television set-top box receivers, a license under the S2 Licensing patents is available for a one-time royalty of US$0.50 for each encoder or decoder present in a product for quantities exceeding 500,000 over the term of the license, and US$1.00 per encoder or decoder in lower quantities. Professional products may be licensed under multiple licensing models, for the convenience and at the selection of the adopter.
Parties interested in further information or scheduling a meeting with S2 Licensing are invited to contact John T. Whelan, Esq., (info@S2Licensing.com), or visit our website at www.S2Licensing.com.
About DTVG Licensing, Inc.
DTVG Licensing, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DTV) and is the owner by assignment of patents essential to practice the DVB-S2 Standard. The DIRECTV Group is a world-leading provider of digital television entertainment services. Through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and other countries in Latin America, the DIRECTV Group provides digital television service to 19.9 million customers in the United States and over 12 million customers in Latin America.
About RAI
RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) is the Italian Public Broadcaster for radio and television over the air, via satellite and cable or any other means. It provides programme production and network operation for three national analogue television channels broadcast in VHF/UHF bands. These programmes are progressively replaced by terrestrial and satellite bouquets according to the "switch-off" calendar in Italy, including a growing number of thematic channels in clear. It provides also production and network operation for three radio channels, broadcast in MW and FM, and of international radio programmes in SW.
About ESA
European Space Agency (ESA) is an international organisation, with 19 Member States, set up to provide for and to promote, for exclusively peaceful purposes, cooperation among European states in space research and technology and their space applications. ESA draws up a European space plan and has the task of carrying it out. Its activities span the fields of space science, Earth observation, telecommunications, satellite navigation, human spaceflight, microgravity research, exploration and space transportation systems. ESA has its headquarters in Paris, France, with establishments in The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain, a launch base in Kourou, French Guiana, and offices in Washington, Moscow and Brussels.