Vision TV, a new direct-to-home (DTH) operator in the Ukraine, has signed a deal with NDS for conditional access and middleware services, the companies announced Aug. 13.

NDS will provide Vision TV with its VideoGuard solution and its MediaHighway middleware. The platform includes the latest generation MPEG-4 compression via satellite and offers the flexibility to introduce future enhancements and technology.

Vision TV, based in Kiev, is one of the first operators to be awarded a license by the Ukrainian government to provide DTH broadcasting. “There are currently about 17 million TV households in Ukraine,” Richard Caproni, Vision TV’s director general, said. “Of this total, there are currently less than 3 million cable subscribers, about 20 percent of whom are in Kiev. Our long-term strategy is to establish ourselves as the market leader for digital pay-TV services to everyone in Ukraine.”