MultiChoice South Africa (MCSA), a DTH operator in south Africa, is teaming up with OpenTV as it prepares to roll out advanced digital television services on its DStv platform across South Africa, the companies announced August 14.

MCSA is investigating high definition personal video recorders (PVRs) with OpenTV Core2 middleware and OpenTV PVR2 software, in combination with Irdeto’s content security for digital TV. OpenTV will act as system integrator for the project. The Push video-on-demand (VoD) service will allow MCSA to broadcast a selection of television and entertainment content directly on the hard disk of set-top boxes for immediate access by subscribers. The advanced service will provide MCSA’s subscribers over time, with a range of interactive TV content, PVR, VoD, and HD services.

OpenTV, a Kudelski Group company, is one of the key suppliers of middleware and advanced TV solutions to satellite pay-TV operators. In one other major deal with a DTH operator this year, the company announced in May of this year, that NTV-Plus, a Russian DTH operator, would launch HD television services using OpenTV’s advanced digital television solutions.