In an April 10 statement, the partners said the new solution aims to be the “new face of satellite reception of free Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) channels in France.” The solution comprises a decryption module produced by Neotion and an access card for subscription-free reception of Fransat — the French satellite TV platform owned by Eutelsat.

   “This new product takes reception of Fransat to new levels of simplicity,” the companies said in the statement. “Viewers no longer need an external set-top-box or a second remote control. They simply need to slot the Fransat access card into the module and then insert the module into the common interface (CI) of the TV set, which is already pre-equipped with a satellite tuner.”

   The module, developed by Neotion using Viaccess conditional access technology, uses the CI Plus specification to support the authentication and encryption mechanisms that provide secure channels between the Conditional Access Modules (CAM) and Samsung’s integrated digital TV.

   Fransat said the modules would be released to commercial markets in France at the recommended retail price of 129 euros ($168.5).