EchoStar Becomes SmarDTV Shareholder

EchoStar will become a shareholder in SmarDTV, a subsidiary of Kudelski Group that offers advanced set-top boxes and conditional access modules, EchoStar said in a news release Tuesday. EchoStar's operations in Steeton, U.K., and Madrid, Spain, will be transferred to SmarDTV, it said. SmarDTV will facilitate joint commercial activities and deliver consumer devices to TV broadcasting and broadband markets, it said. The devices, including conditional access modules, gateways and set-top boxes, will use Kudelski technologies for security, middleware and user experience, it said.