After banging its head with the wall looking for ways to US MSOs to present on the cursory look into its conditional access system, NDS Ltd. has ultimately discovered tips on how to elbow its way into this tough market.

Rather then throwing money and energy at planning to bust the seemingly unbreakable Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT)-Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) set-top and security duopoly, UK-based NDS have been gaining traction with a portion of the nation’s largest MSOs by focusing less on its product portfolio and much more on professional services that, more often than not, end up focusing on projects that rely mostly on products from competitors.

NDS’s persistence about this side from the pond is starting to. For many years, the key conditional access take care of Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) basically summed up NDS's limited US cable momentum. (See Samsung Boxes Break In at Cablevision and Cablevision Scores Set-Top Waiver Extension .)

Last year, NDS’s cable fortunes did start to turn in the better when Cox Communications Inc. hired it that can help out with all the MSO’s ambitious tru2way effort. Cox hired NDS to build up and integrate apps, comprising the MSO’s new "Trio" guide, for your platform that’s starting by utilizing Cisco-made boxes and security. Then, recording, it scored a deal to perform the duties of the optimal integrator for Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK)’s tru2way project.

[Ed Note: NDS's US cable potential also brightened slightly when News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) swapped management of MSO rival DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV) to Liberty Media Corp. (NYSE: LMC).[]|] (See Liberty Seals DirecTV Swap , Cox Puts NDS in your mind of Tru2way Plan , Cox Guides Tru2way Forward, Nintendo ds r4, r4 card and Comcast, NDS Connect on Tru2way R4 DS .)

Those deals, plus growth opportunities with other MSOs, are raising NDS's Us profile. After starting off with several people specializing in that market recently, NDS has since bumped the numbers as much as 350, and has recently opened up an exciting new facility in Atlanta, where Cox is headquartered and where a number its larger vendors, including Cisco, employ a significant presence.

Jesper Knutsson, VP and GM of sales for Canada and america, claims that NDS’s vendor-neutral and gaps analysis approach with professional services has helped it gain traction with domestic cable operators.

NDS has hit on something with that more broad-minded and less product-focused path to the american cable market, says Heavy Reading senior analyst Alan Breznick. "They’re not just counting CA [conditional access[]|] anymore," he tells. "They’ve seen the limits of the strategy."

But make no mistake, if NDS shows a product or component that can help fill those gaps, will probably be at least happy finances perhaps the package.