To help navigate this landscape and to better serve our customers and the market, we helped develop a paper that will serve as a content licensing and security guide for video service providers planning multi-network, multi-screen services. We teamed with Bill Rosenblatt, founder of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, who has been steeped in digital rights and content management technologies for many years and has served as technical expert in litigation and public policy initiatives related to digital copyright.

Basically, he has the studio relationships, technical and legal chops and objective perspective to summarize available information and draw conclusions that are valuable to service providers.

We believe this is the most comprehensive guide available today on how the approach to multi-screen and TV Everywhere types of services relate to traditional licensing and security rules. In general, we found that practical security requirements for over-the-top (OTT) services and portable devices are becoming more analogous to traditional video delivery as the industry matures, meaning the requirements are becoming more stringent.

It is HD content, delivered to any device, that has become primary benchmark in licensing terms and security requirements. The physical media delivery regime for HD was fundamentally grounded in the AACS protection model – now the application of similar principles and in the digital delivery domain is part of the background, although we are seeing trends that this is changing.

In fact, the content of this first version of the paper highlights areas – licensing attributes, new security techniques, release windows, usage rules and studio policies – that are most in flux and provides signposts on where requirements are headed. Of course, market dynamics will never stop shifting. Content owners will attempt to influence them through their licensing deals, and content protection requirements are among the most important licensing terms.  When appropriate, we will update our conclusions over time and use future versions of the paper as a vehicle for updates and elaborations as the industry evolves.

Whether you are a traditional managed-network operator, an OTT video startup, or an ecosystem partner developing devices and apps for premium video delivery, this paper is a must-read to gain a better understanding of content and revenue security in the changing world of multi-screen services.

If you are facing some of these choices in launching new breeds of services, please take a minute to download this paper and let us know what you think. We look forward to continuing this discussion!

So what was the topic of this year’s biggest digital TV conference? Well, actually, I was disappointed because it was multi-screen or any screen or something along those lines. But why is it disappointing you ask? Because we have been promoting this concept for years! And specifically securing premium pay TV content to all screens that subscribers find useful. In reality, I am really quite pleased that the industry finally caught up with our innovative security approach.

Let me offer you my observation about at least one of the less obvious challenges related to delivering rich combinations of TV services to all these connected TVs and portable platforms.  The challenge is reproducing many aspects of the live TV experience in a scalable fashion. Therefore, we are firm believers that, as this market matures, Internet TV services will naturally need a combined solution for both on-demand and live consumption.

None of the critical adaptive bitrate streaming protocols out there, specifically Smooth Streaming and HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), have been defined in a way that makes it easy to support tens of thousands of concurrent subscribers watching a major live event such as the soccer World Cup in real time.

When compared to the well-honed DVB broadcast technologies, some of the key issues of practical concern, like managing semi-synchronized key changes and addressing revenue leakage through re-broadcasting of various kinds, are not yet developed to scale in a streaming environment.

Addressing these kinds of issues takes Internet TV to the commercial level necessary to truly reproduce the pay-TV service paradigm–and associated revenue models – with which we are all familiar. This is where our experience from the IPTV and DVB worlds comes in really handy; where content is distributed to millions of subscribers while managing device entitlement, device security and frequent real-time rights changes.

If this makes you wonder if your current or planned multi-screen service scales beyond just a proof of concept or a friendly trial, give us a call. We are happy to show you how our VCAS for Internet solves this problem without installing a large number of servers in your head-end.

And don’t forget to stop by an old-fashioned cheese farm while visiting Gouda.

We’ve received an overwhelming response to the report and we feel that’s because it hits on some major issues operators are currently dealing with, such as the infrastructure challenge, how to ensure revenue security across multiple devices, and tackling universal content rights that appeal to both the consumer and the content owner.

Based on the feedback we’ve had so far, we thought it would be valuable for Steve Oetegenn to expand on some key points from the report.

• What were you hoping to elucidate with the recent Videonet report, “Making all TV multi-screen TV?”

This report is timely and is another indication of the maturing of the over-the-top (OTT) video marketplace. Consumer expectations have driven the need for multi-screen TV and we are at a point where the technologies and standards are catching up for operators to enable such services – and operate them in a way that complements their more established business streams.

Now we are talking about how to more effectively scale and monetize these services; how to combine on-demand content (which has dominated OTT video) with live content; and how to deliver it over different networks to different devices without sacrificing quality of experience.

This is an exciting time because progressive operators are setting the bar for what is possible. The technology and business decisions they are making are critical to meeting consumer expectations and long-term development of the market.

• How do you see subscription-based and ad-based TV models co-existing in multi-screen services?

Informal polling results from our recent Light Reading webinar illustrated what the market is also seeing – operators taking a mixed approach to revenue extension, just as they have done on more traditional delivery platforms. The more you look at pure online offers today, the more they look like subsets of traditional cable operator models.

• What type of standards will need to be established to secure multiplatform content across different network domains and native DRM schemes?

Actually multiple DRMs and hand-offs during delivery seems like a highly unlikely scenario to us for the most part. The trend appears to be towards efficient and effective end to end models of cloud based services. The future development of these approaches seem likely to adopt “security neutral” forms of content distribution and service protection such as HLS, DECE/Ultraviolet CFF and YouView’s choice of Marlin. (Read more on this topic in ScreenPlays)

The use of DTCP-IP in the home is a counter example with a single “conversion” point in a home gateway, but one that is again vendor neutral in concept, enabling technology solutions to be created that add significant value to the underlying solution.

• What is Verimatrix’s strategy to ensure interoperability within a multiplatform world?

We have launched a strategy that offers two directions in support of optimizing and extending our customers service umbrella.

The first of these is certainly a focus on supporting a widely deployed standard for advanced adaptive streaming, which we believe is HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) at this point. Our value proposition here is to provide additional authentication and entitlement capabilities to existing device implementations and match more of what a commercial premium service is looking for. Clearly, this involves supporting many lightweight client implementations, but this is well rehearsed territory for us in the IP set-top box space.

The second is in response to a clear recognition that not all devices targeted by a given service operator will use a single protection mechanism or even similar file formats. However, it will remain important for operators to manage rights of all devices in concert and it will be vitally important that the consumer experiences a highly uniform and pervasive service offering. The Verimatrix MultiRights strategy provides an answer for this by licensing critical third party technologies and providing them under a common management umbrella.

• With operators facing major transition points for their network (e.g. analog to digital or MPEG 2 to MPEG 4), is there a common security consideration that will more easily enable multi-screen services?

Multi-screen services are just one aspect of an operator seeking to optimize commercial opportunities – and such network transitions are all a part of this kind of picture. Verimatrix provides a single security approach that addresses many aspects of the new commercial opportunities that our operator customers wish to exploit, which is in contrast to the highly siloed approaches of legacy conditional access (CA) providers.

• Where does digital watermarking come in?

Watermarking is a powerful tool that we bring to bear in a layered revenue security approach. The most interest in this extra layer has been for high value, early release content where high resolution video-on-demand (VOD) services offer a tempting point of interception for content pirates and we need to offer a multi-level, layered security approach.

It’s not obvious at present that the value of pirated video copies at mobile screen resolutions warrants the use of this additional security layer, but as screen sizes and service resolutions grow this will become significantly more important.

We will be launching our new server-based watermarking solution at CableNET. Stay tuned.

Click here to view the Videonet report.

Send us a comment or question that you feel hasn’t been addressed for the roll-out of multi-screen video services.

Things have certainly changed in the last six months.

• Cord-cutting may be still a much debated statistic, but is in fact a competitive threat to traditional pay-TV services, particularly with younger generations. This threat grows with the quality of services that can be delivered over unmanaged networks and the variety of devices that can be used to display high quality video services.

• Progressive operators are finding ways to add OTT services to their subscription packages. IMS Research forecasts that in 2016, OTT services delivered via pay-TV set-top boxes will generate $436 million in worldwide operator revenues.

• Innovation among television technology suppliers has far from run its course. New announcements from digital systems vendors appear every day, creating momentum for strong partner ecosystems that can provide operators with the advanced capability they seek, but with options and flexibility for deployment.

We are seeing this support largely for the standard of HTTP Live Streaming (as opposed to the proprietary HTTP Dynamic Streaming from Adobe and Microsoft’s Smooth Streaming) mainly because of its open standards-based approach, including the definition of a standardized stream encryption mechanism for live and on-demand content.

The natural effect of a standards-based protocol and growing technology support is of course a more cost-efficient platform, making HTTP Live Streaming ideal for the kind of large-scale services that these progressive operators want to add to their line up.

However, we recognize that we are still in the early days of developing the business environment for adaptive rate streaming and OTT video services – which is why we are organizing the Capitalizing on OTT Breakfast Forum the morning of March 22 just down from the IP&TV World Forum conference that starts that same day.

We are bringing together industry leaders from Harmonic, RealNetworks, AwoX, Minerva Networks and Heavy Reading to discuss revenue optimization strategies for OTT services to multiple devices.

These companies are far from the only strong contributors to the momentum in this space, but do represent distinct elements of the overall value chain. And as such are able to illustrate very effectively the growing body of both product and expertise that can be brought to bear on this new market.

The point here is not to talk about where the industry is currently positioned in regards to OTT video, but to illustrate a vital and growing phenomenon that will shape the next phase of industry development – the integration of these new delivery mechanisms within an existing managed network service. The presenters will be discussing specific technology decisions operators need to make when building an integrated OTT platform.

With the ability to secure OTT video, operators are also provided a platform to deliver – and more directly monetize – their existing and future premium content.

This event is for broadcasters and network operators that are evaluating adaptive rate streaming technology in order to expand their service umbrella. Not only will you have access to these industry leaders, they will provide a preview and focus of what’s most important at the IP&TV World Forum conference.

Skip the queue the morning of the show and attend our free OTT breakfast forum. You won’t be disappointed. Plus you can enjoy delicious bacon sarnies to start your day!

RealNetworks

Harmonic

Minerva Networks

AwoX

Based on some R&D and plenty of customer feedback, we feel Verimatrix is inherently well-positioned to drive the gathering and tracking of customer viewing information to help our operator customers achieve their larger business goals. Our revenue security solutions are already present at the device level to transparently – and securely – capture the critical real-time subscriber information needed to help drive an enhanced user experience.

Imagine what operators can do with a fine grain picture of who is watching what content, on what devices it is being watched, and when and where these devices are used. With such a picture, they can better determine the “why.” But it’s equally clear that all this data must be protected with an adequate security envelope.

At IBC this year, we sat down with Ben Schwarz to discuss this concept of “real-time subscriber intelligence.”  He has written about it in Broadband TV News and called it a humbling “why on earth I hadn’t I thought of that?” moment.  He has articulately described how Verimatrix technology would fit with an existing pay-TV ecosystem – alongside test & monitoring solutions as well as engine recommendation systems. Check it out and see if you agree.

We realize that the concept of gathering subscriber usage data is not new. However, with the advent of TV Everywhere services and instant gratification born through social media outlets, operators need to think about subscriber behavior and usage data more intelligently.

A cost-conscious and practical approach to make real-time subscriber data a reality is to leverage existing infrastructure assets from known and trusted partners that are already enabling next-generation TV services.

According to Colin Dixon of TDG, “Ensuring the security and privacy of sensitive consumer data is paramount in this equation. As a result, the infrastructure required to for gathering and delivering data on what customers watch and when must embody this reality. Verimatrix has been widely entrusted with maintaining the security of pay content and the integrity of rights information – and is therefore in a good position to extend this type of service to operational data.”

Download our white paper on the topic: “Arming Digital TV Operators with Real-Time Subscriber Behavior and Usage Data” to learn how operators can benefit.

This concept will continue to develop, so stay tuned.

I mentioned this earlier this year, and the main themes still exist. Operators are evaluating the best, and most-cost effective ways to enhance their network that will improve their competitive profile, capture additional revenue or simply better serve current subscribers.

Technically, the challenges may be coming from a transition to MPEG-4 for HD and, eventually, 3D TV, the integration of hybrid services onto an existing broadcast network or the delivery of video services to PCs, portable players, game consoles and mobile handsets.

Another category of operators are those that are still in transition from analog to digital TV delivery that have the opportunity to leapfrog some of the technology choices made by earlier adopters of digital standards. The push to digital usually factors in changes in local regulations, breaches in outmoded security systems and competitive pressures.

A consistent pressing need is to move towards a unified platform that integrates the management of multiple delivery networks and a much greater variety of client devices inside and outside the home. And of course, commercial paid services need an effective answer to the question of revenue security across this delivery landscape.

Depending on the balance of many factors, service providers will typically adopt one of the following approaches to the transition . . .

I’ll stop there because you can read the entire opinion piece in the IBC Show Daily. Or leave a comment and we can continue the conversation.

It is definitely worth visiting our booth at IBC 2010. We are in a new location – Hall 4, Stand B84, and will have some interesting demos and comfortable chairs!

We look forward to seeing you later this week at the show!

VCAS 3.0 was developed to match operators’ needs that are shifting beyond that of content protection alone, towards the broader perspective of revenue security. 

Disney CEO Robert Iger put it this way, “People are willing to pay for quality. They are willing to pay for choice. They are willing to pay for convenience. There’s plenty of room for people to spend more money on things they are doing online. We’re not monetizing as much as we do in our traditional business,” he said. “I think it is wrong to assume that because there is a lot on the Internet that is free that it is going to be impossible to monetize content.” 

VCAS 3 provides the tools and support for to address new opportunities arising from the accelerating convergence of video delivery over various types of networks – whether managed or unmanaged – to a multitude of devices. It enables operators to meet these new challenges and turn these into opportunities for growth. 

In the past several months, we have announced several customers that have deployed solutions based on the VCAS 3.0 architecture including the rollout of Hybrid DVB-C/IP platforms with New Zealand’s second-largest telecommunications operator TelstraClear, Finecom in Switzerland, Cablemas in Mexico and Gtd in Chile.  Plus the DVB-S deployment with ABS-CBN.

We were able to support these operators’ vision to take their subscribers beyond present one-way broadcast services to a solution that allows new methods of video content delivery and ultimately provide more value to their customers. The new services will deliver PVR functionality, HD, on-demand channels and other interactive and Internet-based services. 

We will be talking more about this at IBC in September. Please be sure to visit our “new” booth in Hall 4 Booth B84. We will be posting more information on what you can expect from us at the show this year!

UPDATE:
CSI introduced a Highly Commended award this year for those categories that were hotly contested. We are proud to receive the Highly Commended award for the Best Content Protection solution at this year’s IBC. Congratulations to the team!

We tackle the drivers behind whole home video, current definitions of “cloud-based TV” and the technical challenges that operators still need to overcome to meet consumers’ expectations.

You can find the first interview here. 

Do you feel that developing new revenue streams is the main issue driving operators to offer whole home video services?  

JM: The key requirement is to protect the revenue streams they already have. We are about to enter a very disruptive period in television because convergence is finally happening and the wall between Internet entertainment and television entertainment is starting to crumble. Pay TV operators have to keep their younger audiences fully engaged or risk losing them, and that means giving them the content they want, when they want it and where they want it.

For their customer base as a whole, surely the best way to counter the threat of disintermediation from OTT providers is for Pay TV operators to play to their strengths and deliver their great, compelling broadcast and on-demand services (including premium sports and the best kids and nature channels) on every television. If your teenage child can’t watch that content in their bedroom then they are probably watching a terrestrial free-to-air service instead, going to the web with their PC or playing on a games console. I suppose they might do some homework if things get really bad! The key is to keep them ‘on platform.’

There is evidence that people will pay for whole home video services like multiroom DVR. It is not so clear that people will pay extra to watch their Pay TV services on their PC and it seems to be generally accepted that ‘TV Everywhere’ type services will wrap the online viewing into a bundle with the television subscription. But we spoke to one analyst in the report – Jayant Dasari at Parks Associates – who felt operators could eventually monetize this additional distribution. The example he gave was allowing a customer to watch online free with two devices but charging for access onto a third device.

What is the current definition of “cloud-based” TV services?

JM: It is too early for there to be a defacto standard definition for cloud-based TV. Some commentators refer to the cloud as any network storage and therefore talk about a managed operator cloud (like the headend used to deliver a managed telco IPTV service) and about an unmanaged cloud, which is the Internet. 

The most accepted definition of ‘cloud TV’ today, based on our research, equates it to Internet delivered television services (which could be on-demand or linear). So it means services that harness OTT video infrastructure and protocols.

People are also starting to differentiate the unmanaged Internet from the managed Internet because potentially TV service providers can become CDNs and start providing themselves with some QoS guarantees between the web video servers and the consumer. But that all falls into ‘cloud-based TV’.  

What have you found to be the most significant recent technological developments in whole home video? What are the tough technical challenges that operators still need to overcome to support a satisfactory experience?

JM: We can’t ignore the impact that DLNA seems to be having. Almost anyone you talk to involved in customer premise equipment has this name on their lips. Consumers want their Pay TV services in multiple rooms, the Pay TV industry is looking for ways to achieve this at prices that appeal to the mass-market and there is an increasing emphasis on media gateways feeding thin clients. DLNA can enable different devices to work together, whether they are coming from the Pay TV or the retail CE world.

The reliability of the physical home network itself is crucial. Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) seems to be making strong progress with multiroom services and they claim this is because of their superior reliability compared to wireless or home power cable solutions. Once you start offering whole home video solutions, the Pay TV operator has to take responsibility for that video network so Quality of Service (QoS) is crucial. Some people think media gateways, like a DVR, have an important role to play in managing resources and assuring the customer experience across the home network.

You can view the “Supporting the ‘any screen, anywhere’ video consumer,” report in its entirety on the Videonet site.

As the logic and variety of options are outlined on the Project Canvas web site, offering security mechanisms have clearly been identified as a key technology for Canvas devices. Even in this new video delivery age, a strong core security platform provides the essential support for revenue generating services and complements the fundamental free-to-air and catch-up services central to the Canvas vision. This partnership between commercial pay-TV services and traditional public broadcasting is a healthy example of how common platforms can benefit the industry and the consumer.

We have demonstrated our commercial developments of Marlin Broadband (Marlin BB) on a number of occasions, most prominently at IBC 2009 and IPTV World Forum events. In addition, we have incorporated Marlin support within our MultiRights DRM framework as an important complement to our globally deployed VCAS core technology.

As we move towards delivering fully commercial Marlin solutions, we look to Project Canvas as an important milestone in the selection and deployment of such standards track DRM options. There are a number of other projects around the world evaluating challenges similar to those faced in Canvas and we hope to participate in those initiatives on much the same basis.

Check back here frequently for news on how our value proposition meshes with these large-scale deployments.

The home networking debate has existed for quite sometime. However, as new technologies emerge, such as adaptive rate streaming, standards become mainstream and broadband penetration reaches new heights, this topic is relevant now more than ever. This report illustrates the available choices and implications of alternate multi-screen video architectures.

We sat down with Editor John Moulding for his perspective on why this report breaks new ground on the topic of whole home video.

Tell us why this report, Supporting the ‘any screen, anywhere’ video consumer, was so ambitious on the topic of whole home video?

JM: This is a huge topic that encompasses the future of the home video network, the evolution of multi-platform TV strategies and the long-term evolution of TV delivery itself – looking at whether service providers are going to move from a position where they are married to a physical network to one when they could operate in the ‘cloud’ and deliver services to any home by becoming over-the-top broadband providers.

We wanted to get some informed opinion that reflected the support there is for home network centric and cloud centric approaches to multi-screen delivery. That meant we had to talk to a lot of people – over 20 interviews plus other primary input. We felt it was worth it for Videonet because our editorial focus is on the post-convergence TV experience, and a lot of this is definitely being shaped by the convergence of television, IP and the Internet.

After researching the topic in-depth, do you believe that offering whole home video is one of the key competitive challenges facing operators today?

JM: There is no question that making content available on all important television display screens, including those that are out of the direct control of Pay TV operators (like CE screens bought in retail) is a key competitive challenge. If platform operators do not meet consumer demand for multi-screen viewing around the home they could easily find themselves in the same place as channel owners who were too slow to respond to digital TV and have since struggled to cope with audience fragmentation. They could end up exposed and vulnerable to new competition.

Platform operators have had a great couple of decades and not surprisingly, there are a lot of people who want to eat their lunch. There is a whole ecosystem of online content providers and aggregators who want to gain the attention of consumers on CE screens using broadband and over-the-top delivery. The arrival of connected TV devices like connected televisions, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players makes it so much easier for them to target Pay TV subscribers with alternative content on the television itself – on the main living room TV and in second and third rooms.

Not many Pay TV operators are established as service providers on the PC and mobile and they need to make sure they are not left behind in the race for consumer attention there. I think it’s fair to assume that any successful over-the-top (OTT) service provider who builds an audience online, mainly via the PC/laptop, is going to try to leverage any brand loyalty they have on the TV as soon as they can (as soon as TVs are connected).

If consumers are being offered compelling media experiences, including the all-important catch-up content, on multiple screens in the home, and that is not coming from the Pay TV operator, then the operator is losing time with its customer and potentially revenues. It is handing business straight to alternative providers, the best of whom could grow into strong and permanent competitors. So this is really about holding on to existing customers, making sure they are watching Pay TV services as much as possible, and maintaining revenues as well as looking for new distribution and revenue opportunities.

Why is content security such an important factor when developing a whole home video strategy?

JM: When we talk about whole home video there is an assumption that it is a Pay TV operator who is taking responsibility for creating this kind of multi-room viewing environment. So that means the content includes subscription channels and very possibly exclusive sports and other premium and pay per view programming.

If it’s worth paying for it’s worth stealing and whole-home will just create a nightmare for operators if it exposes them to unauthorized copying and redistribution. Operators will have to invest in these capabilities through media servers (like a DVR) and probably by taking responsibility for home networking issues, with the call centre requirements that suggests. So the last thing they want to do is buy a shiny new bucket with a hole in the bottom.

The big challenge for content security is that Pay TV operators can no longer guarantee they have end-to-end control of the video delivery. If they are handing content into a DLNA-based home network the conditional access (CA) could give way to DTCP-IP link protection. The original CA used by the Pay TV operator may have to hand over to a DRM system to reach target CE devices like PCs or smart phones in the home. So they need security solutions that are very flexible (and where the handover can be achieved securely inside a customer premise device – like the media gateway server).

If operators are delivering content from the ‘cloud’ instead, and using OTT infrastructure to reach multiple screens in the home, they still need to prepare content for different screens with different DRM requirements. In this case, the right DRM for the end target device can be applied from the outset. So the emphasis in the content protection world seems to be shifting from protecting content end-to-end with a single CA/DRM to managing the wider range of security requirements platform operators are going to face. To an extent, the security vendors are starting to act like an interface, managing the subscriber and device views and entitlements but working with any content protection system needed to get content where it needs to go.

What was the most unexpected thing you learned about whole home video while writing the report?

JM: The extent to which the OTT, cloud-based approach is already being seriously considered by operators as an alternative approach to the server/ client whole home video architecture. There is clearly strong support for both approaches. As Tom Lookabaugh, CTO at Entropic Communications says in the report, both models have their champions and even their champions are keeping an eye on the evolution of the other model.

I suppose the surprise is that, given how few platform operators have well established multi-platform services that exploit online distribution, online video technology is being considered not only to reach consumers outside the home but for in-home multi-screen distribution as well.

We continue our conversation with John in Part 2 of this interview where we talk about revenue streams from whole home video, definition of cloud-based TV and both technology advancements and challenges. Stay tuned.