How can we provide our customers with the most innovative solutions for securing and enhancing revenue for multi-network digital TV services on the market today?

This month, Verimatrix has been recognized for our innovation by two separate entities, both distinguished in their own right.

During CES 2012, our MultiRights solution won the Content Protection category at the prestigious 2012 TV Innovation Awards.  Very exciting news, especially considering the source of the award.  Now in its third year and administered by IMS Research, the 2012 TV Innovation Awards are one of the premier endorsements of innovation in television. The awards recognize the most forward-thinking companies that are creating products and services to change the way people watch television.  We are thrilled that Verimatrix was honored as one of these companies.

We feel that this commitment to innovation has also contributed to our sustained market leadership in software-based security. In December, MRG released its bi-annual IPTV Market Leaders Report that named Verimatrix in the top position. This marks the 11th consecutive time that we have maintained our market share in IPTV, representing 5 ½ years of Verimatrix global leadership.

Not a bad way to ring in the New Year!  We are thrilled to kick off 2012 on such a high note and look forward to continuing our relentless innovation in multi-network and multi-screen content protection and revenue security. Our philosophy is that if we offer our customers innovative solutions for securing and enhancing revenue on their multi-network digital TV services, we help them to market leadership positions in their own business. Their success becomes our success.

#1.  Our CEO, Tom Munro, was shortlisted in the Technology Leader category for his contributions to the pay-TV industry as a whole.

#2.  Mario Pino, Marketing Launch Director for our customer Etisalat, was shortlisted in the Marketer of the Year category.

We are enormously gratified to receive this recognition; 2011 has been an incredibly productive and successful year on many fronts for us here at Verimatrix.  As our CEO, Tom is the visionary responsible for Verimatrix’s technical and commercial momentum in multi-network revenue security.  With a growing list of multi-screen deployments around the globe, this momentum is hard to ignore.

And we would also like to extend our sincerest congratulations to Mario.  It is an honor to be recognized alongside a partner, especially one as hard-working and innovative as Mario.  It’s Mario’s job to ensure that Etisalat lives up to its marketing message of ‘Get ready to be amazed’. Since Etisalat developed its vision as a leader in digital media delivery network over any network, any screen, at any time, the progress has been exponential.

In 2011 alone Mario played an instrumental role in launching the IPTV 2.0 service called eLife TV, Etisalat xGames, as well eLife OnWeb and eLife OnDemand on LG Smart TVs and LG Smart Upgraders. More information about these deployments can be found on Mario’s blog. He has achieved many accomplishments this year, and we wish him continued success in 2012.

Congratulations, Tom and Mario!

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.

We have been vocal in our position of how pay-TV operators should integrate OTT and adaptive rate streaming technologies with existing managed networks to enhance ARPU, subscriber loyalty and lure incremental advertising dollars.

We also believe this fundamentally changes how they view traditional delivery networks and business models.

To be successful long-term, this convergence of technologies must encompass a proactive revenue protection strategy that enables pay-TV operators to cast a much wider net with their service offerings. This shifts the central value proposition for the pay-TV enterprise beyond that of content protection alone, towards the broader perspective of revenue security.

Our VCAS for Internet TV component provides a complete digital TV security solution for OTT services over networks implementing the HTTP Live Streaming protocol. While the protocol incorporates a baseline security model for service, VCAS for Internet TV provides important extensions that improve the capability to support subscription and transaction based pay-TV services. In particular, the security solution ensures that decryption keys are managed and selectively distributed to authorized clients only.

We are particularly excited that Nokia Siemens Networks consciously decided to build its Ubiquity TV platform around the standards-based HTTP Live Streaming protocol. All operational aspects of the protocol delivery are standard-based, which makes it ideal for digital TV operators to offer large-scale OTT services. Plus it includes standardized support for key management and allows device and session-based authentication.

Through a single security head-end, we are able to manage CA and DRM functions over multiple networks and devices. For example, our core VCAS 3 architecture can secure QAM modulated streams on a cable network, VOD services in a managed IPTV system and rate-adaptive HTTP streams on a mobile devices network.

We are looking forward to working with more digital TV operators that want to take advantage of advanced HTTP streaming technologies that have been designed to effectively scale and solve many remaining IP video issues.

Please stop by our booth (4.B84) at IBC 2010 to discuss the opportunities and revenue security strategies for OTT convergence.

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!

Post #1:  The Latest OTT Opportunity: Connected TV

Of all the new Internet TV delivery options, the connected TV is especially interesting to service operators: It’s already front and center in the living room, there is perhaps no expensive STB required, it features an already integrated remote control and has the potential for high-quality presentation without distortion or noise from connecting cables.

On the other hand, today’s connected TVs are fundamentally constrained by proprietary interfaces, wholly proprietary aggregation portals and simplistic navigational schemes. Limited or no storage means streaming-only presentation of content. 

Our current feeling is that the Internet-connected TVs are primarily an aspect of a features game in a highly competitive consumer electronics market and is one of the options least likely to be exploited for premium video delivery services. The more likely scenario will be facilitated via connected devices such as Blu-ray players game consoles and last but not least via STBs, although these may take on a new identities such as whole home DVRs, media gateways, etc. 

It is possible that connectivity may be used to blend the TV and Web experiences together. Operators can choose to make this happen on a TV using overlay or screen sharing applications, such as calling up an actor’s Twitter feed while watching his performance.

But given that living room viewing is a shared experience, it may be more realistic to see TV supplemented by other more personal phone or pad devices with better user input capabilities to provide such interactivity. I can attest with my own family’s habits, that it has become more normal for viewers to watch TV while working on their connected laptop!

I presented last week at the TV 3.0 – Future of TV conference (co-located with @DisplayWeek) . I was surprised to hear that nearly 20% of TVs shipped in 2010 will be network‐enabled, which is projected to reach about 60% in 2013!

And we are experiencing some interest from CE manufacturers to embed software-based security technology directly into these next-generation TVs.

Nonetheless, I came back with the opinion that STBs are not going away anytime soon. The issue (and cost) of customer support needs to rest with the operator who ultimately owns the quality of experience.

What are your thoughts?

Our assessment is that the new platform is one facet of a seismic shift in the cable industry that has been long dominated by few technology choices and closed ecosystems. IP-based technologies have now taken center stage as cable MSOs are recognizing the cost and business model advantages of delivering video through a new class of flexible, efficient and highly adaptable service platform.

Cable operators – and their subscribers – are ultimately going to benefit from a new freedom to choose the latest technologies as they take their business forward. IP distribution in the core network will lead inexorably to IP distribution to the consumer, who will be able to take advantage of new advanced customer premise equipment for subscription services to the big screen – and have the opportunity to access parallel Internet TV or OTT services using open adaptive rate streaming technologies.

Comcast Media Center’s CEO Gary Traver put it this way, “Fiber delivery has the bandwidth and resiliency to deliver the large number of video services and encoding formats that can help MSOs compete in today’s environment. The HITS fiber-based solution offers a reliable and potentially cost-effective content delivery method that an MSO can leverage in their long-term business strategy to add future services and revenue streams. ”

What a change from the view of IPTV just a few years ago! IP is not just for telcos that need to defend their subscriber base from the triple play ambitions of cable MSOs. This is surely a confirmation of IP as a central technology in all modern digital TV delivery systems.

Several years back, we predicted that all video delivery systems will be simply be referred to as digital TV, and that IP will underpin almost every aspect regardless of whether it is a telco TV service or a hybrid satellite/broadband combination. 

With Comcast Media Center’s announcement, this is truer than ever.

We are very proud to be a part of this deployment and be able to work with our partner, Harmonic. This is not only an important development for us, but for the industry.

Do you feel we are overstating the significance of this industry shift? Let us know.

Now, we’ve all complained about tradeshows – they are costly, require a large amount of company resources to make them successful and can be murder if you don’t have the right footwear.

But at the end of the day, it provides us with a great opportunity to meet with customers, partners and prospects and have meaningful conversations about their conditional access and content security plans. In speaking with service providers – cable, satellite, IPTV – we have picked up on a major theme. They are all contemplating landmark updates to their network to improve their competitive profile, capture additional revenue or simply better serve current subscribers.

More specifically, we are seeing four main trigger points for operators to transition their network and upgrade their content security platform.

• Analog-to-digital transition
• Digital cable-to-IPTV migration
• Cable switch-out to all IP
• Hybrid digital terrestrial/IPTV
• The adoption of IP for video delivery of satellite

Fortunately for us, these transition scenarios take advantage of proven IP-based standards and technologies. It also reinforces our position that eventually all pay-TV networks will be categorized as simply digital TV. Two-way interactivity of IP will underpin almost every aspect regardless if it is a telco TV network or a hybrid satellite/broadband combination. 

Based on strategy sessions with customers, we have identified a unique set of complex issues operators need to consider when upgrading their content security. Namely, they need to make decisions around their long-term “revenue security” strategy.

 Our team has developed a white paper that explores these issues and provides common migration approaches that can be downloaded from our site, “New Content Security Strategies Transform Pay-TV Service Migration: What Operators Should Consider when Upgrading their Networks.”

We have received positive feedback on the paper so far. Please let us know what you think.

And we’ll see you at our next tradeshows: Philippines Cable Television Show (Mar 16-19), IPTV World Forum in London (Mar 23-25) and Convergence India (Mar 23-25), with comfy shoes! 

Compare that with IPTV operators. In the early days, theft of service was never a forefront requirement when building their networks – for two main reasons. They felt they had more control with fixed networks where the end device was a set-top box, so the threat of theft of service was potentially lower. In addition, content owners saw the emerging Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) as a potential threat and imposed much higher security requirements in order to gain rights to premium programming. Despite claims to the contrary from smart card vendors, software-based security was deemed acceptable in a two-way network and content protection was key to a full channel lineup to attract subscribers.

With the appeal of hybrid networks and novel OTT (over-the-top) services, all types of pay-TV operators find themselves in new revenue security territory. Cable and satellite providers are making strategic decisions to add more interactive services, many of which are delivered over IP-based networks. They are finding that software-only security solutions offer a more economical alternative, which are far easier to deploy, compared with smart cards that simply do not translate in the two-way environment, in particular in the case of mobile devices. 

IPTV providers are now looking into OTT services that deliver content outside their controlled, managed network. They need layered security solutions to take advantage of different delivery mechanisms outside of the living room. Plus IPTV operators with rights to exclusive content have become an attractive target for hackers, so theft of service prevention is a higher priority.

You can now put revenue security on the list of how these pay-TV services are converging. Operators require a flexible protection solution that can handle different networks, delivery formats, multiple end devices and the addition of new services – the ultimate goal is help monetize content, increase ARPU and reduce churn.

Come see me at Digital Hollywood Fall where we will tackle the latest DRM standards and actual technology implementations – today at 12:30!