To help navigate this landscape, we developed 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.

The great debate surrounding the viability of premium Video on Demand (VoD) content continues. At this point, it seems we should move beyond the enabling regulations and technical obstacles surrounding premium VoD and instead concern ourselves with market dynamics – who might be the big winners and losers. Despite some changing dynamics in content licensing and security, technology is not the long pole in the tent any more, but rather licensing terms and subscriber adoption – at least for early adopters. And we are clearly still in the experimental phase of verifying if a home theater movie experience in a similar release window as theatrical release provides a viable business upside.

Our CEO and Chief Visionary, Tom Munro, was shortlisted for a Euro50 Award in the Technology Leader category for his contributions to the pay-TV industry as a whole. Although Tom didn’t walk away with the trophy, he was recognized alongside other industry visionaries at the Awards gala in London, where we were delighted to host a great mix of partners and customers at our table. As part of its Awards coverage, Digital TV Europe asked Tom to reflect on his accomplishments in 2011, and provide his vision for 2012.

It was a pleasure to host our EMEA Autumn Summit this year near our new Munich office during Oktoberfest. Our customers and ecosystem partners attended the 2-day workshop to network with our combined European-based team and senior executives, as well as gain a full understanding of the direction of our VCAS security architecture. We laid [...]

As IBC draws closer, we find ourselves reflecting on the trends that have been reinforced since IBC 2010, and anticipating the prevailing themes of the conversations at IBC 2011.

Since last year’s show, it seems the digital TV industry has entered a new period of pragmatism and commercial maturity. This feels like a welcome period of stabilization after the recent cycles of hype following OTT’s emergence as a viable new technical option for service delivery.

So if you’re in Amsterdam next month, drop by our stand, say hello and share your thoughts with us on the trends here and at @verimatrixinc that will define IBC 2011 and pave the way for the IBC 2012.

The early release window for premium VOD movies, which offers Hollywood content for home consumption while it is still showing at theaters, has been debated for many years. One technically interesting point for me is that operators often prefer server-side integration of watermarking. The tradeoff is whether the integration is done in the client device, or in the video server before delivery.

We recently announced the availability of our new StreamMark server-side watermarking solution, which we demonstrated at CableNET 2011. StreamMark has tremendous potential to help shape the market for premium video on demand (VoD) content. Yes, we realize early release windows and watermarking have been discussed, debated and hyped for many years. But premium VoD has been revitalized ever since the FCC’s ruling allowing selectable output control (SOC) for set-top boxes in the U.S.

Verimatrix has maintained its global number one position in MRG’s latest IPTV Market Leader Report. MRG also reports an increased market share for Verimatrix of six points to 31% when compared to the Fall report.

The distinction between multi-screen TV and TV will eventually disappear as all video services inherently incorporate any device where we want to consume content. The challenge is to make multi-screen services more scalable, which requires advances in headends, networks, content rights and revenue protection.

IP&TV Industry Awards shortlist includes Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE. All of these multi-screen video solutions have one thing in common: Verimatrix’s content security.