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Forensic watermarking is the key to combating OTT stream piracy. Anyone who has attended a seminar on video security over the last year cannot fail to have noticed that content redistribution over the Internet is set to overtake traditional control word sharing as the biggest single piracy threat to premium content. This has been borne out by events, with some OTT premium sports services finding that as much as 50% of their “customers” do not have a legitimate subscription. Instead they have either bypassed security controls directly or accessed a pirated stream that they may have paid for, or that may instead carry advertising.
WinMedia, vendor of content management software for broadcasters, and Orange’s media services company Globecast, have agreed to integrate and distribute each other’s technologies. The tools to prepare, plan and playout the content encompassed in WinMedia solutions have been combined with Globecast’s satellite delivery platform. Six leading TV channels in North and West Africa already use this package.
Amid all the talk of set top box (STB) virtualization an important underlying question is how much functionality is moved to the cloud and what is retained on the customer premises. This is important because it will play a major part in shaping the economics of STB virtualization, depending on how this is defined. There are many definitions, with the weakest being just the direct replacement of the STB with an Internet connected smart TV. This involves incorporating all key STB functions in the smart TV, including IP Multicast support, DRM integration and a SDK (Software Development Kit), enabling operators to create their own apps for the platform.
Broadcasters are increasingly migrating to IP based data networks for video distribution to cut costs and reach new audiences, but some are then finding it difficult to negotiate rigorous SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that underpin performance, robustness and availability. Part of the problem is that Telcos and others providing the IP transport services are themselves not fully up to steam with the more stringent requirements broadcasters have over QoS and reliability.
When the MPEG LA licensing organization, released its final Patent Portfolio License fee structure for High Efficiency Video Coding (“HEVC License”) for using the technology behind the latest generation compression scheme, many in the industry were quite prepared and are now saying all is well…. although it took longer than many had hoped to solve.
The broadcast industry is characterised by a desire to increase efficiencies while remaining as cost-effective as possible. This is especially important considering the prevalence of the multi-platform content delivery environment. Here, the two most crucial drivers for broadcasters and content owners are quality and cost-effectiveness. Broadcasters are striving to balance these needs while still meeting the exacting requirements of their viewers. Audiences now want to watch what they want, when they want and on whichever device they choose – be it a mobile phone, laptop, tablet or television. This appetite is driving the change in the industry but technology is struggling to keep up with this rate of evolution, especially as there is still dependence on the use of proprietary hardware.
Is today’s cable subscription model about to break? Will cable companies find cord cutters destroying their lucrative model—the one where you pay for 100 channels and watch only 10? The company Piksel says yes—maybe, but the giant content holders have to be careful.
The broadcast television industry is facing yet another major transition: the reverse auction of television channel assignments followed by the repacking of spectrum in the 600MHz band to make room for mobile wireless services.
