I have released a new white paper on content security requirements for video services that distribute content to multiple devices.  This white paper discusses copyright owners’ requirements for security in today’s world of proliferating devices and delivery channels.

So-called managed networks (cable, satellite, and telco TV) are under increasing pressure to compete with “over the top” (OTT) video services that can run on any IP-based (unmanaged) network to a variety of devices — services like Netflix and Hulu.  In the US, in fact, total subscriberships of OTT services are fast approaching the total subscriberships of cable, satellite, and telco TV.

Therefore pay-TV operators have to respond by making their content available on a similar variety of devices and even through unmanaged networks.  While some major pay-TV providers like Comcast and Time Warner Cable are launching “TV Everywhere” services, many more pay-TV operators are trying to keep up by building their own service extensions onto mobile phones, tablets, and home devices other than traditional set-top boxes (STBs).

Content security is one of the many requirements that operators have to meet in order to license content from studios, TV networks, sports leagues, and other major content sources.  Life for pay-TV operators used to be relatively simple: adopt a conditional access (CA) technology that was equally effective in thwarting signal theft as it was in thwarting content piracy.  Economic and security goals were aligned between operators and copyright owners.  Now life is considerably more complicated, as operators have to support home networks and branch out into mobile services.  Content security requirements are more complicated as well.

This white paper gathers security requirements from major content owners and describes them in a single document.  The intent is to help pay-TV operators and other video service providers  that are looking to launch multi-screen video services, so that they know what to expect and avoid any unpleasant surprises with regard to security requirements when licensing content to offer through their services.

I spoke to representatives from most of the major Hollywood studios to get their requirements.  Although it is not possible to build a gigantic table that an operator can use to look up DRM or conditional access requirements for any given delivery modality and client device — among other things, such a table would become obsolete very quickly — I was able to create a set of guidelines that should be useful for operators.

Content security guidelines do depend on certain factors, including release windows (how long after a film’s theatrical release or a TV show’s first airing), display quality, and the usage rules granted to users and their devices.  In the white paper, I map these factors to certain specific content security requirements, such as roots of trust, watermarks, software hardening, and DRM robustness rules.  Security guidelines also depend on external market factors that the white paper also describes.

Many thanks to Verimatrix for commissioning this white paper.   To obtain it, follow this link and fill out the form for a PDF download.  Feel free to contact me with any questions or other follow-up.