Successful DRM in a Changing Video Environment

Streaming video is huge. According to Nielsen, over 40% of U.S. homes use at least one Subscription-based Video on Demand service. We have more devices than ever with which to watch video. As services like Sling TV and HBO’s standalone over-the-top (OTT) service join established players like Netflix and Amazon Prime, the amount of content watched over-the-top is only going to increase. Access to premium content online is now expected by consumers. As a result, there is a lot of money to be made when distributors can deliver quality content with a quality viewer experience to match, no matter what device the viewer is using.
Anyone who has dealt with streaming media in the last several years is familiar with the concept of Digital Rights Management, or DRM. The ability to limit how, where, when, and by whom a video can be played is critical to effective monetization on premium content. Hollywood studios require robust DRM when going direct to consumers or licensing content to online publishers, so it’s a must-have to operate with premium studio content. In enterprise as well, DRM is increasingly considered necessary, for content security of internal employee video content. DRM is used for both linear and VOD delivery, and in the case of VOD, must apply to both streamed content and offline viewing.
DRM systems have been in operation for some time now. But recently, changes in the online browser and device ecosystem are causing the old methods of DRM to fail.
We’ve published a new whitepaper, “Successful DRM in a Changing Video Environment: A Universal DRM Primer” to help you sort out some of the key issues here. What changes have occurred in the last year, and what can you expect? How should DRM be handled in the future to simplify workflows, reduce storage costs, and ensure a quality viewer experience while still protecting content to Hollywood studio standards? We explain the fundamentals of universal DRM and take a peek at how to future-proof a DRM strategy in an environment where hardware, software, and browsers are rapidly evolving but legacy systems must still be supported.