Connected TVs in the managed video realm - announcements from Widevine and ADB today

There were a couple of announcements today that point to an expanded role for connected TVs beyond "over-the-top" video. Instead, the connected TV can also serve as a gateway for managed video services. Companies such as Verimatrix, Clearleap, thePlatform, Cisco, Motorola, ActiveVideo Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, and Ericsson have all made recent announcements in this area.

Now, ADB has joined the fray, offering a solution called the Virtual Gateway. This sofware solution distributes multimedia capabilities throughout the home. Some use cases that ADB highlights are a user's ability to enjoy pay-TV, music and videos from wherever they are in the home: subscribers can use their gaming consoles to tune to a pay-TV channel or watch recorded programs, or access music tracks and videos stored on their DVR and play them on their smart phones.

Also, Widevine continues to make announcements regarding its adaptive streaming solution. The company announced that it has signed a global agreement with LG Electronics (LG) to distribute Widevine’s live and on-demand adaptive streaming, virtual DVD controls and digital rights management (DRM) on LG connected products. Widevine’s DRM and adaptive streaming software are already included in 2009 models of LG Blu-ray players and home theaters shipped in the United States. This agreement enables LG to expand distribution to more devices, on a worldwide basis.

Widevine’s video optimization and DRM platform will now be included on a wide variety of additional LG products, including connected TVs. Widevine’s video optimization technology ensures that consumers using LG products receive an excellent quality of viewing experience for both live and on-demand content. Widevine’s DRM keeps premium content secure, regardless of the LG device to which it is delivered .

More consumer electronics/digital rights management/adaptive streaming announcements

This past week exemplified the move that companies traditionally in the digital rights management space are making in connected consumer electronics. I have talked about this trend in several posts this year. Here are the announcements:

Widevine and Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation selected Widevine as its preferred provider of video optimization and digital rights management (DRM) solutions. Widevine’s video optimization will provide adaptive streaming and virtual DVD experiences, while its DRM will keep content protected on Panasonic consumer electronics such as Viera® connected TVs, Blu-ray disc players and more.

As a preferred provider, Widevine’s client will be included on millions of Panasonic connected media devices, enabling content providers to securely deliver content utilizing Internet protocols to the Panasonic device of the consumer’s choice. Widevine’s client will be initially installed on Panasonic Viera connected TVs, followed by other Panasonic devices in the near future.

Irdeto and Logitech

Irdeto announced announced on Wednesday that its technology has been selected to enable access to premium online content from the Logitech Revue™ with Google TV™. Based on the Google TV platform, Logitech Revue offers – in an integrated user interface – TV programming, the Web and Android-based apps that can deliver premium content services and enable entirely new experiences. Logitech is drawing on Irdeto’s technology to deliver premium content services through apps such as Netflix Watch Instantly.

Major Connected CE Announcements this Week

In a CONNECTIONS™ wrap-up post last week, I had predicted that we would see many more announcements regarding the linkages between premium video services (from pay-TV providers) and the connected CE world. Widevine's announcement this week with Samsung speaks to the technology relationships being formed to enable just these types of features on connected TVs and Blu-ray players.

With the agreement, Widevine will provide Samsung with live and on-demand adaptive streaming, virtual DVD-like “trick play” and digital rights management (DRM) on Samsung connected devices. These technologies from Widevine will enable Samsung to support TV Everywhere and over-the-top delivery initiatives from Internet content providers and large cable, satellite and telecommunication companies. Widevine's CEO - Brian Baker - made sure that I noted the "live" part of the announcement when I briefed with him on Monday. The same kind of adaptive streaming technology that Widevine is providing for DISH Networks's TV Everywhere initiative is in play in this case. So, it's not unimaginable that service providers can use this technology to bring pay-TV channels directly to a consumer electronics platform other than the set-top box.

Yesterday, thePlatform unveiled publishing profiles for connected consumer electronics devices such as as IP-connected set-top boxes, TVs, and Blu-ray Players, and indicated its readiness to support publishing profiles for Google TV when that service launches.

Next, we knew that Best Buy and Walmart were getting serious about creating online video storefronts for the consumer electronics they sell, but now you can add Sears and Kmart into the mix. Sonic Solutions will provide the retailer with the RoxioNow™ platform, which will power digital entertainment delivery services for both Sears and Kmart. The new services are expected to launch later this year and be broadly promoted at retail stores nationwide.

Moving premium video services to non-set-top box equipment will be a critical measure of success for both content and service providers. Already, we are predicting that sales of connected TVs, game consoles, Blu-ray players, and digital media player set-top boxes will exceed the worldwide shipment of set-top boxes in 2011. Service providers are going to have a great many more touchpoints for their premium video services, so getting the connections right today will be critical.

Widevine selected by DIVA TV to protect premium online video in Europe

Widevine has had a very good 2010 in terms of announcements with both online video providers and connected TV device manufacturers. Last week, the company added a European online VoD provider to its list of customers.

DIVA AG, a cross-platform supplier of digital media movie and TV content, will utilize Widevine’s video optimization and digital rights management (DRM) platform to enable the delivery of DIVA AG’s content to mobile devices including Android phones, iPhones, iPads, and specific connected TV sets.

DIVA AG upplies content to global entertainment platforms. DIVA has recently introduced its newest offering, Viewster, which provides content directly to consumers on a variety of devices including smartphones, TV sets, Blu-ray players and home cinema systems from 18 different manufacturers. Widevine’s DRM ensures DIVA’s content remains secure on any device. Widevine’s adaptive streaming monitors the available bandwidth at the device and adaptively chooses the appropriate bitrate for playback, eliminating constant buffering interruptions. The video optimization platform also enables fast-forward, rewind, bookmarking and chaptering functions for the ultimate viewing experience.

Conditional Access Vendors Getting into the Multi-platform Video Space

Among many trends that we're watching in the television and online video spaces, the multiplatform video strategies from service providers, set-top box vendors, and software players is one of the more dynamic. That's evident from from the work of traditional conditional access providers, which are migrating their pure content protection plays to incorporate more multidevice applications.

Earlier this year, we briefed with Verimatrix, which has introduced ViewRight™, software solutions aimed at both the set-top box and PC markets. ViewRight allows the same premium content available at the set-top box to be played on PCs and other enabled consumer electronics products - with all of the content protected. Last month, Verimatrix made an announcement with NEOTION regarding ViewRight™ CI, an integrated DVB-CI card solution targeting the broad and growing base of common interface (CI) equipped integrated digital TV (iDTV) and set-top products. Laurent Jabiol from NEOTION was a panelist at our CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit in Berlin, where he spoke about NEOTION's work in the CI space.

Last week, we briefed with Widevine, which is implementing its Cypher® downloadable conditional access for devices beyond the set-top box. They have amassed distribution of the client in more than 40 million PCs and Macs, and are now pursuing relationships with consumer electronics manufacturers.

The key difference of what Verimatrix and Widevine are doing appears to be the Verimatrix focus on providing a premium television experience on the PC (along with additional features such as remote DVR interaction), whereas Widevine is focusing on implementing a premium Internet content experience on multiple devices.

Widevine and Accedo Broadband Partner to Bring Online Video to Connected TVs

We knew that Accedo Broadband was expanding beyond its gaming roots, and today's announcement with Widevine illustrates this. The companies are marrying Widevine's adaptive streaming, virtual DVD controls and digital rights management (DRM) platform with Accedo's application solutions.

IBC - A recap

In stark contrast to the Wall Street, IBC with its record attendance levels and success, offered quite a few positive and interesting trends to the video services space. Three areas that have received considerable attention are content security, interactive television solutions, and advertising. Widevine showcased ‘Widevine Cypher’ which offers operators the ability to leverage a single content protection to manage content protection across multiple platforms without additional deployments at the head end. This directly targets the major cost and operational concerns operators have in deploying multiple verticals of CAS and DRM in order to cater to the broadcast/multicast needs of different platforms and managing them separately. Envivio and Adobe have come out with innovative encoding solutions that facilitate efficient content delivery across three platforms by reducing the need to decode and re-encode video for different platforms. NDS Dynamic and Microsoft Mediaroom Ad platforms are among the many ad related releases that address the need for dynamic and targeted ad insertion solutions coupled with the enhanced viewing analysis platforms. There haven’t been a any clear trends or announcements from the operators’ side in this area. It will interesting to watch how the operators will actually deploy and build business models to fully monetize their new ad infrastructures. In regards to converged services, Ericsson, a strong proponent of IMS based services, announced the launch of their IPTV middleware that packs IMS integration. This brings up a key question; while IMS promises an open and seamless interoperability framework for service portability across multiple delivery platforms, the interest level ,the investment level rather, among the operators still is unclear. Operators already offer services such as caller ID on TV, cross platform messaging, and social networking over television. How IMS will enhance these services and the ROI for the operators investing in IMS prior to full evolution towards 4G/LTE remains to be answered.

Blending Premium Internet Experiences with Television and CE

Yesterday's announcement from Widevine that CinemaNow has chosen its content protection solution in a multi-platform distribution strategy is the first of many expected announcements through the rest of the year that show the migration of Internet video and other applications from just a pure PC/portable multimedia player market. As we wrote last week, the development trends indicate that Internet video services are going to be common on all kinds of platforms and via all kinds of existing services - including your broadband and television services. In a few years, it really will be hard to find many pure-play Internet video services, as many will be blended in existing services and available through products that consumers are going to have in their living rooms, anyway - the game console, the set-top box, the TV, etc.

Parks Associates adds value to TelcoTV with research workshop

Parks Associates will be hosting the workshop Business Cases for Emerging Video Services at TelcoTV 2008 on November 11. TelcoTV, November 11-13, the Anaheim Convention Center, is the premier event for the exploration of a comprehensive entertainment convergence strategy.

The workshop addresses the business case for emerging video services, including multichannel television and broadband video. Parks Associates forecasts that by 2012, almost 33 million U.S. households will have broadband services capable of streaming high-definition video. This finding adds new dimensions to the television services market, which grew to over 800 million households worldwide in 2007. Telco/IPTV services in particular jumped to more than 13 million households in 2007.

Presenters:
Jayant Dasari, Parks Associates
Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates

Sessions:
Building a Compelling Television Service
Broadband Video: To the TV and Beyond
How the Internet Meets the Television
The Business Case for Advanced Advertising Features
Building the Interactive Advertising Business Case

Speakers:
Nimrod Ben-Natan, Harmonic
Steve Borelli, Integra5
Jonathan Bokor, TANDBERG Television
Matt Cannard, Widevine Technologies
Brian Donnelly, Icron Technologies
Jason Harvey, ActiveVideo Networks
Leszek Izdebski, Cisco Systems
Howard Rubin, SeaChange International
Paula Suthern, Ensequence
Adam Tom, RGB Networks

Attendees receive information about the competitive environment for television services, insight into video trends and advertising business models, and consumer data on use cases and preferences.

During TelcoTV, Kurt Scherf is moderating the session Integrating the Social Network Experience: Fad or reality? on Wednesday, November 12, from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

ATIS - another home networking forum?

It looks like the home networking industry is partying like it's 1999 ... all over again.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has announced the creation of the ATIS Home Networking (HNET) Forum. With the Forum’s creation, ATIS now houses the single, centralized body responsible for comprehensively addressing home networking standards. ATIS’ HNET Forum is unique in that it’s the only body to holistically assess the wide variety of on-going home networking standards development work. The Forum provides a pragmatic solution to the often confusing and decentralized home networking standards development arena.

The Home Networking Forum’s creation was a specific recommendation of ATIS’ Home Networking Assessment & Work Plan. Released today, this comprehensive document is the result of more than a year’s work by ATIS’ CTO-led Technology and Operations Council and its Home Networking Focus Group (FG). FG included representatives from: Cisco, Verizon, AT&T, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Qwest, Sony, Hitachi, ADC, Corning, Haywire, Intrado, Conexant Systems and Widevine.

Ummmm...don't we already have enough of these groups? Between the Broadband Forum, the HGi, the IEEE, and the ITU, haven't we saturated the market with enough home networking bodies? I'm really curious to see what ATIS is bringing to the table that the rest of these groups aren't.

Value Chain Consolidation and Digital Lifestyle Opportunities

With NDS’ announcement on December 4, 2006, that it is acquiring Jungo, we’re continuing witness consolidation in the market to deliver complete end-to-end access/service provider solutions. Today’s announcement also reaffirms they key roles that both home connectivity and enhanced WAN and LAN management tools will play in the competition between and among a number of service providers in television, broadband, and communications services delivery.

Recently, we’ve already witnessed significant acquisition and investment news from such companies as Alcatel (the Lucent merger took effect on December 1, 2006); Cisco Systems (Arroyo, Ashley-Laurent, KiSS, and Scientific-Atlanta, plus a significant investment in Widevine) and Motorola (Broadbus, Kreatel, and Netopia were all added to the fold recently).

A recently-released report from Parks Associates – Digital Living Forecasts – details the market opportunities available to the service provider community in the provisioning of advanced home connectivity products and services. Our numbers indicate strong growth (at year-end 2010 for U.S. households) in access-related services, including:

- More than 80 million broadband households;
- Sixty-five million bundled services subscribers;
- Thirty million bundled VoIP subscribers;
- More than 6.5 million residential Telco TV subscribers; and
- Nearly $3 billion in cable VoD revenue.

As households with advanced digital services grow, we’ll see residential customer premise equipment (CPE) similarly scale. The same Digital Living Forecasts through 2010 show solid growth in these specific categories:

- Nearly 20 million households using whole-house DVR solutions;
- Sales of networked-attached storage devices to exceed three million units; and
- Connected entertainment households (with multimedia and/or entertainment networked solutions) will exceed 30 million households.

What sort of trends will we see going forward? Whereas 2005 and 2006 have been mainly about building the end-to-end network and infrastructure solutions, we’re anticipating that residual products and services (both stand-alone and incorporated into service provider bundles) will begin to leverage the infrastructure for a host of new services and product solutions. Some key examples of these add-on solutions include:

- Sales of portable multimedia players, which will extend the entertainment experience to on-the-go environments, will reach revenues of $1.6 billion;
- Mobile phone revenues, which will incorporate many additional services beyond voice, will reach $181 billion;
- Online gaming subscriptions, fees, and derivative revenues will reach $4.4 billion;
- Digital music services will exceed $3 billion in revenue; and
- Internet video services (subscriptions, fees, and advertising) will reach more than $7 billion in revenue.

What remains exciting about the digital lifestyle space is the continuing trend toward innovation, which will not be contained to the large and highly-integrated companies. Some very interesting areas of opportunity that we will watch closely in 2007 include:

- Building smarter content delivery networks that allow service and content providers to better scale their existing infrastructure to deploy an even richer user experience;
- Continued work on the WAN and LAN management side. As service providers’ products and applications reach farther inside the digital home, they will need to build smarter and more dynamic management and reporting systems to help them solve customer issues with connectivity and customer service more dynamically;
- More advanced customer premise equipment (including set-top boxes, residential gateways, and other equipment) that help manage services and support inside the home;
- Greater storage capacity for mobile and portable platforms;
- The release of more robust home networking solutions (both wired and wireless) that enable the in-home connectivity environment to receive and distribute very robust content, including HD, from the service provider;
- Trends in alternative broadband delivery networks. As ownership of the network may become an even more critical piece of owning the customer, we may see alternative players invest heavily in broadband solutions beyond cable, DSL, and fiber;
- Enhancements to software that improve on the user experience for creating and sharing their own content; and
- Dramatic improvements to user interfaces, both physical and graphic. Service providers, end-user equipment manufacturers, and other players will need to invest both time and money in developing next-generation interfaces and search technologies to help end-users better find and organize their digital content libraries.