The media industry has been undergoing unprecedented changes. Many are driven by technology innovations, giants (such as Apple, Tencent and Netflix) entering this space, and ecosystem fragmentation. Internet-based video is increasing sharply fuelled by these changes and it’s forecasted to achieve 55% year over year growth from 2015 to 2021 (source: Ericsson 2016). While no one can predict exactly what changes lay ahead, we can be sure three trends will continue for the long term:

• Consumers want OTT services on their own devices. Operators must ensure their services can support consumers’ devices of choice. • Consumers will continually expect more value for the money – more content and more convenience, at an attractive price. • Consumers want customised experiences. Building fl exibility into the business models will maximise value for both operators and their customers.

If your business today is based on broadcast, making the transition to OTT can be difficult and expensive. One of the trickiest parts to get right is how to secure and deliver content to both managed and unmanaged devices without multiplying your efforts and cost. To make the transition even harder, Hollywood studios and sports rights holders have also raised security requirements for premium content, such as 4K UHD. Defining a solid hybrid strategy that meets both security requirements and your business needs is critical to make the transition as painless and risk-free as possible.

Mastering security requirements is the safest bet to ensure growth

A successful hybrid strategy must meet the following three objectives:

1. Support for the widest range of unmanaged devices to reach consumers

In most countries, this means operators must support multiple DRMs to cover the popular web browsers and consumer devices. This creates tremendous operational and expertise challenges, especially when different packaging and encryption technologies are required for the devices. In China, operators have the advantage of just having to support China DRM, which is generally accepted by Hollywood studios and sports rights holders. Globally, Irdeto Rights is a Multi-DRM Solution which supports Playready, FairPlay, Widevine, Marlin, Adobe Primetime and China DRM.

2. Access to premium content to offer the most desired content in each market.

To get premium content such as 4K UHD sports, early release box offi ce movies, operators must be able to meet the increasingly stringent security requirements. MovieLabs’ Enhanced Content Protection (ECP) specifi cation sets the new bar for what operators must do to get premium content. It ranges from ensuring renewability in CA and DRM, to locking down consumer devices, to end-to-end breach response and watermarking. Meeting these requirements can take a long time and cost a lot of money if operators don’t have experienced security partners on their side. So being proactive and strategic with security decisions can give operators a head start to offer the best content at an attractive price.

3. Flexible policy management across broadcast and OTT services

OTT Services are still evolving. Market leaders such as Amazon and Netflix are constantly changing their policies and pricing options to explore the optimal business models in each market. Operators need to ensure their hybrid offer is equally fl exible and consistent on both broadcast and OTT devices to compete. To enable this capability, operators must look for an integrated head-end system that allows them easily set subscriber entitlement rules, without worrying about what device, CA or DRM is in use.

In today’s competitive environment, it’s not wise for the business to treat security as a tick in the box exercise. Mastering the requirements and leveraging security to differentiate your offering is going to be the safest bet to grow your business.

Premium security can reduce your TCO – if you have the right partner

Premium security doesn’t mean expensive. Expensive security is just expensive security. Premium security today means 360-degree protection trusted by content owners, from protecting broadcast and OTT services, to end-to-end piracy control and watermarking. Premium security can also come in the form of software, when the software is protected by innovative technologies such as Irdeto’s whitebox cryptography. Having the best security without having hardware and the logistics burden associated with managing hardware gives operators signifi cant cost savings. For example, Irdeto is the only software security provider for China DRM trusted by Hollywood studios and sports rights holders.

Irdeto’s China DRM solution is supported in hardware TEE by industry-leading chip providers, such as MStar, HiSilicon and Amlogic. Irdeto’s software security solution is easily renewable to stay ahead of piracy without hardware dependencies. It also enables operators to reach consumers on any device. Having the right security partner and a proactive security strategy will help you transform your business for the OTT future.