AMSTERDAM—Irdeto and Ateme revealed the strategic integration of the former’s TraceMark forensic watermarking solution within the latter’s end-to-end video delivery ecosystem during recently concluded IBC2025 convention.

The integration enables content owners, broadcasters and streaming service providers to seamlessly activate content protection directly within their entire headend workflows, embedding unique and imperceptible watermarks in real time across the content lifecycle, the companies said.

The move enables operators to embed Irdeto’s TraceMark forensic watermarking directly into the content within their secure headend, moving beyond component-specific deployment, they said.

TraceMark’s blind detection capabilities eliminate the need for complex interfaces with Irdeto’s forensics system, ensuring straightforward and minimally impactful integration into any workflow. Embedding the technology into Ateme’s expanding portfolio covering transcoding, packaging and CDN, equips users with a streamlined path to adopting proven server-side watermarking.

This deterrent against content theft operates without disrupting existing workflows, guaranteeing that all distributed content—from source to screen—is invisibly watermarked, providing an essential and comprehensive layer of security, the said.

“Ateme’s end-to-end solutions are increasingly adopted across the industry for their quality and efficiency, and this integration makes it easier than ever for their customers to protect valuable content,” said Andrew Bunten, chief operating officer of Video Entertainment at Irdeto.

“By simplifying and expanding the watermarking process across the entire Ateme ecosystem, we’re creating new opportunities for content owners to secure their assets and for Ateme to deliver even greater value.”

The pre-integration of TraceMark into Ateme’s solutions offers a key differentiator where critical protection is already seamlessly available and deeply integrated, the companies said.

“At Ateme, we are committed to delivering solutions that not only meet but anticipate the evolving needs of our customers,” said Remi Beaudouin, chief of strategy of Ateme. “By integrating Irdeto’s TraceMark watermarking not just within our encoders, but across our broader end-to-end video delivery platform, we are giving our customers an effortless way to enhance their content security, without adding operational complexity.”

More information is available on the Irdeto and Ateme websites.

NEW YORK—The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has announced that it is working with XR Extreme Reach and VEIL Global Technologies to launch of a new initiative to assess the role that an open, universal watermarking across linear and streaming TV platforms could play in supporting improved measurement of content and advertising in the U.S. TV and video marketplace. 

The study will evaluate the options for deployment and the potential role for an industry action plan to accelerate the adoption of an open, universal watermarking standard, the group said. 

Watermarking is a technique that is used to embed signals into both the content and ads that can be read at playout. These signals link metadata, which provides details about the content including, title, ownership and permitted rights associated. For advertising, the signals are also used for measurement.

“Watermarks aren’t new, of course, but many of CIMM’s members believe that watermarks and robust asset identification could play a vital role in today’s TV and video marketplace to enable accurate cross-platform measurement and more efficient and transparent media workflows,” said Jon Watts, Managing Director, CIMM. “Our goal with this study is to provide an authoritative assessment that can help to align the industry, buy-side and sell-side, around a clear plan for moving forward. Working with XR Extreme Reach and VEIL, we’re delighted to have brought together an impressive group of seasoned industry participants to support the study.”

More specifically, the new study will look to explore whether:

• Widespread adoption of an open, universal watermarking standard could materially help to improve measurement of content and advertising.
• There are technically, operationally, and economically viable options for widespread adoption and rapid deployment of a universal watermark across the TV and video ecosystem.
• A coordinated industry action plan could play a valuable role in helping to accelerate adoption and streamline execution.

The initial feasibility study will be delivered via a CIMM Project Steering Group (PSG) led by Caroline Horner of Lift Analytics. The PSG, which is responsible for input and guidance surrounding key frameworks, study design, emerging findings, conclusions, and recommendations, includes: Thomas Morgan (MediaD.tv); Howard Fiderer; Irwin Gotlieb; Myles Parker; as well as Watts, Kevin O’Reilly (XR Extreme Reach) and Harold Geller (VEIL).

“Brands spend billions of dollars on creative yet lack the simple ability to track and measure it across the ecosystem," said Kevin O’Reilly, chief strategy officer at XR Extreme Reach. "Universal watermarking and creative identification across both linear and streaming TV can help the largest brand in the world customers the integrity and authenticity of creative content across the complex ad ecosystem and address fragmentation and measurement gaps. We're proud to partner with CIMM and industry leaders to create a plan that delivers transparency, accuracy, and control for more effective cross-platform campaigns, no matter where the ad is transacted, delivered, or measured.”

“The advertising industry is closing in on nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars globally, and yet you find people extremely dissatisfied with measurement processes,” said Gotlieb, former chairman and global CEO of GroupM, and VEIL Board member. “A business of our scale and importance deserves the best technology available to solve a problem, and in my view, watermarking is the only way forward.”

The PSG will work closely and collaboratively with an Expert Advisory Group (EAG), comprising a cross-section of senior industry marketers to test and refine key hypotheses and explore perspectives and motivations. 

The EAG comprises of Alan Young (Zixi); Benjamin Vandegrift (VAB); Bill Ekstrand (Horizon Media); Brian West (NBCU); Cintia Gabilan (IAB); Deborah Murray (GroupM); Frank Friedman (Scripps); Helen Katz (Publicis); Jeff Ellin (FreeWheel);Jodie McAfee; Joe Winograd (Verance);  Larry Allen (Comcast Advertising); Mari Tangredi (Cadent); Maureen Bosetti (IPG Mediabrands); Nada Bradbury (AD-ID); Tom Hicks (Paramount); Tom Sly (Scripps); Vinny Rinaldi (Hersheys); and more, CIMM reported

MELBOURNE—Mediaproxy has announced that it has further expanded its support for the audio watermarking technologies employed by global measurement and data analytics company Nielsen. 

Mediaproxy, which is already a certified provider of decoding technology for Nielsen's NAVE (Nielsen Audio Video Encoder) system, is now also providing support for CBET (Critical Band Encoding Technology) layer 1 watermarks.

The latest versions of Mediaproxy's LogServer compliance analysis monitor now includes officially certified encoding/decoding capabilities for CBET watermarking. CBET codes enable broadcasters to embed audio content into broadcast streams, which can then be passively detected by PPM (portable people meter) devices that gauge the exposure of test audiences to encoded material, Mediaproxy reported. 

Introduced by Nielsen in 2015, CBET layer 1 watermarks were designed for audience research in the radio market, a sector Mediaproxy operates in parallel to its core broadcast television and streaming business. As well as being used by Nielsen in the U.S., CBET has also been deployed by the Numeris ratings measurement organization in Canada.

The expanded support is the most recent development in the ongoing business relationship between Nielsen and Mediaproxy, which is one of only a few compliance system manufacturers to receive official certification from the audience data specialist. Mediaproxy was already certified to decode Nielsen's NAVE audio watermarking technology. This capability was incorporated into LogServer, enabling it to identify watermarks in the audio segment of compressed ATSC digital transport streams before and after transmission.

OTTAWA, Canada—Ross Video and Verance have announced that Verance Aspect watermarking is now available in the Ross Video software media processing platform (softGear). 

Ross Video’s softGear provides broadcasters with the flexibility to adapt to changing  programming needs through media processing microservices. The integration of the Verance  Aspect watermark into the Broadcast Audio Processor based on the softGear platform will  provide Aspect watermarking to a variety of television outlets, the companies reported. 

The Aspect watermark works in both today’s 1.0 and tomorrow’s 3.0 broadcast environments  and was selected to be part of the NextGen TV standard as a way to extend and maximize the  reach of interactive television services in broadcast television. 

Without the Aspect watermark, NextGen applications can only reach the 20% of households that receive signals over the air. With the Aspect watermark, NextGen applications can reach 100% of households, the companies said. 

For the same reason, the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television Association (HbbTV) adopted watermarking into its Phase 2 Application Discovery over Broadband specification published in September  2019. 

By deploying Aspect within the softGear platform, programmers are able to activate interactive  services through all distribution paths (including ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 over-the-air, cable/satellite,  and over-the-top services) to reach 100% of smart televisions. Without the watermark, 80% of  households are unable to receive these capabilities. 

“We are thrilled to announce that our Broadcast Audio Processor and softGear platform will  support the Verance Aspect Watermark,” says Wojtek Tryc, director, TPM softGear, Ross Video.  “Our partnership with Verance unlocks new opportunities for broadcasters to deliver new  compelling features to NextGen TV customers.” 

“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that  drive revenue and viewer engagement in today’s and tomorrow’s broadcast environments,”  explained Nil Shah, CEO, Verance. “We are excited to partner with Ross Video and are pleased  to expand our product suite and support our partners as they transition to NextGen TV.”

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Roku has launched Advertising Watermark, a free technology to help advertisers and publishers validate the authenticity of streaming video ads originating on the Roku platform. 

In what Roku is calling the industry’s first authentication solution built for TV streaming, Roku’s Advertising Watermark will provide marketers assurances that their advertising spend is reaching real Roku users.

Ad technology providers integrating Roku’s Advertising Watermark at launch include Basis Technologies, Google, HUMAN, Innovid, and Magnite. Publishers using Roku’s Advertising Watermark to sell their own ad inventory include Discovery, FOX, and more. Additionally, OneView by Roku will be the first ad buying platform to offer ad inventory automatically validated by Roku’s Advertising Watermark.

The technology is designed to overcome the problem of device spoofing, which occurs when scammers pretend that a desktop or mobile device is a TV streaming device. 

To combat that, Roku’s Advertising Watermark integrates with the Roku operating system to automatically verify publisher ad requests and impressions so that advertisers know they are reaching genuine Roku users. 

"As America’s No. 1 TV Streaming Platform, we are uniquely positioned to help the industry preempt device spoofing," said Louqman Parampath, vice president of product management, Roku. “This is powerful and free technology that will help advertisers accelerate their shift to TV streaming with even more confidence.”

"Roku’s Advertising Watermark assures our advertiser clients that they are buying genuine Discovery inventory on Roku devices," added Bill Murray, vice president, programmatic solutions, Discovery. "We’re excited that Roku has brought its data, operating system, and ad technology together to easily prevent ad spoofing."

More information on Roku’s Advertising Watermark solution is available here. 

PARIS—Viaccess-Orca (VO) and ATEME have announced a contribution watermarking solution with a pay-per-use business model that eliminates the complex pricing traditionally associated with watermarking and in the process enables faster technology adoption.

"Piracy is evolving. Hackers are exploiting new techniques to illegally access and redistribute video content, and the industry needs an accurate, scalable, and cost-efficient solution to identify the source of leaks," said Mathieu Harel, product director of watermarking at Viaccess-Orca. "Collaborating with ATEME, we've developed a smarter method for tracking piracy: one that focuses on the full content path as opposed to just the end points. With our solution, content owners and providers can protect their content and revenues in a way that was never before imaginable."

As part of the solution, VO's software-based dynamic watermarking technology is embedded and ready to use within IRDs and encoders from ATEME, enabling content owners and providers to precisely identify the source of video piracy leaks within various distribution channels.

VO's dynamic watermarking technology features multiple, dynamic algorithms with the ability to track and change watermarks in real time. As content owners distribute live content to multiple affiliates, the solution tracks its path through different channels — including satellite and IP — injecting an invisible watermark on the video at each distribution point. The solution offers a portal to VO's Anti-Piracy Center, where content leaks are closely monitored and then quickly identified so that content owners can fight back against piracy, the companies said. 

The new solution's pay-per-use business model eliminates licensing, maintenance, and service fees, allowing content owners and providers to pay for contribution watermarking technology only when they use it. The dynamic watermarking technology is software-based, allowing content owners and providers to scale the new solution rapidly as they address piracy concerns, the companies explained. 

"By 2022 the cost of online video piracy is expected to reach $52 billion, and this problem is only going to get worse without an effective solution," said Julien Mandel, solution marketing senior director at ATEME. "Teaming up with Viaccess-Orca, an industry leader in content protection, we've created a free solution that liberates content owners and providers from sizing their network, so that they can focus only on tracking the path of leaks throughout the distribution workflow. Before this, content providers were limited to only identifying the end point of leaked content, so this solution is a real game-changer for the industry."

The companies also noted that the new solution supports BISS-CA encryption, an open protocol that enables real-time entitlement management for content streams over any network. When used in conjunction with dynamic watermarking, BISS-CA simplifies content owners' ability to trace the source of illegal streams and safeguard their content, making this new watermarking solution especially advantageous for live sports streaming applications.

More information about VO and the new contribution watermarking solution is available here. 

LONDON—Video software provider Synamedia has announced the acquisition of ContentArmor, an privately-held developer of forensic watermarking solutions for the media and entertainment industry.

Financial terms were not disclosed. 

In announcing the deal, Synamedia said that adding ContentArmor’s technology, patents and expertise to Synamedia’s broad portfolio of security offerings, including its Synamedia EverGuard anti-piracy services, would strengthen its offering with edge and 5G watermarking capabilities. 

This would improve Synamedia’s offerings for video service providers and boost Synamedia’s anti-piracy capabilities for movie studios and sports rights holders, across both OTT and direct-to-consumer services. 

The acquisition will also extend Synamedia’s reach into new markets including post-production, in-flight entertainment, and enterprise video, the company said. 

Edge watermarking is the most effective, secure and scalable approach for detecting and disrupting content leaks, and Synamedia anticipates a substantial market opportunity for it, particularly to stream premium content over 5G, it also noted. 

“ContentArmor’s expertise and investment in R&D has resulted in more than 30% growth year-on-year since its inception, along with an impressive patent portfolio,” explained Paul Segre, Synamedia CEO. “This acquisition further accelerates our industry-leading security business, with edge watermarking fueling new opportunities in the [direct to consumer] streaming space and for 5G. In the security domain, our clear objective is to meet the needs of all video service providers that care about anti-piracy. The acquisition of ContentArmor strengthens that proposition.”

ContentArmor’s forensic watermarking complies with the MovieLabs Enhanced Content Protection specification for premium VOD and UHD/4K, and is already in use protecting studios’ movies by identifying the source of any unauthorized content distribution. The company also has strong partnerships with industry heavyweights including Akamai, AWS, and Limelight.

Alain Durand, ContentArmor CEO, will join Synamedia’s senior leadership team to help shape its security roadmap.

The ContentArmor team will continue to be based in Rennes, France, which will form a new R&D hub for Synamedia’s industry security and video solutions.

PHILADELPHIA & BIRMINGHAM, U.K.—Content protection provider Friend MTS has expanded its partnership with content delivery network Akamai to offer content owners, broadcasters and operators a new smart server-side A/B variant watermarking solution based on the former’s ASiD OTT Edge-switched technology and the latter’s Access Revocation solution, Friend MTS announced.

The expanded partnership gives Akamai customers access to a new way to watermark premium content with accelerated watermark extraction. Combined with Akamai’s Access Revocation solution, the solution provides immediate remediation of live and VOD content streams if piracy is detected.

“With Akamai as our long-term valued partner, we continue our important work of developing and deploying content protection technologies at scale that serve to proactively prevent content theft as the media industry increasingly faces highly sophisticated real-world piracy threats,” said Friend MTS CEO Jonathan Friend.

“Now with ASiD 4th Generation, we’re delighted to integrate ASiD OTT Edge-switched with Akamai’s Watermark Token system to offer maximum protection with ASiD’s end-to-end functionality for all operator and service provider distribution workflows.”

ASiD 4th Generation, along with the new ASiD OTT Edge-switched proprietary technology, works to secure high-value content and revenue across all types of broadcast and OTT devices, clients and apps, the company said.

Friend MTS’ watermarking technologies remain fully compliant with the MovieLabs Specification for Enhanced Content Protection. They enable the industry to prevent content theft and other business-affecting activities, such as credential or account sharing by revoking access to compromised accounts.

“Our latest collaboration with Friend MTS brings an expanded content protection offering for our joint customers, giving them the ability to rapidly terminate delivery of content to devices that have been identified as sources of piracy,” said Akamai Director of Media Product Marketing Ian Munford.

More information is available on the Friend MTS website.

PHILADELPHIA & BIRMINGHAM, U.K.—Friend MTS has announced the fourth generation of its ASiD subscriber-level watermarking solution that addresses content protection scenarios to secure broadcast and OTT content, which includes the new ASiD OTT Edge-switched feature.

The fourth generation of Friend MTS’ advanced subscriber identification watermarking (ASiD) has enhanced two of its main features, the ASiD Embedded and ASiD OTT Client-composited. ASiD Embedded now offers accelerated watermark generation in certain devices as well as optimizations to enable memory and CPU-efficient watermark parameters for different content types. 

ASiD OTT Client-composited, meanwhile, features a new collaboration mechanism between head-end and client, and improved intelligence feedback to take action on bad actors. It also offers higher precision of session identification and stronger support for cloud PVR. Another new feature enables variable per-device watermark parameters for different content and playback types for optimized watermarking compositing based on individual client devices’ capabilities.

The new component to ASiD is ASiD OTT Edge-Switched. This is based on proprietary algorithms to offer accelerate watermark extraction working in conjunction with Friend MTS’ distributor-level watermarking solution, Distribution iD.

The new ASiD remains compliant with the MovieLabs Specification for Enhanced Content Protection, including 4K and HDR content.

For more information, visit www.friendmts.com.  

LOS ANGELES—The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted a patent to Prime Focus Technologies for its Just-in-Time embedded watermarking solution of streaming proxies within the company’s CLEAR platform. 

This patent (No. 10,904,595) covers two innovations. First, the ability to apply user-specific burnt-in watermarks, real-time; and secondly, making a Just-in-Time watermarked stream “as seamless as that of a CLEAN stream,” PFT says.

According to PFT, Just-in-Time watermarking treats streaming segments requests from a user’s video player as an atomic segment that needs to be transcoded by a GPU-farm and handed back in real-time to the player, as well as meeting the needs of standard streaming protocols, including HLS/DASH. As a result, any segment requested, across any bit rate, is served with a watermark and any high-speed trick-play request (up to 3x) is served elegantly.

“Piracy has been and continues to heavily impact our industry at the world-wide level. Such an invention now provides studios and content owners the ability to protect their pre-release content through strong and reliable deterrence mechanisms that are embedded within their streaming infrastructures” said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, founder and global CEO, Prime Focus Technologies. “With Cloud costs continuing to drop and GPUs becoming even more affordable, it is a matter of time when the industry will decide to provide streaming URLs to their content-partners and vendors, instead of creating copies of content, individually watermarked for their use.” 

For more information, visit www.primefocustechnologies.com.  

When my wife and I watch TV, there is a screen involved, but it may not be the big one that sits in our family room on a large stand. It could be an iPad, iPhone or laptop. Our family is very typical of how media is consumed these days.

Watching TV is a very different experience than when most of us started our careers in broadcasting. We can watch on over-the-air TV “off the air,” via our local cable provider, or via streaming. The level of competition has ratcheted up dramatically. With players like Netflix, Disney+, HBO, Peacock and others, there have never been more options for viewers to be entertained.

Even from just a few short months ago before the pandemic, media consumption has evolved rapidly, with the world increasingly demanding an on-demand lifestyle—and it’s not just what and when people want to watch, but where. 

Scenarios like the ones I describe above are now expected, and broadcasters—traditionally restricted to the confines of the TV “set”—finally have the options they need to compete when they adopt ATSC 3.0 (consumers will know it as “NextGen TV”).

BUILT ON INTERNET PROTOCOL

In ATSC 3.0, for the first time ever, the broadcast platform is built on the same Internet Protocol backbone as today’s popular streaming media platforms, allowing broadcast to break free from the TV set and push broadcast to mobile, cars, gaming consoles … anywhere really. ATSC 3.0 also allows broadcast to play by internet rules, giving your audience choice and an overall enhanced experience that, again, they have now come to expect from competing media platforms like streaming. Consumers want to enjoy their content on the move, demanding personalization and choice. 

ATSC 3.0 is designed to bring together over-the-air (broadcast) with over-the-top (streaming) content, enabling broadcasters to keep pace with digital platforms that already offer many of the features and benefits of ATSC 3.0.

DELIVERS MAJOR UPGRADE IN AUDIO CAPABILITIES

One of those benefits is immersive audio that adds additional overhead channels to a surround sound mix. The result is a compelling, all-encompassing audio experience that makes your audience feel like they have been pulled right into the middle of the action. In North America, that translates to Dolby Atmos. Viewers don’t have to install new speakers, either. TVs, soundbars and up-firing speakers are simple and unintrusive ways to get immersive at home without building a home theater. 

Another big audio upside of ATSC 3.0 is personalization. Now, consumers can choose their preferred language, pick their favorite sports announcer and take advantage of improved audio description capabilities. With the current ATSC 1.0 standard, when delivering programs in a second language or with a descriptive track for the visually impaired, the audio is delivered premixed, typically as either a mono or stereo track. 

But with ATSC 3.0, the audio is mixed at the receiver, allowing viewers who select an alternate language to receive the program in full surround or immersive. This not only saves valuable bandwidth for broadcasters, but it also provides all viewers with the best experience and they no longer have to sacrifice their audio experience to hear their preferred audio tracks.

ATSC 3.0 ADVANTAGES FOR BROADCASTERS

Aside from audiences, there is also a huge advantage for you, the broadcaster. Most notably, ATSC 3.0 helps you generate revenue with watermarking. While ratings watermarking is not new, modern implementations of watermarking yield ratings data that is consistent and reliable. 

PLUS: Bringing Profits to NextGen TV

For the first time, broadcasters have two-way connectivity to the consumption of media that is on par with digital platforms. This creates predictability of ratings metrics and increases opportunity for advertising revenue because the same content is now “data-casted” over the air and over the internet, increasing reach. 

Revenue opportunities are also increased because it’s all encrypted, so watermarking measurement is reliable. Now that there is two-way connectivity between the broadcaster and the viewer, targeted advertising is also now a possibility.

ATSC 3.0 not only provides additional features and functionalities to your viewer, but also allows them to watch your content when they want, where they want and on whichever device they want, all while providing you with improved analytics and revenue opportunities.

Marty Sacks is executive vice president, sales, support & marketing for Telos Alliance. 

NEVADA CITY, Calif.—Telestream has introduced a new watermarking option for its Vantage platform that will allow for quick watermarking of live events, the company says.

Vantage now has an option to support automated Nielsen C3 and C7 watermarking with pre-render SID reservation. The new option enables broadcasters making VOD and OTT versions of live content accessible as soon as possible, with marks able to be applied in minutes, per Telestream. Vantage does this by “reserving” a source identifier, confirm that it is valid and then watermark the final deliverable for distribution.

Additional updated integrations for the Nielsen option include support for critical band encoding technology (CBET). Broadcasters can use this to embed watermarks into audio.

The new Vantage option is available immediately.

For more information, visit www.telestream.net. 

CHESEAUX, Switzerland & PHOENIX—Nagr has released a new forensic watermarking plug-in for editing and collaboration workflows on Avid’s Media Composer video editing software. The content protection and multiscreen TV solutions provider says the NexGuard Plug-In for Editing Software allows studios, content owners and post-production houses to ensure protection when sharing pre-release content.

The integration between Nagra and Avid is designed to simplify the watermarking process within the editing software, while providing traceability and a deterrent against leaks. Media Composer is the first non-linear editing software to be integrated with the Nagra plug-in.

The plug-in works as a simple video filter, able to easily add a unique forensic watermark that is imperceptible, per Nagra, to each copy of the content exported from the non-linear editing software, regardless of input and output file formats.

NexGuard Plug-in for Editing Software is supported by the NexGuard Detection Service, a cloud-based, automated forensic watermark detection service.

For more information, visit Nagra’s virtual NAB showcase. 

SAN DIEGO—As part of the company’s efforts related to advanced emergency alerting (AEA), Verance has announced that it has officially joined the Advanced Warning and Response Network (AWARN) Alliance. This voluntary, international coalition of technology firms and trade associations work to utilize NEXTGEN TV for AEA and post-alert news and information.

What Verance says it expects to contribute to AEA technology that already assists with providing videos, images, maps and real-time updates is its Aspect watermarking platform, which ensures that metadata and triggers associated with next-gen experiences like AEA can reach 100% of connected TVs across all distribution paths, including ATSC 1.0, 3.0, over-the-air, cable, satellite and OTT services.

“On behalf of our coalition, I am very happy to welcome Verance to the AWARN Alliance,” said John Lawson, AWARN executive director. “Aspect watermarking can play a vital role in fulfilling our mission to deliver AEA to the widest possible audience and enable more lives to be saved during emergency situations.”

Richard Glosser, Verance’s head of business development added: “The power of our combined technologies ensures that critical alerts and ongoing information will reach the right households at the right time, including in today’s ATSC 1.0 broadcast environment.”

It is common knowledge in the broadcast industry that conditional access systems are no longer a significant barrier to the illegal redistribution of content. The HDCP portion of the HDMI standard has long since been compromised. Worse still, nothing prevents a properly licensed viewer from pointing a cellphone camera at a monitor and restreaming a watchable copy of broadcast content. The latter is in part a tribute to the quality of modern consumer cameras and displays which, properly chosen and carefully used, can create copies that look like they were made via direct digital connections.

Content producers are feeling the financial pain from rampant copying and redistribution. They are stepping up their enforcement of distribution contract provisions which demand that broadcasters protect the content that has been entrusted to them. Broadcasters in turn find that they are facing these issues with few attractive options for resolving them.

Although forensic watermarking is widely touted as the solution, many of the systems on the market are prohibitively expensive. Not only are the licenses themselves expensive but they often require wholesale replacement of all set top box (STB) hardware and the installation of costly head-end hardware.

JUST A MATTER OF TIME

Even after all that expense, the common watermarking methods are not totally robust. Most are fixed methods, often requiring hardware support, and as such are stationary targets for a hacker. Some have already been compromised. For the other content protection systems, hacking is just a matter of time.

We took the concept of watermarking back to first principles and came up with two key assumptions:

First, that presenting a moving target to the hackers is perhaps more important than the absolute difficulty of hacking any one variant of a watermark.

Second, that cost efficiency is extremely important right across the broadcast industry as media companies strive to deliver more channels within a finite total budget.

These factors encouraged us to research a concept in which watermark variety is the primary security mechanism. The watermark insertion in this approach is client-side rather than head-end side, avoiding the additional CDN costs of most head-end solutions.

The result of this investigation was a four-element solution consisting of a watermark server with internet access, watermark set-top-boxes, a player and an analysis workstation. Watermark analysis and decoding are performed as a cloud-based supporting service which identifies any playout devices associated with illegal use of protected content. For STB based systems, this is a software-only technology that can be back-fitted to existing STBs provided that source code access to the STB is available. The components of the system are:

• A watermark control server that assigns unique watermarks to each client device and monitors their status;
  

• Watermark-capable STB code to insert the watermark during playout;
  

• A cloud-based decoder system to recover the watermarks from copies, and
  

• Tools to capture and forward found copies of protected content to a cloud-based decoder.
  

For OTT systems, there are further considerations. It was considered vital to support devices running on Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, Google Android, and Apple iOS. Other platforms or devices could be added in the future. Because OTT devices lack the secure execution environment of STBs, the system is written to tightly bind the watermark process to the digital rights management process such that the content never exists both decrypted and un-watermarked. The code that performs this transformation is hidden by the same level of protection used for financial transaction software.

More generally, this security software to accomplish watermarking exists in two forms: integrated into a specific type of player or as a stand-alone security module usable with any player. Not all platforms support both forms. The security module can be integrated with other players if source code access is available.

For a seamless user experience, the broadcaster's servers must be made aware of the security module so that connected devices check for the stand-alone security module or the player-integrated security module and offers to download the appropriate module if it is missing.

Because of the limited processing power available in many OTT devices, a full OTT ADTH TOLKA Watermark solution requires some additional head-end equipment as compared to STB systems. The system is a combination of server-side analysis and client-side insertion. Metadata traveling with the encrypted stream tells the client side the most appropriate watermark and watermark parameters for the current content.

SUMMARY

Content protection is more important than ever in today's digitally-connected world. Content owners quite rightly expect their property to be secured as tightly as possible whenever and wherever broadcast.The technology required to achieve that security effectively and affordably is available today.

Jack Curtis, Director of New Technology, Atlanta DTH, Inc

LAS VEGAS–At the 2018 NAB Show, Friend MTS, a U.K.-based provider of content and revenue protection technology, launched a 4K/UHD variant of its ASiD service for subscriber level watermarking, to protect premium sports and entertainment content from streaming piracy sourced from set-top boxes and OTT players.

The automated ASiD global monitoring and watermarking service allows scaling for the largest live sports events, which can generate thousands of pirate streams. By connecting directly with pay TV operators’ subscriber management systems, ASiD deactivates thousands of pirate streams within minutes, preventing content theft and allowing broadcasters and rights owners to maximize their audiences and revenues.

A key service within Friend MTS’ portfolio, the ASiD global channel monitoring uses fingerprint-based content recognition to identify broadcasters’ assets in seconds. This monitoring connects with the invisible watermarking extraction to precisely identify subscribers who are responsible for streaming piracy. 

SAN DIEGO—LG Electronics has completed initial field testing of Verance Corp.’s Aspect audio watermarking technology integrated along with its own webOS Smart TV operating system into LG televisions used in Phoenix as part of an ongoing watermarking technology trial, Verance announced today.

The tests were done in conjunction with ATSC 1.0 transmissions from NBC and Fox stations in the market with Aspect included; however, the same watermarking technology is specified as the audio watermark that will enable audience measurement, interactivity and personalization as part of the ATSC 3.0 next-gen television standard.

“We see these early Aspect field tests paving the way for the U.S launch of ATSC 3.0 Smart TVs and broadcasts following the recent FCC action approving voluntary implementation of next-gen TV,” said Nil Shah, Verance CEO, in a press release announcing the LG test completion.

In May 2017, SmithGeiger released the results of a study commissioned by Verance showing that consumers are willing to pay higher prices and speed up their purchase plans for new internet-connected televisions to gain access to the interactive and personalized viewing options made possible by the ATSC 3.0 and Aspect.

More information is available on the Verance website. 

WASHINGTON—A consortium of major broadcasters are testing watermarking technology aimed at the IP-based television transmission standard, ATSC 3.0. According to the Pearl TV alliance, it is collaborating with Fox, NBC Connecticut/WVIT, Univision and software maker Verance, maker of the watermarking technology. Pearl said “and on-air test is now underway,” using Verance ’s digital audio watermark embedded in ATSC 1.0 transmissions to conduct the test.

Pearl said watermarking enablea “the foundational data protocol that triggers services such as interactivity, personalization and even advanced emergency alerting on televisions and other devices.”

Test locations include Phoenix; Orlando, Fla.; Montgomery, Ala.; and Hartford, Conn.

“We plan to evaluate how the watermark is deployed, how it is retained from transmitter to receiver, and what information can be gleaned from the testing process,” said Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, a business organization of U.S. broadcast companies.

“The goal is to test how watermarking can be used to power the next-generation TV across various viewing paths and devices,” Schelle said.

According to Nil Shah, CEO of Verance, the company’s software “activates broadband capabilities on broadcast content, providing viewers with advanced features uniformly across devices and platforms. This enables broadcasters to connect with millions of viewers on TV in the personalized, dynamic ways they’re accustomed to online.”

He said the technology is compatible with ATSC 1.0, the transmission standard currently in use, and that it “accelerates certain ATSC 3.0 features, allowing broadcasters to see early benefits while transitioning to ATSC 3.0.”

For more on this subject, visit our ATSC 3.0 silo.