Intertrust and Vewd introduce content protection for HbbTV

Thursday, June 6th, 2019
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Intertrust and Vewd partner to introduce next-generation content protection for HbbTV

  • First HbbTV integration of XCA disruptive card-less conditional access system, demonstrated at the 16° European digital forum event, Lucca, Italy

SUNNYVALE, CA and OSLO, Norway — Intertrust, the pioneer in Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology and Vewd, the world’s largest smart TV OTT software provider, today announced pre-integration of XCA in Vewd Core to reduce cost and accelerate time-to-market for operator HbbTV deployments.

Using Intertrust’s standards-based ExpressPlay XCA™ and Vewd Core, the world’s most-chosen independent HTML5 SDK for smart TVs, device manufacturers can offer a more complete software stack of content protection and HbbTV support. Additionally, the new system enables cost savings for operators by limiting dependency on expensive CA modules and onerous business terms.

As consumers demand a seamless experience between broadcast and broadband TV, the industry has rallied behind standards like Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV). A large screen TV experience is well-suited for high-value content like early release movies, blockbuster TV shows, and live sports events and the need for high reliability and high scalability content protection has never been greater. Hybrid TV networks allow the targeting of both content and ads to large screen TV viewers, while gaining reliability and scale to benefit point-to-multi-point broadcast networks.

Based on the Marlin DRM open standard, Intertrust ExpressPlay XCA brings world-class conditional access content protection technology to power broadcast or hybrid TV services. The ExpressPlay platform is the gold standard for modern content protection, providing all DRM formats (Marlin, PlayReady, Widevine, Fairplay, Access) and XCA. XCA’s cloud architecture supports both one-way and two-way networks, offering converged OTT and broadcast support. The cloud-based XCA service works in concert with ExpressPlay DRM™ to provide complete coverage of DRM technologies for the OTT part of hybrid services, which scales content services across the widest range of devices. Unlike other conditional access technologies, XCA is cheaper and more robust, and is available on Smart TVs and set-top boxes.

“Consumers expect to push a button on a remote control and see a show,” said Guido Cugi, Head of Media Technology Solutions, Intertrust. “At the same time, content creators expect their rights to be protected regardless of format. We designed ExpressPlay XCA to support a seamless user experience, protect creators’ rights and provide a highly cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solution for operators that is sensitive to the hybrid world.”

To enable the new Intertrust XCA integration, Vewd optimized Vewd Core and its Hybrid TV and Media Player modules. Vewd’s Hybrid TV solution is the world’s most-trusted HbbTV technology, designed to support operators’ and broadcasters’ advanced HbbTV use cases, including personalization and content substitution.

“HbbTV has improved how hundreds of millions of people enjoy TV,” said Frode Hernes, SVP of Product Management, Vewd, and HbbTV Association board member. “Because XCA delivers scale with a card-less solution, operators naturally want it available in the HbbTV stack. With Intertrust, we’re first to market with XCA in HbbTV. This is the future of content protection, delivered today.”

Initially focused on HbbTV technology, the solution will soon extend to other use cases, including ATSC 3.0.

To watch the Vewd – ExpressPlay XCA demo, please visit us at the 16° European Digital Forum Event in Lucca, June 6-7.