Although it’s fashionable to consider DRM evil (Note: I was a major proponent when Amazon MP3 debuted DRM-free music), the fact is that without content protection, there’s no way the TV Everywhere movement will ever get off the ground. Along those lines, news surfaced earlier this week that Netflix will go a step beyond standard DRM and selectively add on Irdeto’s Cloakware technology for delivery of Watch Instantly content. Cloakware, as Jeff Baumgartner explains, is designed to hide encryption keys for an extra level of content security. Irdeto acquired the Cloakware platform back in 2007 and acquired further cryptology patents for Cloakware just last December.
The Netflix win is a big deal, but it’s not the end of Irdeto’s emergence party. Today the company announced an alliance with Adobe to support Flash Access 2.0, which is due out in May. That’s important because, iPad or not, Flash still dominates the online video space. According to Irdeto, the alliance makes it the only company able to support Windows DRM, Silverlight/Play Ready, and Adobe Flash in its latest incarnation. Since content companies can never get enough content protection, that seems like a pretty compelling proposition. And hey, if it gets my TV shows faster to every device I use, then I’m all for a little extra security too.
Your article begs the question, do we really want TV Everywhere? I sure don’t. It’s yet another way for cablecos to lock us into their ridiculous plans. I want content providers to move away from big-cable content exclusivity to a world where I can order (and pay for) content on demand from any content provider without the need for cable subscriptions. That’s the happy future I look forward to – DRM’d or not.
…Dale
If you think Netflix is going to be bringing you stuff ever earlier you haven’t been following the news lately. All of the new anti-RedBox agreements also mean its going to be longer, generally a month longer, before movies show up on Netflix. I think it might be the death of the service. All this other stuff is frills. Will be interesting to see how it shakes out. Personally, as an Apple TV consumer, I’ve been irritated by the delays I experience but I simply wait until it comes out on Apple TV before I watch it. I’m not going back to disks, ever. I wonder how other people will react.
As far as TV Anywhere, I haven’t seen any numbers on how popular it is, which is somewhat surprising at this point. After poking at it a few times shortly after launch, I haven’t looked at it since. The available content was much less than I had expected. There’s more stuff available on Hulu.