Verimatrix specializes in securing and enhancing revenue for multi-network, multi-screen digital TV services around the globe. The award-winning and independently audited Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS™) and ViewRight® solutions offer an innovative approach for cable, satellite, terrestrial, IPTV and OTT operators to cost-effectively extend their networks and enable new business models. As the established trend setter in cardless security solutions, the company has leveraged its innovative 3-Dimensional Security approach to provide a harmonized rights platform for premium content delivery to a range of devices over new hybrid network combinations.
Verimatrix was founded with a singular mission – to leverage proven content standards, Internet security technologies and a “can do” approach to help enable the then nascent world of telco TV operators. Success in establishing this new type of video service would propel these operators to global prominence. The company established itself as the global number one in video revenue security for connected devices, proving its early approach even more significant. Verimatrix has expanded its vision to offer a full range of solutions that help enable digital TV operators to think beyond legacy conditional access (CA) approaches – and beyond the managed network – to harmonize rights management and the consumer experience in multi-screen services.
Today’s Verimatrix vision, shared by our customers and partners, is that the expectation of next generation video services will not be limited by the type of network used, or by the chosen consumption device. The competitive frontier for digital TV operators around the globe will be defined by transparent, yet highly effective protection of their revenue streams, everywhere that their services might reach. The Verimatrix VCAS architecture successfully creates and patrols that new frontier.
For more company information, please download the Company Backgrounder document and Corporate Presentation.
Digital TV Opportunities and Challenges
The convergence of broadcasting, broadband and mobile communications is creating new opportunities and challenges throughout the media delivery value chain. For established digital TV operators, commercial and technical improvements have the potential to significantly increase average revenue per user (ARPU), while reducing subscriber churn. For new classes of operators, including over-the-top (OTT)-only video services, the issues revolve around effective presentation of a compelling service value proposition, leveraging the diverse range of new screens available to consumers, which can compete with – or complement – traditional pay-TV.
The proliferation of Internet TV services impacts a series of other transitional dilemmas facing TV operators. Depending on the market environment, operators may also face an analog to digital transition, a shift from MPEG-2 compression technology to MPEG-4, introduction of HDTV services, combining IP video and interactivity with broadcast services or shifting to all IP delivery paradigms.
Since revenue generation by digital TV operators is intimately tied to the security of video distribution systems, all of these types of transitions offer an opportunity to re-evaluate how content is protected, delivered and consumed. As a part of their transition strategy, operators should frequently consider business model enhancements and the overall competitive environment. From a perspective of increasing ARPU through premium content and transactional offers, while also reducing delivery, programming and/or support costs, IP-based technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent. Throughout the head-end and backbone network, as well as inside the networked home, IP is the common building block. And IP-centric, cardless security is at the core of the Verimatrix value proposition to operators who are evaluating how they react to these challenges.
Digital TV security architectures in this new era need to be multi-dimensional to address the three key aspects of the evolving pay-TV content delivery challenge:
- Secure delivery over multiple networks
- Support for diverse consumer devices, and
- A multi-layered strategy to detect and address threats to the revenue stream.
This shifts the central value proposition for the pay-TV enterprise beyond that of content protection alone, towards the broader perspective of multi-network revenue security. A multi-layered revenue security approach allows operators to optimize the content monetization for different business objectives, delivery networks and consumer devices, within a single platform.