Irdeto Control
Multi-DRM Cloud Services
Trusted by the biggest brands in video entertainment:
Multi-DRM protection for some of the most watched content and sports events (FIFA, DAZN)
Winner of the 2022 Cybersecurity Excellence award for Best Digital Right’s Management, Irdeto Control issued over 50 billion licenses in 2022, also giving service operators the confidence to scale their business, grow their revenues, and enjoy peace of mind even during high peak events.
With the growing migration of all media brands to offering key content direct-to-consumer (D2C), competition in the OTT video ecosystem is fiercer than ever: Streaming apps, pay-TV operators, studios, and sports rights holders are all battling for consumers’ eyeballs.
Top media brands must quickly differentiate by offering the best content at a competitive subscription cost so having the best multi-DRM solution in place is more important than ever.
There is a clear migration of all media brands towards offering content direct-to-consumer (D2C) and OTT distribution is the “weapon of choice”. Competition in the OTT video arena is fiercer than ever: Streaming apps, pay-TV operators, studios, and sports rights holders are all battling for consumers’ eyeballs.
Differentiation is critical to survive in such a competitive landscape. Media brands must find their target market’s “sweet spot” by combining the most desired Content, with suitable Convenience at the right Cost levels for subscribers – There is no “one-fix-all”, you need to offer flexibility and personalized alternatives.
Choosing the right multi-DRM solution is one of the most critical aspects to secure the success of your OTT streaming platform.
Irdeto Control is the most reliable, scalable, and secure multi-DRM solution proven in the market. It offers you simple integration, management, and global support “round-the-clock”, providing you the differentiation you need to stand out, offer your viewers an unmatched user experience and grow your business by attracting more subscribers.
Top 5 criteria when choosing a multi-drm solution
Based on years of experience supporting media companies and deploying successful OTT video services globally, Irdeto has captured the top 5 criteria to consider when choosing a multi-DRM solution, helping you maximizing the performance and revenue potential of your OTT service.
Business Enablement
This is the most important role of the solution; it must empower you to grow your business. The ideal multi-DRM solution must support all business models (SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, FAST, etc.) and enable pay-TV operators and media streaming services to quickly introduce new and attractive monetization models, meet subscribers’ needs and differentiate from competitors. This includes capabilities such as DRM-based Concurrent Stream Management (CSM) and Geo-enforcement. Irdeto Control multi-DRM cloud service supports all models, enabling you to grow your OTT services’ ARPU and attract new subscribers by addressing new customer segments.
Scalability
It is crucial for any OTT service to perform at its best when all eyes are watching, especially during high profile events. That is why ensuring the right license delivery throughput and latency is vital to meet your viewers’ expectations by providing a premium user experience. Irdeto Control multi-DRM cloud service offers you a license delivery throughput greater than 100K RPS and a license delivery latency below 50ms, to guarantee the ideal platform scalability required during high profile events and provide your service with fast response times even during high peaks.
Security
To meet security requirements and access content from premium studios and sports rights holders, your OTT platform must guarantee secure distribution on all devices. In many cases, DRM-based-only security is not enough, and that is why the multi-DRM solution must be seamlessly integrated and supported by additional layers of security, including watermarking technologies and piracy detection mechanisms. Irdeto Control multi-DRM cloud service is trusted by all the major studios and can be pre-integrated and enhanced with Irdeto watermarking solution TraceMarkTM and Irdeto cybersecurity services.
Reliability
High profile events are the ultimate test for any OTT service; therefore, it is so important for the multi-DRM solution to empower your OTT service with the required reliability and availability to perform at its best. If an OTT service goes down for just a few seconds during an important event, the impact on your business can be catastrophic. Irdeto Control multi-DRM cloud service offers you an industry-leading SLA of 99.999%, plus a series of additional services including 24×7 operational supervision by a dedicated Service Operation Center (SOC), 24×7 dedicated customer support and a Hosted Widevine Service to guarantee broadcast-like reliability and availability of your streaming service.
Simplicity
Simplicity
Given the nature of the media and entertainment industry, it is vital for any OTT service to deploy as quickly and as efficiently as possible. That is why the ideal multi-DRM solution must be easy to integrate and manage. It should be flexible to adjust to each operator’s unique needs and it must be able to continuously evolve to meet technology developments and viewers’ needs. Irdeto Control multi-DRM cloud service requires minimum integration and offer the lowest TCO (total cost of ownership) and TTM (time to market) for operators deploying a new OTT service. It supports all packagers, player, devices, and DRM technologies to adjust to any environment.
Simplicity
When all eyes are watching
Guaranteed reliability and availability when you need it most
IRDETO CONTROL: The most powerful multi-DRM solution
50B
DRM licenses in a year
4.5B
DRM licenses in a month
30M
DRM licenses in a single high profile event
50ms
Latency or less
100K
RPS throughput or more
Multi-drm cloud service
The diagram below illustrates how Irdeto Control multi-DRM cloud service works in a typical OTT ecosystem.
Note: Irdeto’s integration with Packagers is not limited to the list on the diagram. Contact us for more information.
- A speedy content packaging pipeline is easily set up thanks to Irdeto Control Key Maker’s pre-integration test with major encoders/packagers.
- Business policies, including content rules and play restrictions, are configured via the Rights Management system, which provides both API and HTML5 web user interface.
- Irdeto Control License Service issues playback licenses upon the requests from the user device if it is decided that the user is entitled to the requested content.
Business Benefits
- Boost legitimate revenues with versatile rights and effective credential sharing management.
- High availability and scalability with industry-leading SLAs (up to 99.999%) and auto-scaling to handle traffic outbursts.
- Deliver high service quality and embrace global OTT service expansion no matter when and where.
- Fast time to market for new services, client devices, and DRM features.
- Fully managed “pay-as-you-grow” cloud service.
- 24×7 monitoring and dedicated customer support.
Irdeto Control Features
- DRM security: Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine Modular, Apple FairPlay Streaming
- Content encryption: CPIX 2.3-compliant interface, AWS SPEKE 2.0, track types, key rotation
- Streaming formats: HLS, MPEG-DASH, Smooth Streaming, CMAF
- Delivery methods: Live streaming, VOD, Download & Go (including offline rental), Catch-up TV
- Consumer authorization: Session Token, Geo-blocking, Concurrent Stream Management
- Infrastructure (AWS SaaS deployment): Geodiversity (multi-region), Kubernetes autoscaling
Concurrent stream management
Irdeto Control concurrent stream management empowers you to grow your ARPU by enforcing concurrent stream limits accurately and effectively. Create unique offerings tailored to your subscribers’ needs, untap new viewers’ segments with attractive models, and prevent revenue loss by discouraging session and credential sharing. Differentiate from competitors by introducing innovative offerings that enable to control and manage concurrent streams based on subscribers’ accounts, device category, premium content, and more.
Irdeto Control concurrent stream management leverages the concept of license renewal known as DRM-based “heartbeats”, which is proven to be more secure and accurate, to replace the traditional player-based method, which is not as secure and requires custom development for each device/player. Irdeto’s unique approach is app agnostic and does not require custom code to be developed or maintained at the application or platform level. It prevents any attempt to circumvent the systems’ heartbeats, enabling operators to accurately enforce content and service usage rules in real-time.
These are some of the capabilities that Irdeto Control allows you to rapidly deploy. You can create any kind of possible combinations to develop attractive and customized packages for your subscribers. Empowering you to grow your business and quickly adjust to new market trends and viewers’ demands.
Irdeto hosted widevine service
Irdeto’s impeccable security excellence and proven capabilities to host and manage critical security services entitles us to co-host Widevine’s license service SDK as part of Irdeto Control (Hosted Widevine Service) and to enable service providers with greater reliability and availability for their OTT services at all times. Irdeto Hosted Widevine Service further extends our industry-leading availability and SLAs (99.999%) offering your OTT video service with improved user experience (low latency), managed change control, and dedicated monitoring capabilities to guarantee the required scalability and resiliency for high profile events.
As illustrated in the image above, with Irdeto Control Hosted Widevine Service the license requests never leave Irdeto Control’s reach and scope and don’t depend on Widevine Cloud License Service for final license fulfillment, offering you a series of business benefits:
Simplicity: Easy and seamless migration (no changes needed in the client devices nor operators’ infrastructure). Quick time to market and lower total cost of ownership with added value.
Security: It is as secure as Widevine Cloud License Service (WCLS). Offers frequent and efficient security updates from Google e.g., DCSL.
Strong Change Management: Ensures seamless and transparent updates e.g., configuration updates, new releases, new rules, etc. Any new Widevine SDK release is qualified, validated and tested before moving to production.
Latency: No more remote calls to fulfill Widevine Licenses. Latency is not impacted by variations in distance between customer and WCLS locations.
Privacy: Follows regulations and local agreements with customers about data privacy e.g., GDPR. Data doesn’t go out of Irdeto Control cloud.
Accessibility: Not impacted if WCLS is down (completely or partially). Not impacted by network connectivity issues (entry or exiting the network).
Availability: Guaranteed availability when requested by service provider. The service is part of Irdeto Control’s SLA (up to 99.999%).
Geo restriction services
Irdeto Control offers you geo-restriction services enabling great flexibility to enforce IP geo-restrictions from a subscriber level, content level, or both. Based on subscribers’ location, operators can deploy targeted strategies by country, region, or city. Irdeto Control geo-restriction capabilities also include innovative tools to detect and block VPN and proxy services, impeding any attempt to circumvent the geo-restrictions.
Irdeto Control geo-restriction services enable you to impose access control in accordance with your subscriber’s geographic information (IP based).
Granular restrictions based on geo location:
- Country (e.g., The Netherlands)
- Region (e.g., North Holland)
- City (e.g., Amsterdam)
Granular restrictions based on different levels:
- Subscriber level
- Content level
- Both subscriber & content level
Irdeto Control supports dynamic IP whitelisting and blacklisting per availability policy, enabling you to support a variety of innovative use cases:
- Unblocking a user IP belonging to a region geographically blocked.
- Blocking a user IP suspected to be the cause of piracy based on observed unusual behavior.
- A user IP identified as VPN/Proxy requires to be enabled due to operational, commercial, or legal reasons.
Irdeto control cloud services
Irdeto Control is a proven and trusted multi-DRM solution at the center of OTT content delivery activities. It addresses service provider’s key concerns such as service reliability, scalability, simplicity, and security. Naturally, it supports the leading DRMs (Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay Streaming) as well as a variety of monetization models (e.g., subscription, transaction to own, transaction to rent, freemium, ad-funded) enabling you to maximize your OTT revenue potential. Over 30 of the leading OTT video providers and media brands worldwide put their trust in Irdeto to issue billions of licenses per month, enabling them to provide the best user experience for millions of subscribers.
