Widevine to Offer Flash Video DRM?
Liz Gannes, over on NewTeeVee, is reporting that Widevine, a company up here in Seattle, will announce a DRM solution for Flash Video. She and I chatted about it and I’m a little skeptical about this being even possible.
As I mentioned in the article, DRM on Flash Video seems to be something most partners want to see. I hate DRM, and we’re seeing the waning days of DRM for music, but the battle over video isn’t there yet. But because Flash Video is so ubiquitous on the web, a DRM solution that works well might make bigger partners happy.
There are a couple of flaws with that notion though. One, while the On2 codec is good, if you’re looking for very high quality video (the kind you’d pay for), it won’t be as good as other already-DRMed solutions. So the market would be mostly smaller clips or things like TV shows that stations want to give people access to, but may want to control more closely. In that case, there’s Flash Media Server, but the price point is high for most people, and if your site really starts bringing in users, you’re beholden to Adobe for a lot of money.
We’ll see what Widevine offers, but I can’t imagine it’s a solution that will work for most users. Even if it is successful, and they start making money, Adobe can cut them off by implementing it themselves. My hunch here is that Widevine, which uses a downloadable client, wants to tie themselves to the Flash wagon so they can use Flash’s penetration to increase their own downloadable client numbers.
[tags]Flash, DRM, Widevine[/tags]
Posted in Rich Internet Applications
April 10th, 2007 at 1:30 am
I think HD Video for the next Flash Player will be more important then DRM.
April 10th, 2007 at 2:11 am
I agree nz, HD Video should be a much higher priority.
April 10th, 2007 at 5:30 am
Just turn on On2 VP7 like Move Networks is using… Adobe already has frameworked the contract for it. So just gotta happen, hopefully soon.
But I think the availability of DRM should attract a new class of video providers to Flash.
April 14th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Of course the question is what will really happen next for Flash DRM??
I have heard that on Monday Adobe will announce their plan for DRM?
The question is will this be the third announcement we see in regards to Widevine’s DRM for Flash. Widevine (http://www.widevine.com/pr/109_cypher_flash.html) announced early this week their solution for FLV…It seems that at least three of the TV networks are using Widevine to secure their Flash Video based online presence and it seems they are soon to lock up the remaining studios.
It is clear the Microsoft, Apple and even Adobe were asleep at the wheel.
Widevine made a huge score last week by announcing their solution to be quickly followed by ON2 announcing they are also working with Widevine. (
http://www.on2.com/company/news-room/press-releases/?id=392)
So will Adobe announce Widevine support next week? It would make sense as NAB kicks off in Vegas. Flash DRM will be the hot topic at the show.
Will Adobe acquire Widevine?
Or will Adobe try to compete with Widevine?
If Adobe decides to “roll their own” I suspect everyone loses…
DRM was the last thing between Flash Video and premium content. But most large corporations like Microsoft and Apple who attempt DRM fail for several reasons.
1 – DRM is not their competency. Microsoft has less then five DRM experts. Motorola has only four. It is unclear if Apple has any. Contrast that will a DRM company like Widevine which is totally comprised of DRM expertise.
2 – DRM is not their focus…will they fix it if compromised?
3 – DRM is not how Adobe makes money…so you have to figure they will attempt something like locking you into the Flash Media Server to get the DRM. TV Networks are often billed as much as 50 cents per 1 Gigabyte of content streamed from a CDN using FMS. However, with an HTTP server doing progressive downloads or downloads that can be in the 12 cents range for the same content. Having the freedom to use alternatives to FMS saves Internet TV providers millions daily.
4 – FLV is one of many formats and a DRM that only supports FLV would be too limiting for the consumer.
These types of restrictions are why Apple and Microsoft DRM are failed technologies.
Adobe I am glad to hear you will be adding DRM for FLV…please do it right.
April 15th, 2007 at 9:51 am
I found this to be interesting…It seems it would be good for ADBE if they announce Widevine next week…Should give them some help in battles with Microsoft and Apple…Might even scare the other guys a bit…
http://www.widevine.com/ip.html
April 17th, 2007 at 10:02 am
So I talked to Adobe yesterday…Their DRM is just SSL encryption between the FMS and the client with user and device authentication. It seems you must pay $4500 for a FMS (plus HW) and you do not get that many streams.
They claimed their use of a non rtsp protocol keeps you from listening in…what a joke I can listen in on RTMP very easly
This is certainly not a DRM…now move to ON2 and Widevine…that one appears to use industry standard DRM methods… It looks robust I saw it in booth #C1855…It is truely end to end and works with any server…Encryption, forensic watremarking and something they call “digital hole protection or DCPâ€. It seems this DCP protects shared memory and the bus stream recorders and screen recorders…The question remains is Widevine what Abobe is planning for their next DRM release?
I asked Adobe booth folks that said that is what they thought but they were not sure.
Widevine and ON2 would not disclose details regarding next efforts only that it works with Adobe Flash players 8, 9 and Flash Lite