By Swain Thorne
Over-the-top (OTT) platforms have become increasingly popular around the world. Until recently, they were only available on cable TV, but now they can be accessed on a variety of devices. OTT content has become increasingly popular, but it has also made it more vulnerable to piracy because of the proliferation of devices and content that can be viewed in browsers on desktops. Digital rights management (DRM) technology is used by content owners and OTT platforms to manage users and ensure that only legitimate devices are authorised to play premium content, such as movies and music. It is possible for a DRM module to limit the number of devices or users per account, allowing the OTT company to design subscription plans accordingly.
Google Widevine, Microsoft, or Apple’s DRM licences are used when video assets are encoded and then sent to a content delivery network (CDN). Before a video file can be decrypted, each video player on a client browser or device must communicate with the licencing server. Encryption is also required for communication between the video player and the licencing servers. In order to protect the licencing keys, this system uses a challenge-response system of encryption. In order to encrypt this data using the AES algorithm, a unique key and iey ID must be supplied.
A content decryption module is required by the browser because it must first decrypt encrypted video before it can be played (CDM). Without this, the video can’t be viewed in its entirety in the DRM system. Encrypted media extensions (EMEs), which are browser APIs, are used to communicate between the browser and the CDM. An HTML5 player is used in web browsers to display the OTT content. EMEs enable browsers to make use of HTML5. Video content can be streamed without the need to download extensions like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight using a combination of the CDM and an HTML5 browser.
Even if a DRM module provides the best possible security, content leaks are still possible. In order to protect their content, content owners must incorporate video watermarking into their arsenal of security measures. It is possible to extract a forensic watermark from video files that have been leaked, allowing the source to be identified. A video asset can be safeguarded in a variety of ways using DRM video protection. There is an embedded code sequence that prevents the video asset from being copied, which is a part of this process. Using DRM technology, it is possible to restrict access to content based on time periods, such as how many days a piece of content is accessible to one user. A user account can only be used on a limited number of devices at a time thanks to this technology. It gives OTT providers the ability to price their subscriptions appropriately.
There are several CDMs that can be supported by browsers; for example, Firefox supports both Google Widevine and Adobe Access CDMs, whereas IE and Edge on Windows 10 both support PlayReady and Widevine CDM. However, video watermarks must be embedded in each segment of a video for additional protection.
