Viewthority Drives Efficiency & Monetization across Silos Separating Content Providers & Operators

VERIMATRIX CLOUDWORKFLOW OPENS

COLLABORATIVEPATH TO HIGHER ROI

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CONTENTSINTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................3

CHALLENGES TO SUCCESS IN A DISRUPTIVE MARKETPLACE ...................................................................8

– Upside Potential Produces Overcrowding ..................................................................................8

– The Impact of Isolated Spheres of Operation .............................................................................9

– Mounting Complexities in Content Protection ..........................................................................10

– Coping with the Intensifying Impact of Content Theft ..............................................................10

– Impediments to Maximizing Monetization ...............................................................................11

MITIGATING PAIN WITH VIEWTHORITY ...............................................................................................12

– A New Transactional Environment ............................................................................................13

– A New Approach to Security Management ...............................................................................16

– Driving Out Redundancy in Video Processing ...........................................................................17

– Unleashing the Power of Advanced Analytics ...........................................................................18

CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................19

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INTRODUCTIONUnrelenting pressure on ROI in the premium video business has brought content providers and video service operators to a point where finding ways to collaborate on cutting costs and raising revenue is absolutely essential to sustainable competitiveness.

Notwithstanding the gains in market reach and service flexibility in the digital domain, media and entertainment (M&E) stakeholders are burdened by mounting complexities and wasteful duplication in content distribution workflows. They lack the means to fully exploit the revenue-driving potential to be found in the swelling tide of data flowing from every corner of the marketplace. At a moment when margins are squeezed as never before, there needs to be a way to overcome the double whammy of spiraling costs

and lost revenue

Fortunately, the M&E industry’s growing reliance on commonly used cloud technologies has opened a new world of possibilities. The answer lies in a cloud-based B2B distribution platform

that can serve as a single point of engagement between content providers and all classes of video service providers with support for collaboration in multiple spheres of activity.

Verimatrix has satisfied the urgent need for such a platform with the development of the Viewthority platform as-a-service (PaaS). This connected content distribution

platform uniquely draws on the company’s strength in content security, workflow

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efficiency and analytics to enable content providers and operators to collaborate on a wide range of ROI- enhancing tasks aimed at capturing new markets, new viewers and new revenue streams.

The availability of Viewthority for wide scale engagement rests on the scope of the M&E market’s shift from reliance on proprietary hardware-based video processing platforms to operations that utilize advanced software systems running on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) appliances. Increasingly, content providers and operators of all types, including legacy pay-TV operators as well as OTT providers, are adopting private, public and hybrid cloud strategies that can seamlessly interact with the Viewthority platform.

Verimatrix has ensured best-of-breed functionality and scalability for Viewthorityby implementing the PaaS in the media-optimized Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing environment. Connectivity to Viewthority through the globally deployed AWS infrastructure affords customers direct dashboard access to a broad set of cutting-edge solutions now providing service delivery reach to 240 million consumers worldwide.

Utilizing Viewthority, customers can:• Reduce or eliminate wasteful, duplicate workflows from business dealings. • Unify content protection with a single point of encryption and key management extending end-to-end across all devices in the OTT and legacy pay-TV domains.• Gain better control over enforcement of distribution windows and licensing policies.• Automate and ensure data integrity of content royalty reporting workflows.• Reduce duplication in transcoding and other redundancies in content distribution.• Implement the advanced analytics capabilities that are essential to building customer engagement, disrupting piracy and delivering on the promise of advanced advertising.

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There are also additional benefits uniquely impacting the two primary customer segments. For content providers, the ability to connect distributor affiliates to centralized content libraries through a common rights management workflow helps reduce the costs and risks of extending market reach. At the same time, it opens opportunities to increase consumer engagement through better insight into usage and quality performance. Operators can also gain broader visibility into content options and licensing terms, enabling them to quickly identify the most favorable options for creating service packages with optimal appeal for their markets.

And, collectively, operators and content providers alike can benefit from collaboration on various aspects of ecosystem operation. For example, operators can rely on transcoding performed by content

providers rather than replicating the processes in their own facilities, content providers can benefit from access to data collected by operators.

The positioning of Viewthority as a PaaS creates an opportunity for integrations with other cloud platforms to augment interoperability among compelling solutions.

The rights management-related interactions between content providers and operators are greatly facilitated by the integration of Viewthority with Mediamorph’s Content Value Management (CVM) cloud platform, a workflow for systematizing the cataloging of content and metadata that powers the world’s largest entertainment companies. By automating interactions across the

supply chain, the integration allows the seamless flow of content rights and entitlements directly from content providers to operators.

For Example...

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Verimatrix is reimagining thecurrent video processing and delivery

workflow with Viewthority. With advanced capabilities now available in the cloud, content

owners and video service operators can truly take advantage of the CAPEX and OPEX efficiencies that help them maximizethe value of their content

and services with workflow intelligence.

- Rob Gardos, CEO, Mediamorph

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This three-part series provides an in-depth look at the Viewthority platform and its benefits.

Part One explores the pain points that content providers and operators are grappling with in the context of the role the cloud in general and Viewthority in particular can play to streamline operations and drive monetization.

Part Two explores all the ways stakeholders can leverage Viewthority and Verimatrix RightsConnex, a secure multi-tier content distribution and reporting solution to centralize management and enforcement of content licensing terms, distribution windows, playback policies, and business rules, all of which is abetted by automation of the consumption reporting process.

Part Three explains how Viewthority can be used to maximize the effectiveness of the Verimatrix Verspective Analytics solution in affording providers and operators much greater end-to-end visibility into and control over distribution, security, quality and monetization.

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Upside Potential Produces OvercrowdingThere is much to be sorted out when it comes to learning how to thrive in the digital era, but one thing is certain: no one can afford to miss opportunities to cut costs or expand revenue.

By all accounts, the premium video market is on course for robust growth worldwide over the next four years but will also have to deal with an influx of ever more players that will intensify the squeeze on profit margins. These include content providers mounting direct-to-consumer (DTC) initiatives, startups entering the vMVPD (virtual multichannel video programming distributor) and SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) spaces, and growing numbers of incumbent pay-TV operators mounting their own vMVPD operations to counter subscriber losses in the legacy pay-TV domain.

These macro trends suggest that while there is significant upside for content providers and operators that can deliver what consumers are looking for, doing so in an ever more crowded field will require new approaches to differentiating services and user experience along with the ability to develop new revenue streams. Equally important, success will require finding new ways to contain costs.

CHALLENGESTO SUCCESSIN A DISRUPTIVE MARKETPLACE

For deeper exploration of these market trends, click here

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The Impact of Isolated Spheres of OperationBefore exploring what Viewthority brings to the table, it is worth looking at the issues on both the cost and revenue-generating sides of the ledger that need to be neutralized. In the traditional B2B environment, content providers and operators have no ready means of implementing collaborative solutions to these pain points.

Instead, they work in their separate spheres of operations taxed by the need to independently cope with all the incompatibilities among devices, operating systems (OSs), digital rights management (DRM) systems, codecs and streaming formats. This drives up costs and impedes implementation of revenue-generating mechanisms

Inefficiency is being built into the supply chain because the battle

for end viewers is so fierce. All the different players who are delivering

video as part of their business model have different perspectives on the level of

video quality overlaid with different types of monetization (AVOD, SVOD, transactional)

There are now so many renditions of the content required to get the video to different devices, supporting different bit rates and resolutions in different geographical territories that a new perspective on this global distribution problem is required.

Keith Wymbs, CMO, AWS Elemental

View a full list of pain points forboth audiences

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relating to retaining and drawing subscribers, such as quality assurance, personalization of user experience and selection of content based on better understanding of audience.

Mounting Complexities in Content ProtectionContent protection is another area where diversity and expanding requirements contribute to mounting costs of keeping content safe across all device types and networks, whether managed or OTT. At the B2B level, content providers must manage encryption keys and policies associated with enforcing financial arrangements, duration and other basic licensing terms, including content distribution windows, locality-based variations and other nuances.

At the B2C level, operators must manage keys and policies relating to user and device authorization and authentication; recording and other aspects of general usage, including variations bearing on whether content is viewed via conditional access (CA)-protected set-tops or DRM-protected connected devices; and implementation of higher levels of protection like watermarking. And they must maintain credible mechanisms for auditing and reporting back to content providers on performance in all these areas of policy enforcement, as well as general usage metrics tied to their financial terms of engagement.

Coping with the Intensifying Impact of Content TheftEven with proper execution of all these steps vulnerabilities to theft remain. Losses in subscription and advertising revenue attributable to online piracy have skyrocketed, reaching $26.7 billion in 2017 and on course to hit $52 billion by 2022, according to research conducted by Digital TV Research1. Consequently, ever more content providers are adopting forensic

For an in-depth discussion of the trends in fragmentation respecting devices, OSs and video formats, click here

Read further about content protection complexities

1Digital TV Research, Online TV & Movie Piracy Losses to Soar to $52 billion, October 2017

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watermarking and some of the other requirements embodied in the Enhanced Content Protection (ECP) recommendations produced by the motion picture industry through MovieLabs.

The need to create uniquely marked streams for each end user at the end of the distribution chain adds complexities related to injecting watermarks at the set-top or on a session-by-session basis from the server in strict accord with studios’ standards. Finding a way to streamline the watermarking process across all levels has become a major priority.

Impediments to Maximizing MonetizationClearly, content providers and operators need better approaches to ensuring users are getting the quality of experience they expect. This requires the ability to collect and analyze data on playback performance and viewing behavior on a per-user basis wherever content is delivered.

From a quality of service (QoS) perspective, consumer expectations become more demanding as ever more TV programs, movies and long-form offerings originated by OTT providers are viewed on internet-connected TV sets.

Of course, there is more to meeting users’ expectations than providing a high QoS. Users are also looking for personalization of content discovery and special features.

Finally, deficiencies in having access to meaningful data have a huge bearing on stakeholders’ ability to maximize ad revenues.

Read on to learn more about online piracy and watermarking requirements.

For additional discussion of issues pertaining to QoS, user experience, and the unrealized potential in advanced advertising, click here

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VMITIGATING PAIN WITH VIEWTHORITY

Verimatrix has designed Viewthority as a connected content distribution platform through which content providers and operators of all stripes can significantly mitigate or, in many cases, eliminate the pain points discussed so far. While that is a very tall order, the fact is the emergence of public cloud service support for delivering feature-rich TV-caliber content has made it possible to combine the wide range of solutions that Verimatrix customers have been using individually into a cloud-based workflow that enhances the benefits of those solutions for all parties.

Through the Viewthority contract management portal, content providers can easily make known their asset availabilities and licensing terms such as release windows, package requirements and geographic distribution restrictions. This maximizes asset exposure for content providers and simplifies operators’ efforts to select the right mixes of content for their constituents. Visibility into asset options from across the ecosystem also facilitates operators’ efforts to negotiate the best deals as they assemble service packages.

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The role of Viewthority as a cloud-based point of interface between content providers and operators is enhanced by the breadth of the Verimatrix customer footprint…

now extending to more than 950 operators serving nearly 240 million consumers worldwide. Viewthority opens an immediate path for eliminating major inefficiencies at points of interaction between content providers and this vast segment of the affiliate marketplace while enabling ever wider participation from the ranks of content providers and operators of every description.

At the same time, Viewthority makes it possible for stakeholders to leverage the troves of anonymized data flowing from the Verimatrix-secured device footprint by utilizing the advanced analytics of the Verimatrix Verspective platform to gather intelligence about quality of service, consumer reactions to content offerings, and much else. The platform also provides operators and content providers who negotiate access to proprietary data a ready means of sharing and analyzing such information.

A New Transactional EnvironmentWith content providers and operators converging around a new content distribution ecosystem connected to the cloud, it stands to reason Verimatrix would choose the AWS Media Services platform to deliver maximum benefits of the Viewthority PaaS to its customers. AWS, now hosting the top three SVOD providers – Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu – has maintained a significant lead over other providers with a 35% market share2, unmatched global reach and, in the case of M&E, major advances in support of video services through AWS Media Services.

2 Ibid

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Multi-NationalTelco

Authorize & DistributeReport & AnalyzeMonitor & Control

Consumer OTT Services

Content Providers

Encode, Store,Deliver & Report

MEDIA PROCESSING & ANALYTICS SECURITY

Multi-DRM, Entitlements,Watermarking

New MarketsVSOs

Capitalizing on advances in commodity processors, AWS Media Services is able to support software-based video processing platforms that meet or exceed the capabilities of traditional purpose-built hardware platforms. Along with transcoding suited for live as well as on-demand content, AWS Media Services enables advanced personalization and monetization applications with support for just-in-time packaging and targeted ad insertion.

Using AWS Media Services makes it possible for Viewthority customers to rely on a collaborative and transparent environment with a workflow that gives customers faster and broader access to new markets, new viewers and new revenue streams (see Figure 1). And it makes it possible for Verimatrix to expand the usefulness of that workflow through integration with other cloud-based service providers.

Figure 1

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Content Workflow

Third-party DRMServers

WorkflowManagement

Keys

Keys

Analytics

Movie Studio

Watermarking

TV Studio

ContentAggregator

Telco/IPTVOperator

Cable Operator

Hybrid NetworkOperator

VerimatrixRightsConnex

ServiceAnalytics

Verspective™

Intellignce Analytics

VCAS

RightsConnexAdapter

Policies KeysEntitlements

SubscriberDevices

ContentUsage & QoE

Con

tent

Righ

ts M

anag

emen

t

CDN

the integration of Viewthority with Mediamorph’s market-leading Content Value Management (CVM) cloud platform serves to streamline interactions between content providers and operators by efficiently managing how content feeds into the video delivery workflow. The integration enables the seamless flow of usage rights and entitlements directly from the content provider to affiliates, allowing providers to monetize more assets in more places while dramatically reducing distribution costs.

Whether content providers use the Mediamorph platform or some other means of organizing their content assets and associated metadata for distribution, the Verimatrix solutions incorporated into the Viewthority workflow provide a wide range of capabilities essential to mitigating all the previously discussed impediments to improving ROI (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

For Example...

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As referenced above and discussed at greater length in Part 2 of this series, access to RightsConnex through Viewthority serves to centralize management and control of content licensing terms, distribution windows, playback policies and business rules via a defined rights management interface.

This applies in both the DRM-protected OTT and CA-protected broadcast/MVPD pay-TV environments. By leveraging the brand-agnostic execution of encryption and key management for multiple DRM and CA systems enabled by the Verimatrix Content Authority System (VCAS), the Viewthority workflow creates a single point for negotiating and executing rights protection in both pure OTT and MVPD service environments regardless of what types of DRM and CA systems are in use.

A New Approach to Security Management

RightsConnex embeds the playback policies within the content itself, ensuring that the usage rights are cryptographically enforced end to end while eliminating the need for multiple re-encryptions across the distribution chain.

Efficiency in proprietary content provider-MVPD relationships is further facilitated through a common authentication framework within VCAS that content providers can use to efficiently extend and scale licensing rights for TV Everywhere services.

Viewthority also enables more convenient execution of forensic watermarking requirements at the content-to-distributor and distributor-to-end user levels of distribution. As explained in greater detail in Part 2, the Verimatrix solutions include StreamMark Origin, a configuration designed specifically for content providers who want to uniquely identify live and VOD content sent to

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each distributor; StreamMark and StreamMark Live, watermarking solutions for on-demand and live content, respectively, and VideoMark and VideoMark Live, the client-side solutions for marking content at the device level.

Driving Out Redundancy in Video Processing

Beyond the distribution efficiencies tied to content protection, Viewthority users also benefit from the opportunity to drive outcosts and improve monetization through collaboration on video processing and data sharing. Where video processing is concerned, content providers and operators can negotiate distribution terms that allow operators to avoid having to repeat encoding and packaging processes performed by content providers. In an environment where, as noted earlier, content providers are mounting their own DTC services, they can negotiate terms for making content packaged for ABR streaming directly available to their distribution affiliates through the Viewthority workflow.

This is another area where the ability to integrate Viewthority with other cloud-based workflows can pay high dividends. Through its integration with AWS Media Services, the Viewthority workflow provides

a simple, reliable way to ingest live and on-demand video for processing and delivery for all customers who choose AWS Media Services as their cloud-based video processing platform.

Similarly, as a result of a partnership between Verimatrix and Harmonic, Viewthority customers who utilize Harmonic’s VOS 360 Video software-as-a-service (SaaS) can take advantage of the integration between the two cloud workflows to simplify and cut costs of delivering live and VOD content. This greatly expands the market base for collaborative opportunities enabled by the Viewthority workflow. brings into play the secure collection of data from end of

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Unleashing the Power of Advanced AnalyticsUse of data to the mutual benefit of content providers and operators is another opportunity enabled by Viewthority. This brings into play the secure collection of data from end user, storage and other devices through the analytics capabilities comprising the Verspective suite.

Data available through the Viewthority workflow provides highly granular information about consumption of content on every device in the ecosystem. Some of this is anonymized data related to validating compliance with licensing policies and verifying content viewership for royalty recognition. Other data components are proprietary assets used by operators for their own internal purposes that can be shared through the Viewthority workflow with content providers under terms of contractual arrangements negotiated by the two sides.

Verspective as a component in the Viewthority workflow makes it possible to apply advanced analytics to whatever data is available to any Viewthority customer.

As described further in Part 3, the Verspective solutions are purpose built to deliver the most advanced analytics intelligence in several key areas to achieve service optimization and monetization.

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The road to profitability in premium video operations is becoming ever steeper as ever more content providers and operators jockey for position using traditional approaches to doing business.

Content providers incur ever greater costs and risks trying to extend their reach with limited insight into the adherence of licensing policies or how their assets are received and perceived by end users.

Making matters worse, content providers and operators are unable to fully exploit the power of advanced analytics to help them sharpen the appeal of their brands and draw new revenue from advertising owing to limited access to all the data that could be used toward these ends.

Verimatrix has seized the opportunity to address all these issues by developing a solution that capitalizes on the industry’s embrace of cloud technology.

The Viewthority connected content distribution platform enables content providers and operators to independently and collaboratively pursue the benefits from workflow integration with Verimatrix and third-party solutions.

With connectivity to nearly 240 million consumers served by more than 950 video service operators worldwide, Verimatrix offers Viewthority customers a rapidly expanding foundation for conducting business through the end-to-end workflow. This is the start to what promises to be a growing trend toward more profitable outcomes for stakeholders worldwide.

CONCLUSION

VRecognizing the need to improve digital exchange between content providers and video service operators, Verimatrix offers Viewthority™, a connected content distribution platform that leverages its award-winning VCAS™ secuirty and Verspective® Analytics solutions, and unmatched partner ecosystem to

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Verimatrix specializes in enhancing and securing revenue for connected devices and IP-based services around the world.

reduce the costs and complexities associated with legacy distribution workflows. To learn more visit www.verimatrix.comand the Pay TV Views blog and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to join the conversation.