MUMBAI: Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, has selected Irdeto Rights to simplify OTT content protection for its customers. Irdeto’s multi-DRM solution, including ChinaDRM, PlayReady, Widevine and FairPlay support, will enable content owners and operators to quickly deploy OTT services. Alibaba Cloud will utilize Irdeto Control, the head-end of Irdeto Rights, to manage and protect the customer’s video content. Alibaba Cloud is the world’s third-largest provider of public cloud services, providing video services to hundreds of thousands of global companies, including OTT operators, online education companies and short video companies—live, on-demand and content distribution platforms.
Competition in China’s OTT market is at an all-time high with close to 229 million people subscribing to a streaming service in 2018. In addition, the global subscription OTT market is set to grow 24% in 2018. This trend is fueled by growing internet penetration rates, faster connectivity speeds and a broad shift in consumer preference towards internet-based video consumption. With more options to choose from, subscriber churn rates are high. As a result, premium content and a high-quality user experience across as many devices as possible are key differentiators that are necessary for operators to maintain a competitive edge. Irdeto and Alibaba Cloud help operators not only in China, but across the globe, stay ahead of competitors through quick delivery of OTT services while also ensuring that premium content remains secure.
Li Bin, Senior Technical Expert at Alibaba Cloud, said: “Alibaba Cloud Video Cloud provides stable, high-quality and scalable video services for customers in the multimedia industry. Through cooperation with Irdeto, we have enhanced the security of audio and video content. For the first time, we launched a video cloud service for copyright protection of all-platform video content in China. This new product greatly simplifies the management of content providers and operators on the content supply of various devices and improves the security of content supply."
Irdeto has worked closely with Alibaba Group since 2013 to support anti-piracy initiatives on Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platforms. Just last month, Youku, the Alibaba-owned online video streaming service provider, selected Irdeto Rights for ChinaDRM to safeguard premium content delivery.
“Innovation is critical for operators to succeed in today’s competitive pay TV market,” said Bengt Jonsson, Senior Vice President, Sales & Services, Irdeto. “We want to work with companies like Alibaba Cloud who foster this innovation by providing their customers with secure, premium services. We are thrilled to work with Alibaba Cloud to help operators protect and accelerate the release of new content while also enabling new business models that will increase efficiency and drive revenue.”
Irdeto Rights, a solution in the Irdeto 360 Security portfolio, is a proven multi-DRM and policy management solution that addresses content challenges at both the headend and client side. It supports all leading commercial DRMs, as well as common encryption standards of MPEG DASH, and unique security technologies optimized to work at peak levels of demand. Irdeto Rights provides operators with increased market reach by supporting all major DRMs, including Microsoft PlayReady, Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay and ChinaDRM.
