nagra_nagra 25/09/2015 17:27 Page 1
Unifying multinetwork content
security
While the word ‘hybrid’ was only a great
new idea for delivering video a decade
ago, today it is a solid reality for most
pay-TV service providers, according to
Christopher Schouten, Senior Director
Product Marketing, Nagra.
he modern pay-TV
operator is becoming
almost universally
‘multi-network’, driven by
strong broadband
penetration, mass consumer
adoption of open CE devices,
and the business need to
create ‘stickier’ services that
increase customer loyalty and
that prevent churn.
But the evolution of these
multi-network services has often
happened organically, with new
ways of delivering content being
implemented in parallel to legacy
systems. This has often resulted in
multiple service delivery and
content protection systems being
used. This amalgamation of
systems and vendors is now
pushing the operational
capabilities of some service
provider organisations to the limit
and making the management of
multi-network video delivery
unnecessarily complex.
The pace of transformation in
the pay TV industry has reached a
point where the flexibility service
providers require to pursue new
opportunities can only be achieved
through a far more unified
approach to service delivery.
Content protection requires an allnew, streamlined approach to
ensuring secure delivery not only
to operator-controlled set-top
boxes (STBs), but also to all other
T
14 ContentSecurity
connected CE devices
such as PC/Mac,
smartphones, tablets
and Connected TVs.
Multi-network
service providers
therefore need a
unified security client
that allows them to
implement whatever levels of
protection are required to satisfy
consumers’ demand on any device,
anywhere ‘on the go’ and in the
home, and access to any type of
content – whether it be live or on
demand, from the service provider
themselves or from third-party
pure OTT players like Netflix or
YouTube.
The Four Key Drivers
Toward a Unified Security
Client
As pay-TV service providers
formulate strategies to tap the
many new opportunities emerging
at this industry-wide inflection
point in the evolution of pay TV,
they must take a new approach to
security management as a first step
toward freeing themselves from
the restrictions of the past.
NAGRA sees four key securityrelated challenges and
opportunities that pay-TV service
providers should consider while
planning next-generation multinetwork/multi-device service
delivery and content security
architectures in order to ensure
their systems are streamlined,
future-proof, and provide the
business functionality required to
innovate new consumer services.
1. Rationalising Multiple
Security Clients Drives
Efficiency & Consistency
Across All Services
Hybrid STBs have traditionally had
to incorporate two or more
completely parallel content
protection systems: a conditional
access system to secure broadcast
and multicast content, and one or
more digital rights management
(DRM) systems to secure OTT
content and local content
protection within the home. This
has led to a situation where these
STBs require twice the work to
implement both broadcast/IPTV
and
CAS vendor takes full
responsibility independent
from the SoC vendor.
l Device-level hardware and
software security guidelines and
requirements backed up by a
rigorous certification process.
l A CAS vendor-controlled
boot loader process to protect
the service provider’s
investment in the STB
hardware against unauthorised
tampering.
Though this process continues to
provide the benefits outlined
above, in an increasingly open and
OTT-driven world, it is beginning
to be seen by many service
providers as
restrictive for several
reasons:
l New application
environments such as
Android TV that
don’t use traditional
DVB chipsets with
their HWRoTs
OTT/home networking security as
set out in Figure A.
The lack of a single, responsible
party for resolving all securityrelated issues with the device
therefore leads to inefficiency and
risk that is undesirable to most
businesses. A unified security
client for CAS and DRM could
therefore solve this problem.
2. The Ability to Support the
Best Possible End-to-End
Security on Every Device is
Key to Driving Service Growth
The STB has traditionally been an
operator-controlled device and the
primary channel for delivering
pay-TV services. Through a
specified integration and
certification process, the service
provider’s chosen security partner
integrates their CAS or DRM-based
security into devices. This
combination of technologies and
services has given pay-TV
providers excellent revenue
assurance since the launch of the
first DVB services in HZY