NDS, the UK-based conditional access (CA) technology company largely owned by
News Corp., last Friday
announced VideoGuard VGS, a solution for encrypting content in digital video
networks. VideoGuard VGS improves on previous conditional access solutions
by being usable on IP-based networks and not requiring smart cards to be used
with set-top boxes. The technology, which has been in the works for several years, is also part of NDS's strategy to
expand beyond digital video into gaming and other interactive media markets.
This was by far the most significant DRM-related announcement of several to
come out of the IBC conference in Amsterdam this year. Not only is
VideoGuard VGS an interesting product introduction, but it represents an
important milestone in the convergence of the cable TV and Internet worlds.
Conditional access systems for cable television have been around for a while;
they have been based on the idea of authenticating users at the set-top box
through smart cards or other hardware tokens. The emergence of digital
video networks with two-way communications capability has given rise to the
possibility of client devices whose content access control is based entirely on
information coming from the head end; no security information resides
(permanently, at least) in the client device.
Put another way, two-way networks enable content protection technologies for
digital video that look more like DRM than traditional CA. The blurring of
boundaries between CA and DRM -- or, as we might like to put it, the DRMization
of CA technology -- bodes well for everyone's Holy-Grail idea of a networked
digital home. It becomes possible for a single set of DRM technology to
control content access on all home digital devices, which in turn could lead to
cheaper and easier-to-use entertainment technology for consumers. Low cost
and ease of use are crucially necessary (though not sufficient) components of
value propositions for home entertainment networks.
While much of the industry worries about whether the home digital media
access device of choice will be a TV set or a computer, we see a future where
those two product categories seem old and quaint. Although we have little
idea what the future will look like beyond that observation, NDS's announcement
takes us a step closer to it.
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