DRM Solutions: Who Holds The Keys To The Future of Streaming Media

The Landscape Today
For the most part every person I spoke with prior to writing this article tells me that the majority of their business currently uses Windows Media and Real Media deployments with WMT account for 75% of their use and Real around 25%. QuickTime was nearly unseen on the radar in wide-use for commercial and entertainment sites.

The overwhelming majority, like 98% of these deployments, are full-strength high-resolution streaming media in 56K, 100K, 300K and 750K bit rates for PC based desktops. There were some small cases of PocketPC MSPhone WMT in place and no Real Media was reported on handhelds or phones although numerous releases claim an offering in the next quarter from Ericsson.

In the case of WMT several of the largest deployments were done in-house ala MovieLink, PressPlay, Yahoo Platinum and an equal number of content owners had outsourced their DRM needs such as the NHL using CinemaNow’s PatchBay, Microsoft using streamOS from NineSystems, EMI/Capitol using EmpireDRM’s Dominion and in one isolated case a well-known CDN had purchased software from an unnamed vendor which tanked and was ripped out prior to this story’s completion.

In the case of Soap City, which is a production by S.P.D.E. [Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment], Sony utilizes the Real MCS [Media Commerce Suite] architecture with their partial ownership in the company. This is the same DRM technology that Real uses as part of their RealOne PPV product and uses similar technology to the WMT product in topology.

The good news in most cases from a streaming aspect current modern day DRM solutions for streaming media digital content are very streaming friendly and work in a variety of deployments you may support or support today in your business. There is no bad news just some small points to get up to speed on quickly.

If your customer is using any type of WMT file-level DRM solution their content will work seamlessly with any type of conventional hosting platform whether it be a Linux Webserver or IIS or WMT native streaming box, you can check off the compatibility box. WMT DRM works across all web delivery methodologies including email and P2P as well as portable media’s such as DVD, CD and USB memory modules.

Real’s DRM technology is sold as a product for a rumored price of $150,000 for a one CPU license including a single content packager and single license server. All content for downloads is warranted to work without a plug-in on the server however the Real MCS architecture does require the use of the Real Server with the MCS plug-in for streaming media delivery. RBN apparently supports the streaming product however Speedera, NineSystems, Akamai, LimeLight, AT&T, Globix and C&W do not offer support for Real MCS.

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