While pay TV subscriber losses are impacting video security revenue from the pay TV portion of the market, the rise in over-the-top streaming increases the need for video security in the OTT segment. Kagan forecasts that worldwide video security vendor revenue will see a slight rise from $1.0 billion in 2020 to $1.1 billion in 2024.
Content piracy is a business that never stops. As soon as a content distributor plugs one hole, another springs open. The goal of the content security vendor is to limit piracy knowing it can never be eradicated. Security vendors continually evolve their products to keep pace, while content rights holders demand security provisions are in place before licensing content to distributors.
There are several methods used to secure content in various distribution systems including conditional access systems, digital rights management and watermarking. Similar to other video technologies, video security is moving to the cloud rather than being run on-premises to enable scaling up or down with the video demand. Using the cloud, OTT and pay TV providers can pay as they go for resources used rather than having resources on standby. Other advantages of the cloud include reduced time to market, simpler upgrade paths and easier real-time monitoring.
CDN providers are developing compute at the edge capabilities where the delivery network meets the last mile network for short-lived on-demand computing tasks. Security applications are well suited for the edge to authorize or block access to video as well as perform watermarking. CDNs are partnering with security providers to support these edge capabilities
As with many technologies in the streaming market, large OTT providers tend to develop their own multidigital rights management, or DRM, systems rather than choosing a third-party vendor. Unlike OTT providers, pay TV providers have typically used one of a set of third-party conditional access systems, or CAS. Once the vendor is chosen, it is often in place for years.
There is variation between content security vendors in terms of the type of products they offer. The smaller vendors typically focus on a single area. Companies such as ContentArmor only offer a watermarking solution, while Friend MTS has watermarking and anti-piracy services. Axinom, BuyDRM, castLabs and EZDRM offer multi-DRM solutions for streaming providers. Large vendors like Irdeto, NAGRA, Synamedia, and Viaccess-Orca offer systems that can combine CAS, multi-DRM, watermarking and anti-piracy services to meet customer needs. In some cases, such as with Intertrust Technologies and Friend MTS, the smaller vendors have formed partnerships to bring together their solutions for customers.