Each year the IBC show brings together top media, entertainment and technologies to discuss changes in the pay-TV industry and the best practices for moving forward in an increasingly digital world. This year, NAGRA's focus was on digital transformation, with demonstrations that highlighted new propositions and current innovations that addressed the entire content value chain, from content and service creation to content delivery and consumption under the theme Smartly Digital . Here are the key takeaways from the show - in case you missed them!Pay-TV Innovation Forum 2018 Global Findings
A collaboration between NAGRA and MTM starting in 2016, the Pay-TV Innovation Forum is a global research program that brings together industry executives to conduct extensive research addressing some of the key opportunities and challenges facing pay-TV service providers and content owners. The 2018 Global Findings Report helped encourage and provide perspective for important topics discussed at the show. One of the top trends realized from the report was that the industry must embrace a platform agnostic approach to distributing TV and video content to all types of devices over all types of networks moving into the future. Research also found that a high percentage of pay-TV providers are looking to adopt OTT technologies, meaning content will need to be packaged and delivered in a more flexible way and that the piracy threat is alive and well.
Cloud-Driven Solutions
Addressing digital transformation, NAGRA introduced the NAGRA cloud Security Services Platform, cloud.SSP, delivered as-a-Service with AWS with a first lead customer, Vodafone. The NAGRA Security Services Platform enables Vodafone to secure multiple network types - including IPTV, hybrid broadcast and OTT - using a single content protection platform. This simplifies their operations and reduces overheads while still allowing them to meet all relevant Hollywood and sports rights holder requirements for Enhanced Content Protection.
Expanding on the success of TVkey, TVkey Cloud, in partnership with Samsung Electronics, was launched at IBC as the next generation Enhanced Content Protection for Smart TVs. This new solution combines the security capabilities of the TVkey embedded hardware in the TV with sophisticated security management systems in the cloud.
A Focus on Active Content Monetization
With consumers increasingly demanding a more engaging, flexible viewing experience, it is important for pay-TV providers to not only create and execute an experience their customers are looking for, but also focus on operational control and QoS to deliver optimal content management and service ROI. NAGRA is streamlining this new user experience with its OpenTV Signature Edition solution, a platform that actively drives multi-generation audience engagement, continuous service evolution, and active content monetization.
Showcasing traction in this area, Eutelsat CIRRUS has selected OpenTV Signature Edition to meet the needs of their viewers. As an all-in-one solution, it brings the best of linear satellite TV content and streaming services to consumers through a simple and intuitive user experience underpinned by a powerful OTT platform. It is designed to assist new entrants into the OTT market, as well as traditional pay-TV operators looking to complement their existing satellite services with compelling OTT services.
Active Security is a Necessity
Piracy remains a significant industry threat and active security, combining content value protection, anti-piracy services and forensic watermarking, is an ongoing necessity to combat this evolving challenge. In this context, and to help service providers and content owners better manage the piracy issues they face for OTT distribution, NAGRA introduced a brand-new, client-side watermarking solution for OTT called NexGuard QuickMark at the show. QuickMark enables immediate detection and takedown of illicit restreaming of linear or pay-per-view live sports content.
As stated in an IBC Review article by Sports Video Group, The content security and multiscreen video technology developer NAGRA enjoyed a big weekend at IBC. The company unveiled its new NexGuard Quickmark solution, which offers subscriber-level watermarking to fight piracy of live sports streams. The Portuguese sports network Sport TV, which owns the exclusive rights to Portugal's top flight football league, also joined as NAGRA's latest sports client last week. Sport TV will use NAGRA's Anti-Piracy Services to protect from illegal live streaming of soccer matches.
NexGuard QuickMark complements NAGRA's suite of Anti-Piracy Services and NexGuard forensic watermarking solutions.
Comprehensive Support for Android TV
NAGRA has been successfully embracing Android for mobile devices and tablets for years, and at IBC 2018, announced comprehensive support for Android TV, on both the content protection and user experience fronts to help service providers benefit from everything it has to offer.
Today, service providers planning an Android TV deployment can leverage NAGRA's complete, end-to-end ecosystem, driven by cloud.SSP, its cloud-enabled Security Services platform, to guard against any type of threat and vulnerability. NAGRA's pre-integrated and ready-to-launch OTT solution OpenTV Signature Edition offering a coherent experience across a wide range of consumer devices, now featuring an Android TV Operator Tier solution enabling easy on-boarding of apps and SVOD services in a unique and operator-branded user experience that engages consumers and drives activie content monetization.
Smart Solutions for Better Business
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