As operators extend or migrate their service to an IP environment new challenges arise. Unlike traditional linear TV, the network and endpoint devices are not controlled by the operator, opening them up to new threats and challenges.
Tim Pearson, Senior Director, Product Marketing at NAGRA recently spoke to IABM TV to explain these challenges, and the unique approach NAGRA has developed to help operators overcome them.
What are the main security challenges facing service providers who want to launch or extend OTT and D2C offerings?
The biggest challenge facing service providers and content owners with D2C offerings stems from today's landscape. Very different from a more traditional service delivery model, the migration to an IP environment is creating a mounting list of security challenges.
Whereas operators previously had an effective line of sight to the set-top box at the end of their network - all of which they could relatively easily manage - this migration to IP means the content goes through more of a maze, with the route to delivery less known. As a result, more threats can appear, there are more security challenges, which in turn opens up a significant number of new challenges that may have been unknown previously.
How can service providers move from protecting content to protecting their entire service? What's wrong with using existing DRMs?
Existing DRMs can and will continue to protect content. However, that only provides the content protection aspect of the security makeup. An IP distribution model has significantly more surface area than we would have seen in a more traditional broadcast environment. The result is that, as the content journeys through that maze of delivery, there is a greater potential for security threats and pirates along the way.
Whilst content protection mechanisms, such as DRM, will secure the content on the end device, it is liable to be intercepted along the way. Operators therefore require a comprehensive security strategy, such as secure clients, mitigating threats, good intelligence, and what to do in a legal environment, to ensure that that IP capability is protecting the service as well as the content. NAGRA's approach is a proposition we call active streaming protection.
What are some of the different tools within Active Streaming Protection providers can use to protect their services?
Active Streaming Protection is an approach that NAGRA has identified to help operators embrace the OTT world, particularly as more extend into D2C services. Within the toolset of active streaming protection secure clients are certainly important, but it depends on the operator's content catalogue to identify the next level of protection they want to add to address new threats.
If, for example, an operator has premium sport or the content owners are mandating the use of watermarking technology, there is a suite of NexGuard forensic watermarking solutions available to fit their specific requirements. Another operator may be facing challenges from pirates, or believe they are facing a threat of piracy. NAGRA Anti-Piracy Services will show where those threats are coming from, the type of the threat, and the proposed protective and mitigative actions to take.
Active streaming protection is not just about defence though. The offence - delivering the additional business value - deploys a series of business logic tools to identify what solution will work best for both the consumer and operator, for example considering the number of devices per account or the level of concurrency.
All of these solutions are bound with and feed into an overall analytics solution that is pulling in all the data from the different tools that are being deployed, enabling operators to gain a holistic view across their service to understand its status effectively. Combined, all of these tools can form the overall security strategy, helping operators to understand how they can secure the entire service in a pragmatic way that will mitigate the threats to the offering.
Has the framework been deployed with any operators?
We're seeing a great reaction to our active streaming protection approach with our customers and the wider market. Many like the straightforward way in which it provides them with a clear strategy to protect their service and how the approach means it can be tailored directly to their needs.
Since September 2019 we have been working with Wynk, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, India's largest integrated telecoms company, to secure its Airtel Xstream app as it expands. To date, over 1.5 billion multi-DRM licenses have been served via the NAGRA cloud.SSP to manage concurrent sessions, device authentication, forensic watermarking, anti-piracy services and other important aspects of the service - all key elements of the active streaming protection toolset.
This milestone also marks a record number of multi-DRM licenses served by NAGRA cloud.SSP, and is a clear demonstration of how the right solutions can help reduce complexity, seamlessly scale, react to the needs of consumers and connect consumers to the content they love on any device - and in a highly secure environment.
We're also working with an entertainment provider in the USA and a sports league in Europe, with more to be announced soon.
If the service changes or grows, what options are available to service providers in order to stay protected?
That's the beauty of active streaming protection. The approach allows us to turn on new technologies for the operator as the service grows. Starting with multi-DRM or watermarking as a baseline, you can start adding new capabilities as required. Crucially, this means that we can unlock and enable new technologies for operators as their business needs it.
From a value perspective, active streaming protection means operators don't necess
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Thursday 2 July 2026
Tea with Judi Dench returns to Sky Arts with legendary guest, Sir Ian McKellen
Sky today confirms Tea with Judi Dench will return this su...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
BLEACH Comes to Life in Los Angeles with First-of-Its-Kind...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
01/07/2026
Nectar360, the Retail Media, Loyalty and Insights business of the Sainsburys Gro...
01/07/2026
9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June
Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2
23 million video views acr...
30/06/2026
Could your journalism reach an international stage?
Entries are now open for the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2026, one of the most prestigi...
30/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
30/06/2026
New IR reverb engine, Juno-inspired chorus & more
The latest version of Rapid Flow's hardware-emulation synth plug-in expands on its predecessor with a ...
30/06/2026
Excels at heavy-handed VCA compression
For their latest release, Shy Audio have recreated the crunchy' sound of a rackmount compressor that found its w...
30/06/2026
Component scarcity drives cost increases
Shortly after Apple's CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that cost increases would soon be inevitable , the company hav...
30/06/2026
Hitachi and Bank Pekao S.A. have completed the installation of the first Hitachi...
30/06/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/06/2026
Four-layer instrument aimed at dark electronic music
Excite Audio's latest software instrument has been designed with dark drum and bass, atmospheric te...
29/06/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
29/06/2026
Details environmental policies & results
The Focusrite Group have just announced that following a long audit process, they have published their 2026 sustain...
29/06/2026
Arvato Systems Achieves AWS Cloud Operations Competency
The team behind the AWS Cloud Operations Competency (from left to right: Philipp Hellmich, Johanna Bod...
29/06/2026
RT today announced that Ger Gilroy will join the RT Podcasts team to present a daily sports podcast. Launching later this year, the new show will set the spor...
29/06/2026
RT Commercial announced OUTsurance as sponsor of the Oliver Callan show on RT Radio 1 from Wednesday 1 July.
Oliver Callan doubles the fun, delivering two ...
28/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
28/06/2026
New EXO Series DSP control software announced
EVE Audio's EXO Series monitor range has just gained a new software element that provides remote access to...
27/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
26/06/2026
Virtual session musician plug-in gains new percussion options
Celemony's latest update for their virtual session musician platform complements the exist...
26/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
26/06/2026
ELT Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial...
26/06/2026
Flicker Productions to produce five-part docu-reality series following women who have fallen for men in prison and have become TikTok sensations, with brands an...
26/06/2026
Catch up on the latest developments across Baselight and Daylight v7, Nara and F...
26/06/2026
26. June 2026 News
DFT is pleased to announce that a second Polar HQ film s...
26/06/2026
A fresh look at how the Irish helped shape the foundations of the United States
...
25/06/2026
Six free workshops across two days
Global music education platform Music Production for Women (MPW), have just announced a brand new and highly anticipated ...
25/06/2026
Popular pedalboard PSU gets an upgrade
The DC7 v2 is a new and improved version of the renowned effects pedal PSU from CIOKS, and is said to be the thinnest...
25/06/2026
Optimised for lush, enveloping sounds
Described as an instantly rewarding reverb , the latest addition to Arturia's range of creative effects plug-ins ...
25/06/2026
27 June 2026, Westminster University Harrow Campus
GearExpo UK is now upon us, with just two days to go until 150 of the worlds top pro-audio brands and ind...
As operators extend or migrate their service to an IP environment new challenges arise. Unlike traditional linear TV, the network and endpoint devices are not controlled by the operator, opening them up to new threats and challenges.
