FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Widevine® Enters HD-DVD and Blu-ray Copy Protection Market
Widevine Cypher® now enables retail availability of consumer electronics devices for IP video
Seattle, WA, Feb. 21, 2006—Widevine Technologies, the most deployed provider of comprehensive downloadable content protection and digital forensics for video operators, today announced digital copy protection for high definition DVD-based content delivery formats Blu-ray and HD-DVD.
The introduction of Widevine Cypher® for high-definition DVD players extends the patented Cypher Virtual SmartCard™ to provide advanced copy protection on these new devices. This enables IPTV service operators to license and acquire premium content for extended service delivery to a wide variety of retail available, IPTV-enabled high definition consumer electronics devices.
“Widevine’s expansion into the high definition DVD market represents the first downloadable conditional access (DCAS) and digital rights management (DRM) solution which opens direct retail availability to Widevine Secure operators,” said Glenn Morten, Chief Technology Officer at Widevine. “It further enables telco, cable, satellite and broadband service operators to extend their service domains and deliver entertainment using new business models—including online enabled DVDs, low-cost streamed content delivery, sell through and managed copy generation.”
According to Widevine CEO Brian Baker, “The U.S. DVD market has grown to over $18B per year, with more than 80 percent of households now owning DVD players. Widevine’s strategy is to expand content protection to a wide range of networked video-enabled consumer electronics devices, regardless of platform, operating system, chipset or technology. This will significantly reduce capital expenditures and increase revenue opportunities for operators who have been asking for premium content delivery to retail available IPTV-enabled devices.”
Widevine Cypher for high-definition DVD players is expected to protect devices available at retail in summer 2006 and extend Widevine’s PC content protection to include Blu-ray and HD-DVD devices that run on Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: msft) new Vista operating system, available later in the year.
This follows Widevine’s recent partnership announcement with Sigma Designs to embed Widevine protection capabilities into their digital media processors. Sigma Designs’ processors drive approximately 70 percent of all IPTV set top boxes and consumer products including Blu-ray players, DVD players, digital media adapters and portable media players.
About Widevine Technologies, Inc.
Widevine is the most widely deployed provider of content security solutions for IP video operators worldwide. Widevine enables telco, cable, satellite and internet service operators to generate new revenue opportunities through the secure distribution, identification and tracking of digital content.
Utilizing a combination of hardware and software-based encryption, Cypher persistently encrypts both digital broadcast and video-on-demand (VOD) content, regardless of video infrastructure, network protocols or compression technologies. An innovator in the industry, Widevine invented the downloadable, software-based Cypher Virtual SmartCard™ client which today protects more IP video set-top boxes and devices in the industry than any other vendor. Widevine Virtual SmartCard clients quickly and affordably enable operators to combat piracy on set-top boxes, personal video recorders and other devices within the home. Widevine Secure operators are guaranteed to encrypt studio and broadcaster content, across any video distribution network and on any Widevine Secure device.
Widevine is a privately held corporation headquartered in Seattle, WA, funded by Charter Ventures, Constellation Ventures, PaceSetter Capital Group, Phoenix Capital Partners, and VantagePoint Venture Partners and Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd (DNP).
For more information see Widevine Technologies at www.widevine.com.
Contact:
Eric Moser
Ruder Finn Chicago (for Widevine Technologies)
Tel: +1 312 329 3908
mosere@ruderfinn.com
All trade names, trademarks, and/or service marks appearing herein are owned by their respective holders. |
