Widevine Moves Into CBS

Written by Frank Smith

Tuesday, January 8. 2008 at 04:15 PM EST Post a comment

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The content-protection firm Widevine Technologies and Move Networks have announced that their technology is securing video delivery for CBS's Two and a Half Men, which is produced by Warner Bros. At the same time, Warner Bros. is also making the show available to affiliate Websites with the Widevine/Move technology.

Widevine helps deliver content across platforms by employing an on-device digital copy protection technology that prevents screen scraping (recording data as it appears on your computer screen) or streamrips. Move helps monetize videos by providing the software to bundle them with advertisements in its video player.

Widevine describes itself as the "Switzerland of DRM," which is just a cheesy way of saying that it supports multiple devices. But for online video, DRM might be a moot point.

Some analysts are questioning whether DRM is even necessary in the video world. With music labels discarding DRM, should television networks take note and shed DRM before it penetrates too deep into the online video market?

"I'm not sure it's necessary," says Bobby Tulsiani, Jupiter Research media analyst. "People don't swap and steal TV shows with the rate that they do with music. People have TiVos and DVRs and a lot of tools to get shows on-demand."

Still, Widevine asserts that its content protection technology is interoperable on multiple platforms (both PC and Mac) and devices, ensuring that the content is monetizable and securely distributed. Doing so prevents the content from being uploaded to file-sharing networks.

"Something like BitTorrent does eat into profits, but the money put into DRM could be put into better customer solutions," says Tulsiani. "You can find CBS pretty much anywhere on the Web like on Yahoo or Joost. DRM gets in the way more than it helps you. There's not a whole lot of money to be made online just yet, so there's not a whole lot of money to protect."