Over-the-top (OTT) service providers need more than just encryption for their movies in order to ensure the safety of the premium content they offer their customers. In addition to that, they require a foolproof licencing and decryption key handling mechanism. Encrypting high-quality videos for subscribers isn’t the only thing that needs to be worked on in this area.
It is of the utmost importance to take all necessary precautions to protect audiovisual assets in the OTT space. The reason for this is that there is a significant demand in the underground market for material of a high quality. On the grey market, popular movies and TV shows can be viewed by individuals who do not wish to pay for the privilege of doing so. Market leaders such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and others are willing to spend a significant amount of money in order to acquire the exclusive rights to distribute high-quality content. This is necessary in order to compete effectively in the industry. The bottom lines of the companies are influenced as a result of this. This is the case due to the fact that it has an impact on the profits made by the leaders in the industry. As a consequence of this, the total revenue that these market leaders make is going to be impacted.
Over-the-top (OTT) service providers encrypt video streams utilising a wide variety of Digital Rights Management (DRM) services. These providers also manage DRM licences from industry heavyweights such as Google’s Widevine, Apple’s FairPlay, and Microsoft’s PlayReady. Apple Inc. is widely recognised as one of the most successful businesses in this sector. A reliable multi-DRM solution can protect video files in additional ways, one of which is by adding a video watermark to each of the files. This is an added layer of defence against potential threats. This makes it much simpler for the company to identify weak spots in its defences and to put in place appropriate repairs whenever they are required.
A significant number of players protect the video files they use in their games by encrypting them with the AES-128 standard; however, these players frequently run into issues when attempting to conceal their decryption key. Even if the encryption standard is the best that can be achieved, content leakage and unauthorised use of video streams may still occur if the decryption key is not adequately protected. This is the case even if the standard is the best that can be achieved. This is due to the fact that the content could be illegally obtained by utilising unauthorised access to the video streams, which is why this is a concern. One potential solution that OTT service providers are contemplating for this issue is the utilisation of a number of different DRM services.
By preventing unauthorised changes to files, digital rights management has contributed to an increase in overall safety.
The abbreviation “DRM” stands for “digital rights management,” and it refers to a set of features that includes encryption and decryption key distribution and administration in addition to backend licencing servers. The full term is management of digital rights. Managing digital rights. The encryption method that is utilised by commercial digital rights management (DRM) systems is referred to as the Advanced Encryption Standard (sometimes abbreviated as “AES”). The premium content needs to be encrypted in such a way that it can only be decrypted with the help of a key that is provided by the OTT platform’s chosen third-party digital rights management provider. Because it uses the same key for both the encipherment and the decipherment processes, this method is categorised as a symmetric key algorithm. Symmetric key algorithms are used to encrypt and decrypt information using the same key. A symmetric key structure is utilised by the vast majority of the various encryption methods that are currently in use. When they are not being used, the encryption keys will be stored in a protected location on the licencing server.
When it comes to protecting their media, movie studios and other content providers frequently make use of AES cryptographic keys that have a strength of 128 bits of encryption. In order for the consumer to gain access to the video content for playback, they are required to use the same key. It is impossible to avoid doing this. The information on the website will be inaccessible to anyone who does not personally possess the key to unlock it. Before sending back a licencing answer that contains a decryption key, the server that belongs to the multi-DRM service provider makes sure that the user and the device in question are permitted to access the content.
Due to the necessity of encryption to prevent its misuse or unauthorised playback, digital content should be packaged in an interoperable format, such as MPEG-DASH or HLS. This is because encryption can be used. Because of this, it will be impossible for it to be exploited in an unauthorised manner or played back without proper authorization. This makes it possible to decrypt the encrypted data and play it back in its proper format. This ensures that the content can always be decrypted whenever it is required to be done so. The hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) serves as the basis for the construction of a number of well-known streaming protocols, such as MPEG-DASH and HLS. The development of both of these protocols is currently taking place. Using a technique known as cloud encoding, the original files are transformed into a wide variety of adaptable streaming formats. Encrypting the files with keys derived from a wide variety of DRM providers is how the encoder ensures the safety of the files. This prevents any individuals or organisations that are not authorised from gaining access to the data.
Before it is able to encrypt any digital content, the multi-DRM packager will inquire about the availability of an encryption key from the DRM system. The encryption key will then be obtained from the DRM system by the multi-DRM packager. One such system is called Widevine, and it was developed by Google. After the protected media has been distributed effectively using the DRM system, the encryption key will be automatically associated with the media content ID. Before being sent to the DRM system for safekeeping and subsequent distribution to the users, the encryption keys may in some circumstances be locally generated by the packager. This occurs before the keys are sent to the DRM system. This is something that could happen under certain circumstances. Because of this, the DRM system is designed to work with the packager. The packager will then use the encryption key to encrypt the material that has been provided to them.
This phase takes place prior to the start of playback because the client is required to decrypt the content before it can be played. The consumer is granted access to the decryption key for the video’s unique content ID, which was utilised during the encryption process. This is made possible by the digital rights management system. The protection of the right of individuals to privacy was the primary concern (DRM). To decrypt encrypted content, a specialised piece of software known as the Content Decryption Module (or CDM for short) is typically pre-installed on the user’s device or web browser. Its primary function is to remove encryption from the content. Understanding the data that has been received is the responsibility of this section. CDM comes pre-installed on all devices that have EME support because it is a requirement for the standard (EME). When the video is played, the player will have access to the content that has been decrypted and will be able to use it in any way that they see fit.
A content producer or studio has the option of utilising AES protection for their own content if they so choose; however, there is a possibility that they will not be able to prevent leakages caused by hardware or secure the transmission of AES keys between devices or between the server and the client device. This is because hardware-based leakages are the only kind that can be fixed, and only the manufacturer of the hardware can do so. This is due to the fact that addressing leaks caused by hardware is something that can only be done by an external organisation that possesses access to the hardware in question. When protecting video content with an AES layer, a multi-DRM approach is used in order to close the gap that has been created as a result of the previous approach.
There are a number of compelling arguments in favour of utilising both AES-CTR and AES-CBC configurations.
Common Encryption (CENC), a standardised method for protecting digital content, was recently adopted by the digital rights management systems that are the most widely used in the industry. With the help of this method, we are able to guarantee the safety of digital files. It is possible to encrypt a content file-set only once with the assistance of CENC, which makes it possible for the content to be shared across a number of devices or platforms, each of which may apply a different DRM scheme. The CENC encryption specification, which offers support for both of these modes of operation, is able to accommodate the cypher block chaining (CBC) mode of encryption as well as the counter (CTR) mode of encryption.
Taking advantage of and making the most of a number of different DRM systems
Even if a user is not connected to the Internet, they can still stream and view video content that has been protected by a DRM solution. The term “solution as a service” refers to an infrastructure that is hosted in the cloud and manages digital rights management (DRM) for packaged content (SaaS). This service is available for use by providers of digital content as well as developers of games for OTT services. This is accomplished through the utilisation of the SPEKE API, and as a direct consequence, it is frequently already pre-integrated with helpful cloud services such as Amazon Web Services’ Elemental Media Services. You are in a position to benefit from this in a number of different settings. This has helped to shed light on the protocol that is utilised by individuals involved in the encryption and packaging of media assets in order to exchange information with those responsible for the issuance of digital rights management (DRM) keys.
