The toolbox to monetise hybrid and convergence

Federated service headend

A key success factor is a service head-end that provides a federated control mechanism across different delivery networks and consumption devices. Such a head-end is typically built around three pillars: content security, content management and a service delivery platform (SDP) to create the applications and content business logic.

The service head-end becomes the cornerstone for seamless convergence of the entire service creation, content management and content protection activity across the different delivery platforms, whilst smoothly integrating into an IMS/NGN architecture. Such a headend is therefore well on its way to becoming a service and business-defining factor for many digital TV operators who are serious about convergence.

Proven scalability

Vendors who build their broadband content security solution around the proven scalability and open standards principles of DVB have a natural advantage since it is exactly those elements that are proving to be the key facilitators allowing broadcast and broadband to enrich each other within the same service bundle.

Content business models
Commercial bundling of related media assets

The first step towards convergence is clearly commercial bundling of related media assets across devices and networks (eg mobile video snack, full feature movie, game, ringtone, soundtrack mp3, etc).

What is needed here is a comprehensive content management system that is flexible enough not only to create and manage such commercial bundles, but more importantly, to interact practically with (potentially) different rights management and distribution mechanisms.

This is illustrated by the vertical axis in the figure above. All these content distribution scenarios are supported by the NAGRA Media Content management System.

A second challenge is the transfer of content between consumer devices. This is represented by the horizontal arrows in the figure.

This adds significantly to complexity. The permitted business rules for content transmission not only need to be specified per media asset in the content management system, but then need to be enforced accordingly by the content security system and potentially translated into the content protection schemes that will enforce those transmission rights within the home.

Nagravision has brought all these scenarios together under a single umbrella called “Persistent Rights Management” (PRM) which ensures content is propagated onto devices with a notion of persistence of the original rights that were applied when the initial content transaction or viewing experience took place. The PRM concept pragmatically addresses interoperability challenges between different device ecosystems.