Broadcast Talk

New Recommendations for Free-to-air

June 28, 2009 – 6:33 pm

Key content industry members of the Asia Pacific Centre for Content Protection(CCP) have launched recommendations for outputs on free-to-air(FTA) receiver units.

Protecting the Digital Video Broadcasting(DVB) Common Interface and ensuring High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) for digital display outputs, disabling analogue outputs for High Definition (HD) content and adopting the latest version of broadcast signaling for DVB were best practices recommended.

CCP participated in the International Telecommunication Union - Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development(ITU-AIBD) workshop, and at Broadcast Asia, in Singapore June 16-17, where the recommendations were first presented.

Despite the proliferation of media, a bright future was predicted for FTA television broadcasters, with well-managed and protected HD digital broadcasts. Says CCP Director Isa Seow, “The industry is set to flourish but there are challenges in ensuring the availability of high-value content in Free-to-Air, particularly HD content. Content protection must be in place for HD content.”

CCP members, including HBO, Irdeto, SecureMedia, NDS and Nagravision, were at Broadcast Asia to talk broadcast content protection developments and the role of government.

Low-cost Protection Choices for Free-to-air

Earlier, at the ITU-AIBD workshop on digital terrestrial television broadcasting June 16, Motion Picture Association of America(MPAA) CTO Jim Williams recommended terrestrial broadcasters tap low-cost content protection choices. Broadcasters at the workshop were engaged by CCP members Nagravision, NDS, ASTRO, MPA, Microsoft and Conax who provided updates and a panel discussion on the latest issues in relation to broadcast and content protection

Participants discussed why free-to-air(FTA) broadcasters may need to make content-protection choices, especially at the set-top box.

“It’s a really exciting time for us as the digital transition begins,” says Seow

Jim Williams called it digital emancipation when US broadcasters turned off analog signals June 12 this year. He invited delegates from different countries to identify which stage of the digital transition they each were in, and adopt appropriate types of content protection. “Protect your free TV,” he exhorted.

”Content protection helps broadcasters obtain high-value entertainment. Content owners can be more confident of channels that they will be licensing content,” says Isa Seow, who is also a consultant at Motion Picture Association. “Our CCP Recommended Outputs Publication is a reference for many device manufacturers and broadcasters seeking clarifications for free-to-air set-top box outputs design.‘

Williams recommended low-cost alternatives such as High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), where discounts on royalties are available. “Not many organisations are focused on low-cost alternatives,” he said. “One
organisation that is focused on it is CCP.”

In Korea, a country with one of the highest broadband penetration rates, 47% of the 33.5 mill users admitted to illegally downloading movies once a week. “If this goes on, we’re going to face what happened to the music industry,” said Graham Stephens, CTO, Astro All Asia Networks plc. He concurred that it might seem strange to talk about FTA and content protection in the same breath, but don’t just go out with open-architecture set-top boxes, he warned, and instead use the opportunity to think about how to do the digital transition well.

NDS Asia-Pac Chief Engineer Paul Jackson described a new broadcast business model that his company supports in Turkey. The Turkish model requires people to purchase a content-protected set top box and register for free access to additional “free-to-view” content. Advertising is targeted to users of these set top boxes. An enhanced version of the service for digital video recorders could in future allow for targeted advertising by demographics. Jackson advised against subsidising unprotected set-top boxes, which may be “effectively subsidising your neighbours’ set-tops,” if your set-tops are compatible with neighbouring countries’ transmissions. He recommended minimum security features in hardware, common to all boxes, as a means both to enable more potential business models and also to discourage unintended cross subsidy.

In the crowd was the Indian regulator amongst the Singapore, Malaysia and other regulators who flew in for the BCA related events.

Jim Beveridge, Director, International Media Policy, Microsoft, said the company had several new innovations where high-value content was one constant. The idea of Multiple screens on Media Room, Media Centre and X-Box require content protection, he said, which requires Microsoft to interact with broadcasters on this platform.

Vidar Sandvik, International Product Marketing Manager at Conax AS, advocated “scrambling” for FTA broadcasting. He cited Netherlands and Poland where 100% cable saturation did not prevent terrestrial television from thriving.
In Poland where FTA had 30% of the market, FTA broadcasters added video-on-demand in HD, increasing value for consumers, and ensuring no leaks to the Net. Let the pay-TV operator subsidise the set-top box, he said, and
then control box quality for content protection. As for cost, set-top box vendors paid nothing for Conax hardware, he said.

Licensing set-top box production and preventing consumers from becoming broadcasters, but enabling them to receive, store and do home networking are some rules that regulators should lay down to protect content, concluded
Williams. He recommended making content protection cheaper by going completely digital. “Why do you need analog outputs?” he asks. The combined cost of HDMI (High-definition Multimedia Interface) and content protection on a set-top box was cheaper than content protection alone, he pointed out.

The ITU-AIBD workshop saw 40-50 Asian broadcast regulators in the room. Among the regulators were Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and others. CCP, an inititative of the MPAA, is a consortium of industry stakeholders dedicated to the advancement of secure digital media distribution in Asia-Pacific.