Widevine to Protect CinemaNow Internet TV Content

CinemaNow selected Wdevine to protect the delivery of its Hollywood movies, TV shows, and music videos to consumer electronics devices and PCs. These consumer electronics devices will be sold in retail with CinemaNow's CE Store application and Widevine's content security software. These consumer devices include game consoles and Blu-ray disc players from major consumer electronics companies.

This move by CinemaNow will bring over the top IPTV content to the TV. This will create significant competition to the Telco IPTV services. The Telcos need to incorporate services like this with their IPTV service or be left behind.

I plan to test this service when I can get an attractive device to bring it to my TV. I will be deploying an 802.11n network in my home to get ready. I will let you know how it goes.

Widevine and Verimatrix Enter Legal Battle

The content protection/digital rights management company Widevine is suing Verimatrix, one of its major competitors for patent infringement based on Widevine's patent for selectively encrypting different portions of data sent over a network. Widevine has offered Verimatrix the opportunity to license its selective encryption patent, but Verimatrix has not responded.

Verimatrix denies Widevine's claims and states that it will vigorously defend itself.

Both of these companies have done well in the IPTV market. The preliminary conclusions from our report "Opportunities in TelcoTV" are that Verimatrix appears to be in a stronger position today because it has been included in the IPTV service of more major telcos than Widevine. This report will be released by the end of this month.