Content owners are learning that mobile phones represent new revenue opportunities – but also new risks. The maturity of rich media on mobile handsets coincides with the launch of legitimate media services on the Internet, and content owners are eager to avoid past mistakes experienced with music piracy. Increasingly valuable content (in the form of TV shows and movies) are being sold for use on portable devices. With the rise in mobile content value, comes a need for better content and revenue protection.

According to content security specialists Irdeto, requirements are emerging for content protection that is (i) more secure, (ii) more manageable and flexible and even (iii) appropriate for use over multiple types of networks.

"One of the significant issues with broadcast networks is that content is widely distributed to a large audience. In a point-to-point content distribution system, the value to a pirate of breaching the system is to gain access to single piece of content which may be worth a few dollars. In the case of broadcast a breach of the system enables the pirate to tap into a revenue stream of tens of millions of dollars a month for a system with millions of subscribers. This means content security solutions are required that are proven and equivalent to those used in cable and satellite operations worldwide," Irdeto explain.

Thierry A. Raymaekers is the managing director, marketing Asia- Pacific at Irdeto Access BV. Based in Beijing, he originally built up Irdeto's local operations in China before assuming responsibility for managing growth in digitalization, and expanding content protection from the traditional television broadcasting to the broadband and mobile markets. And since January 2005, his marketing responsibilities see him building partnerships to address the emerging rich media and mobile entertainment industry.

In basic terms for the mobile TV environment, Conditional Access (CA) protects the pipe and the system by which the content is delivered, while Digital Rights Management (DRM) protects the rights associated with the content when it is received by, and stored within, the mobile device.

"Implementing CA is completely agnostic to any (broadcast) technology," explains Raymaekers, "it uses encryption technology like digital TV except that for mobile the bandwidth-saving component is crucial. Without that, you would have to cut your number of channels." He goes on to say that the service aspect with mobile is also different. "While set-top-boxes can be exchanged and upgraded, with a phone you need to ensure secure over-the-air downloads, and customers won't change their hardware (ie their phones) so phones have to be continually updated via software." The third difference, according to Raymaekers, is that while a household will generally use the same set-top-box for around 5 years, consumers tend to change mobile phones every 18 months or so. "There have to be integration capabilities, that while CA is agnostic to the delivery technology, we need to ensure it is compatible with a range of handsets and mobile devices," he explains.

"In the future mobile phones will be easier – just a SIM card will ensure compatibility. But as it stands," says Raymaekers, "for some devices a CA applet has to be fixed to a secure hardware component." Defined as a Surface Mounted Device (SMD), he says these are chips affixed to the phone's mother-board, and also have applications to allow TV reception via non-connected devices like cameras and game-stations.

As for which mobile technology will win out, Raymaekers says that DMB started earlier than DVB-H and has proved very successful in South Korea (see TU Media Case Study page ii). With T-DMB emerging in Germany and China from 2005, it could have become the dominant technology – until the Chinese government decided to ditch it in favour of Chinese standards. "That decision has definitely slowed the momentum of T-DMB," says Raymaekers. He says that Qualcomm's MediaFlo is, by reputation, a superior technology to DVB-H, but that its proprietary nature makes lack of handset availability a huge obstacle to its deployment.

Above all, says Raymaekers, there is a need for interoperability and a common device interface for mobile broadcasting to really take off. "It's far better to have a smaller slice of a much bigger pie, than to have a large helping of a smaller one."

NDS has also been developing new media security solutions, supplying open end-to-end digital technology and services to digital pay-television platform operators and content providers.

Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Joseph Deutsch is the vice president product marketing at NDS. He is responsible for developing NDS product roadmaps, strategies, technologies and applications, mainly in the field of extending TV Conditional Access and Digital Rights Management technologies for the TV broadcasting experience to the vision of content anytime, anywhere and on any device. With over 20 years of experience in R&D as well as marketing and business development in the electronic media/entertainment field, including visualization, simulation, sound and electronic smell, Joseph is a member of NDS's Executive Staff which is looking at ways in which content will be distributed and protected in the coming years.

NDS was recently announced as the end-to-end content protection provider for Korea's incumbent telecommunication operator, KT's new mobile content service 'toest', enabling secure video downloads to Wi-Fi hotspots in South Korea. NDS will deploy a full end-to-end system including NDS VideoGuard Mobile and NDS VideoGuard PMP, providing both content owners and consumers with a new, secure way to download video to their mobile CE devices.

KT's new 'toest' service has been designed to establish a standardized business model for content distribution, through which revenues will go to copyrighted content owners. Video clips, protected by digital rights management, will be offered via a single authorized terminal per user. Users log on to www.toest.co.kr and download video clips to their PCs, and subsequently transfer them to mobile devices via wireless hotspots. The service offers nearly 3,000 video clips, including movies, TV dramas, animations and educational content.

Dr. Jung Han-Wook, Assistant Vice President of KT, commented, "We chose the NDS DRM solution as it is important for us to launch the 'toest' service with a lawful distribution structure of videos and movies. (It) enables us to protect the content copyrights as well as support a variety of content purchase business models. KT plans to expand the 'toest' content service with various content licensing agreements as well as expand the service to HSDPA terminals."

In its simplest terms, NDS's Joseph Deutsch describes CA as "Service protection -protecting the revenues of the service provider. But for DRM," he says, "it's content protection. The content has arrived to the device, our service controls the usage and consumption of it."

In terms of NDS' perspective on emerging mobile technologies, Deutsch says DVB-H is taking priority over MediaFlo. "The latter may provide better quality and more channels, and Qualcomm have the infrastructure from antenna to phone – but its reception is limited to Qualcomm chips and the choice of handsets is currently limited. NDS' first priority is DVBH, then MediaFlo, while DMB offers less channels.

"We have to adapt to all the different technologies, even if we standardize how the content is protected, we still have the individual (phone) network to worry about. But NDS VideoGuard, for example, includes both CA and DRM solutions for mobile," he says. "For KT, the first phase was deployed in September 2006, across Samsung and LG phones, and LG PMP (personal media players). Consumers download the relevant software from www.toest.co.kr." Deutsch says the second phase will see live streaming via HSPDA (3.5G and above), Wi-Bro (the Korean equivalent of Wi-Max) and to PC.

In terms of content consumption trends on the horizon, Deutsch adds that he notes the movement of PC content onto the TV set; 'placeshifting' with viewers taking content wherever they want to consume it; and Mobile TV.

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