Content Owners Choose Widevine to Secure Adobe Flash Video and Enable Consumer Flexibility

April 10, 2007; 06:21 AM
Widevine Technologies today announced support for the Adobe® (NASDAQ: ADBE) Flash™ video format. Widevine Cypher is the first and only DRM solution that offers consumers the freedom to choose their entertainment platform while protecting the copyright and revenue streams of content owners and distributors. Its multi-format copy protection now includes the protection of Macromedia Flash video — the most ubiquitous video format in use today, with approximately 750 million downloads. Widevine Cypher is currently used by three major TV networks and leading video retailers for Internet video delivery to PCs, Macs, portable media players and other devices.

In contrast to traditional DRM technologies — such as Apple’s FairPlay and Microsoft’s Windows Media DRM, which restrict content purchase and usage to specific devices, video formats and online services — Widevine opens DRM interoperability to all platforms, networks and video devices. This Switzerland of DRM approach enables total consumer flexibility.

“Widevine is unique in the market because it doesn’t have a vested interest in a consumer content service, device, operating system or a video format,” said Brian Baker, Widevine’s CEO. “Widevine gives consumers the ultimate flexibility to acquire content from any site, in any format and play on any device.”

“The ability to deliver content across a wide range of formats is critical. If a video operator has to manage a separate content security system for every video format — or worse, if customers have to install and update multiple security solutions — it will be time consuming, logistically difficult and costly to manage,” stated ABI Research analyst Mike Wolf. “Widevine has developed a unique solution that addresses the user and content centric world, by extracting the dependence of delivery to any single network, vendor infrastructure or player technology.”

Content owner requirements for copyright protection are only part of the reason driving the need for content security. With hundreds of millions of viewers consuming Internet-based content every week, Internet advertising generated $9.73 billion in 2006. Content owners estimate ad-derived Internet video revenues will become an increasingly larger component year over year. In 2007, about 85% of revenue will be from ads attached to video according to industry analyst studies.(a) Widevine Cypher ensures content owners maintain advertising integrity and consumption verification, which is a key factor in maintaining and expanding CPM based advertising revenue.

(a) TNS Media Intelligence and Parks Associates

About Widevine Technologies, Inc.

Widevine is the world’s leading provider of downloadable content protection, forensic watermarking and digital copy protection solutions for over 120 video service providers worldwide. Widevine enables telco, internet, mobile, cable and satellite service operators to generate new revenue opportunities through the secure distribution, identification and tracking of multimedia content.

Widevine provides a single content security solution that secures content delivered across major PC platforms, web browsers and video formats with a patented renewable security client and digital copy protection. Widevine Cypher secures Windows, Mac or Linux based platforms and supports all the major video formats including Adobe Flash, MPEG2, H.264, VC-1, Windows Media, QuickTime and RealMedia.

Widevine is a privately held corporation headquartered in Seattle, WA, funded by Bear Stearns Constellation Ventures, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), Charter Ventures, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd (DNP), Macrovision (NASDAQ: MVSN), PaceSetter Capital Group, Phoenix Partners, TELUS (NYSE: TU) and VantagePoint Venture Partners.