Content owners choose Widevine to secure Adobe Flash and enable consumer flexibility

Widevine Technologies now supports Adobe 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. Widevine
Cypher ensures content owners maintain advertising integrity and consumption
verification, which is a key factor in maintaining and expanding CPM based
advertising revenue.