The digital rights management (DRM) market will grow at a rate of 12 per cent annually to become a $1.2 billion market by 2018, while the related conditional access (CAS) market will decline slightly to dip below $1.5 billion annually, suggests ABI Research.

Opportunities within the DRM market include multiple components, comprising authentication, intellectual property and tools, core DRM technologies, and implementation services and pay-TV services. The pay-TV services submarket, which most closely mimics the classic CAS market, represented only about 35 per cent of the total addressable market in 2012.

“Pay-TV content protection markets are being turned on their heads as responsibility at delivering IP video content to the consumer is starting to shift from pay-TV distributors, such as Comcast, DirecTV, and Sky, to programmers including NBCUniversal, HBO, and ESPN. The shift from classic CAS products which, simply speaking, deliver content to a set-top box to more DRM products, which can work with third party smartphones, tablets and connected TVs, has already been well described,” suggests Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research. “Equally surprising is that many of these technologies will become standardised through MPEG-DASH and UltraViolet such that the responsibility will shift from encryption algorithms to end-to-end system implementation. Premium value content protection, as well as live streaming of TV Everywhere, are emerging areas within the DRM landscape; it is these areas where providers need to be focused on differentiation today.”

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Categories: Articles, CA/DRM, Content, Markets, Mobile, Portable Media, Research