We have been talking for three years about set tops that can talk to portable devices, so that protected Pay TV services can be copied to the portable device. Macrovision this week, as it finally revealed the secret identity of its set top partner as Korean consumer Electronics giant Samsung, was talking up the journey of content the other way around ‘ if it’s on your handset, or PC, you can now play it on the TV, through the set top.
Actually this is a very old story, but with new players. We can’t say that Israeli conditional access company NDS is a rival to US content protection specialist company Macrovision, but certainly some of their markets overlap. And it was NDS with Samsung’s help, that was putting together the idea of devices which, with the help of the NDS designed Secure Video Processor (SVP) would allow content to be swapped out of a set top, to a portable device ‘ specifically a Samsung portable device.
Now we have the same story over, but this time the platform on the set top is purely software, and it’s from a company in Macrovision that is inherently trusted, perhaps as much as NDS, by the content community, including Hollywood.
Macrovision has effectively got Samsung to use its Connected Platform, which it describes as a way of enabling hardware suppliers to create wired and wireless digital home products that can access the internet and store content from the internet, while keeping up copy protection. Presumably this platform will soon include the Gemstar EPG technology, which Macrovision acquired just before Christmas, which when you add this to a set top, means that Macrovision is definitely invading NDS territory, with what looks like a complete set of set top intellectual property licensing, from a single supplier. Macrovision has not yet said that it can offer full conditional access for a Pay TV operator, but it is surely just a matter of time.
Back in November Macrovision announced that it had signed an agreement with an unnamed leading set top box manufacturer for its Connected Platform in the US, and we guessed that it might be one of the big guys like Motorola, Scientific Atlanta or Thomson or a smart outsider like the UK’s Pace Microsystems. But we should have guessed Samsung, because of the company’s history of being happy to go along with any new route to market that looks promising, and its confidence in supporting all and any new protocols.
It is important to remember that online movie provider CinemaNow has also confirmed that it was happy to use the Macrovision Connected Platform, in order to allow protection on downloaded Hollywood movies,
The idea is that any device which is already Macrovision enabled using Connected Platform, can be registered at the CinemaNow web site, and can then download and view premium content. We think the platform owes something to Macrovision’s Mediabolic PC Media server, which can also handle photos and streamed music as well as video.
So what Macrovision is heading towards, as a new business, is the software stack in a set top that can take content directly from the internet, and yet still work as a set top for cable, satellite or IPTV, or even solely as an internet device which talks to the TV ‘ in which case it is heading for a battle with Apple with its Apple TV and Sling Media with its Sling Catcher, as well as with Divx (see separate story this week).
The difference is that Macrovision has had only one huge success which created it as a company, in getting device manufacturers to incorporate its analog copy protection, under the terms of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act ‘ in other words it is used to lobbying device manufacturers, including Chinese manufacturers, and offering them successful software architectures.
Getting buy-in from Samsung could be huge, especially if this leads to other set top makers and DVD chip designers, and other consumer electronic device manufacturers, such as Sony and Philips, adding the option to their devices to run the Connected Platform. That would mean attacking Apple TV, not with a product, but with a generic logo that might come on lots of different boxes which were desirable in their own right. That may only be a few dollars for each box, but it may make all the difference.
The strategy comes just as Fred Amoroso, the new CEO, starts to find his feet at the company, and perhaps instead of dressing up a business for sale, as he has done at his last two companies (Crossworlds and Meta Group), this might be the company where Amoroso can actually execute a new vision.
The Macrovision Connected Platform will enable Samsung Electronics to create digital set-top boxes that can connect to other devices such as PCs and networked storage devices (and handsets surely) and allow consumers new way to enjoy content. The Macrovision enabled set-top box from Samsung is expected to be available in late 2008.
To do all this Samsung’s has licensed the Macrovision Connected Platform Software Developers Kit and will combine it with its own open cable applications platform to create a set-top box for the cable community.
‘The industry is focused on enhancing the consumer experience through advanced connected products,’ commented Eric Free, EVP and general manager of the Embedded Solutions Business Unit at Macrovision. ‘Jointly with Samsung we expect to improve the overall experience and flexibility in enjoying digital content. Our embedded software takes the complication out of transferring and playing content on the network from one device to another.’
The Macrovision Connected Platform includes application software for media players and media servers, middleware that is compliant with Digital Living Network Alliance standards and also compliant with Universal Plug and Play, and flexible application programming interfaces, the company said.