The empires that are the Pay TV companies struck back at OTT services this week with new technology from Adobe. Adobe launched the Adobe Pass platform, a TV Everywhere’ for Pay TV companies. It can offer subscribers authenticated viewing of shows both online and on mobile devices.
The company said Adobe Pass plays both Flash and HTML5 videos, making it Apple-friendly and said it can play on devices which use Windows, Mac OS, Android, Apple’s iOS, Blackberry OS and even Google TV.
Adobe said in a statement, ‘The solution leverages the industry-leading Flash Platform for a seamless high-quality experience along with Adobe Flash Access for enhanced security. Adobe Pass also utilizes HTML5 for devices where Adobe Flash technology is not yet available.’
Addressing the security issue that’s important to Pay TV services, Adobe said, ‘The Flash Access client-side security built into Flash Player 10.1 and higher enables fraud prevention by binding the user to their device so limits can be set on devices per-household account.’ The company said content owners have complete control and can brand the Adobe Pass video player on their Web sites.
Brightcove, which offers an online video platform, said it was licensing the Adobe Pass technology to offer TV Everywhere authorization services to broadcasters, pay-TV services and distributors.
Adobe said the first customers are Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting and Viacom’s MTV Networks. It’s also working to implement Adobe Pass with Comcast, Dish, Verizon and Cox.
AT&T, the biggest reseller of iPhones, DirecTV, the second largest US pay-TV service, and Cablevision were not mentioned, nor were any pay-TV companies in Europe or Asia.