Over-the-top (OTT) material is consumed on practically every user’s many video-viewing devices in today’s media-centric world. Almost every household has multiple video-viewing devices. These over-the-top (OTT) players are currently caught in the middle of a discussion regarding whether they should offer one user per subscription plan access to their content or whether they should allow numerous users on multiple devices in order to cultivate a loyal audience. Putting a limit on the number of devices a user can use is not only inconvenient for the user but also unrealistic for avoiding credential sharing. When the consumer reaches the maximum number of registered devices, they are responsible for checking which devices are being used by which members of their household and deregistering any devices that are not being utilised.
If the number of devices that can be used is severely restricted, the over-the-top (OTT) player may experience a significant spike in the number of support calls from customers. It is a time-consuming and costly process to restrict the number of devices since it requires each device to have a unique identification, which is something that can simply be replicated by other devices.
Putting Restraints on Concurrent Streaming
Limiting the number of concurrent streams through the use of a multi-DRM service is the most effective method for over-the-top (OTT) players to restrict credential sharing and, as a result, make the most of their subscription plans. The over-the-top (OTT) service providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu each offer a unique subscription plan for their DRM-protected material in each of the geographical territories in which they operate. For example, if a particular consumer has paid a subscription cost for three simultaneous streams under their account, then as soon as the maximum number of active streams is met, a streaming limitation message will be displayed to everyone else who is attempting to watch the material at that time. This gives the user the ability to discover all of the people that are currently using the account. Therefore, the customer has the option of either changing their password or upgrading to a plan that supports a greater number of simultaneous streams. As a result, this makes it possible for operators to cut down on revenue loss and encourage users to make extra purchases of premium services.
How Over-the-Top (OTT) Players Can Benefit from a Digital Rights Management Service
OTT players rely on multi-DRM services that are hosted in the cloud to restrict the number of concurrent streams or the number of devices that can be associated to a user account. It also assists them in controlling piracy and reducing their bandwidth consumption. In most cases, multi-DRM services will determine whether or not a user is abusing their concurrent streaming feature by counting the number of licences that the user has requested within a short period of time. This helps determine whether or not the user is abusing the facility. In the event that this number is greater than the previously determined value per user, the OTT player will employ the multi-DRM service in order to prevent any further access to these streams.
OTT players also have the option of utilising a solution that utilises forensic watermarking in order to determine whether or not a certain user is leaking streams outside of the approved subscription plan. Content owners are able to swiftly identify the point of leakage by utilising a multi-DRM service that comes packed with a forensic-watermarking service. This is accomplished by recognising stream-specific video watermarking.
Also, the majority of multi-DRM systems include geo-blocking options, which means that the OTT player may set a given value of concurrent streams in one zone, but may offer a more liberal plan in a different region to advertise its services. This is done in order to maximise revenue. This function is utilised to a large extent in state libraries, where the state may pay publishers for access to books for its inhabitants to read them within the state’s geographical bounds, but restricts access to those books from outside the state. On the other hand, this concept has not yet achieved widespread acceptance on a significant scale in the context of video libraries that make use of video DRM.
The manner in which international studios’ premium content escapes legitimate delivery channels and makes its way into the piracy market is a matter of concern for those studios. An effective multi-DRM solution gives them the assurance that it is able to efficiently block the majority of these leakages. A device’s capacity to play streaming content in a secure manner is a leakage point that receives relatively little attention. This level of safety is contingent on the operating system that the device utilises as well as the regularity of its software upgrades. For instance, not all devices and operating systems are able to securely play high-resolution
information. Furthermore, the user might not upgrade the operating system, or the system might not release updates quickly enough. The implementation of these changes is not something that content providers or OTT players are required to wait for. Instead, businesses can restrict the delivery of high-resolution content to customers on a specific group of devices and only push standard definition videos to less secure devices by utilising the multi-DRM service. This method makes it possible to securing OTT contents and players so that they can support a predetermined number of concurrent streams while also meeting the concerns of studios regarding their data security.
OTT players now have two options for managing concurrent streams thanks to the technology of digital rights management (DRM), which they handle with the help of a multi-DRM service. When a streaming session is terminated, a trusted event is transmitted from the client to the licencing server as part of the first approach. The licencing server then grants permission for another client device to start a playback session, provided that the device does not exceed the concurrent streaming restriction that has been established by the server for that specific user account.