Intertrust adopts Civolution’s NexGuard watermarking

DRM consortium Intertrust Technologies has added session-based video watermarking from technology provider Civolution’s NexGuard unit to its ExpressPlay DRM service.

NexGuard watermarking technology allows copyright holders to identify the source of unauthorised distribution, including after a movie leaves the encrypted digital domain of a DRM system, according to Civolution.

ExpressPlay using Marlin DRM is widely used to protect video services in a number of markets, including the growing Chinese market.

ExpressPlay’s first watermarked deployment will support early-window TVoD and SVoD under a recently announced, exclusive licensing agreement between 20th Century Fox and iQiyi, China’s largest internet and mobile video service provider.

NexGuard embeds watermarks in a video stream as part of ExpressPlay’s cloud-based service before the video is deployed. The technology requires no client-side technology.

“Session-based watermarking is critically important, particularly in a large market such as China. ExpressPlay’s offering allows us to aggressively pursue new distribution opportunities that consumers want, such as early-window movie releases that are much closer to theatrical release dates, while appropriately managing the piracy risk that comes with them,” said Hanno Basse, CTO of 20th Century Fox.

“We are delighted to offer session-based watermarking to our content partners. Watermarking extends the reach of a DRM system by adding the power to track content after it has been decrypted,” said Talal G. Shamoon, Intertrust’s CEO. “We chose Civolution because we found its NexGuard watermarking to be best of breed, highly secure and robust in a variety of cases, and easy to use and integrate.”