谷歌/都交易的意义

In the annals of the streaming media and online video industries, there are a number of companies that have been around for at least a decade: Apple, 微软, and Real are just a few that have remained undaunted by the ups-and-downs of technology and fiscal landscapes. 其他人, 像Adobe, have entered the market through acquisition, as it did when it acquired Macromedia in 2005.

这个周末, 都, another company that's been in the industry since the late 1990s, announced that it has been acquired by Google, a company that itself has been around since 1998, but has only in the past few years entered the online video market.

都, which was one of the founding members of the Internet 流媒体 Alliance (ISMA), has morphed itself from its roots in IPTV controlled access to a more strategic role, straddling the worlds of digital rights management (DRM) and delivery optimization.

交易条款尚未公布, but the company has raised $50 million in venture financing since 2002, with its most recent round-earlier this year-of $15 million from Liberty Global, 三星, 和EchoStar. EchoStar and 三星 joined Liberty Global and previous funders, 包括思科, 阿兰, Rovi, JP摩根和VantagePoint Ventures.

来了解一下怀德瓦恩的起点, and where the most recent growth has been, 考虑这些事实, current as of earlier this year: While the company's pay TV target market has seen its controlled access technology deployed at hundreds of operators and approximately 5 million deployed clients, its internet video optimization and DRM solutions cover almost 50 million deployed clients.

都 has had several major wins over the past year, including recent announcements with Blockbuster, 松下, 和Netflix. The latter is a client that has been making significant waves in the mainstream media, and may be a potential competitor to Google, al虽然 it's more likely that Google 和Netflix will continue to partner as they have on the nascent Google TV application front.

Several theories have been proposed as to why Google purchased 都, ranging from the ability for Google to ingratiate itself with the studios and pay TV operators to the need to control the DRM for Netflix.

I think it's as much a Google TV play as anything else, 虽然, based on a conversation I had back in March with a few of 都's executives.

在那次谈话中，我们发表 4月, 阿曼达洞穴, 都的产品营销经理, talked about the inclusion of 都 in the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) lineup.

"DECE chose five DRMs as approved for delivery,巴罗斯说。, 并指出怀德瓦恩是五人之一. "The benefit of DECE-approved DRM delivery for CE devices is that you can get a single code from the digital video rental company for a variety of devices. While the code is initially for a particular device, if you purchase a new Blu-ray player-which will have a different device ID-you can still use the code to watch the program, as long as you are within the limit of devices that rental company allows. Even if you reach the limit, deauthorizing of one device allows authorization of another."

正如那篇文章中提到的, 视频优化是, 也许, the key differentiator between 都 and other DRM providers.

"Your question about whether we are a DRM company expanding into other parts of the supply chain is valid,巴罗斯说。, responding to a query about overlap between DRM and delivery. "We decided that we wanted to expand on a trend of consumers wanting to watch TV on PCs (such as Hulu)."

“我们知道我们可以保护它, and our customers wanted to deliver content across the internet (best-effort) alongside what they'd done in the MSO,她接着说, "but the MSOs didn't want to go to the PC, because of fear of what happened with the music industry (everything being given away for free). So 都 saw this optimization service as a growth opportunity to move beyond just DRM."

截至本周, 该公司远远超越了数字版权管理, into the world of controlled access for any number of over-the-top and mobile devices that are-or soon will be-a part of the Android ecosystem.