Having a video-on-demand platform, in addition to being up to date with the latest industry trends, allows Latino channels and producers to confront piracy, a crime of high incidence in the region.
By: Richard Santa
The internet has generated new ways of consuming audiovisual content and channels and producers in Latin America have begun to take an interest in this trend. More and more initiatives are found video on demand, some free, especially on public channels, but mostly paid.
In either case, paid or free, consumers must be guaranteed quality content. To achieve this, it is important that broadcasts have an adequate platform that allows them to offer easily accessible content and that guarantees security and control over them.
To learn more about it, we spoke with Julio Aguirre, director of business development for the Americas of the North American company Red Touch Media, a provider of platforms for on-demand content, which can be video, audio and text. It has a presence in the United States, Africa, Europe and is interested in strengthening its presence in the Latin market, because they have customers in the region but they want a more active presence.
Easily accessible
If a channel wants to start offering its services on demand, what are the steps it must take to provide a good service? The first thing that the channel must take into account is that its contents must be digital. This is not a complicated requirement since the broadcast world is digital. The drawback would be reflected if the channel wants to upload the contents that are on tape, in this case it must first pass them to a digital format.
Having this first point overcome, the next step is to choose a good platform. It is essential that this platform has three features: easy to use for companies when uploading or managing content, easy access for the end user, and that provides security over the contents.
On the simplicity it should have, Julio Aguirre gave an example: "One of the reasons for Apple's success is because they make the operating systems of their computers very simple, very easy to use for anyone. Likewise, a video on demand platform should work, ideally with just three clicks, the video was selected, downloaded and shared."
With regard to ease of use in content management, platforms should allow adding steps to make it easy to manage and appearance so that each channel or producer manages to create an identity on its platform, with its logos, its image, its colors.
"Simplicity is our fundamental goal. Our platform guarantees that a user can access the contents in three simple steps without problems. That simplicity is even in the implementation of the platform. That is why we guarantee that maximum in a week should be working, although many times we take less, "said Julio Aguirre.
Specifically, platforms must be able to:
- Recognize how consumers access content.
- Know what people do with the content.
- Understand where and how audiences are consuming content.
- Learn from the devices they use.
- Find out what content they share and what they talk about it.
Content security
The second aspect that must be taken into account when choosing a video on demand platform is the security of the contents. This should give administrators the option to create credentials to control each of the files that are online for users. These credentials allow content administrators to have detailed information on how many times the file was viewed, for how long, how many people, and to whom it has been shared.
If the contents are paid and can be downloaded, since in most cases it is to watch them from the platform, an expiration date is added to the video, through which users can view / share the content only for the number of days they paid. These periods usually range from a week to thirty days.
Julio Aguirre explained that in the case of Red Touch Media, all the content is stored in the encrypted volumes and the data is distributed with a minimum of HTTPS connection, guaranteeing all encrypted transmissions. In addition, the security of its platform is provided by integration with Google's WideVine system, which manages digital rights. Through this, the distribution of the contents in the reproduction regardless of the consumer's device is guaranteed safely and with protection.
How does it work? For the protection of the distribution of multiplatform content, guaranteeing revenue-generating services, the Widevine has different applications, such as Dynamic, Adaptive Streaming over HTTP, DASH, allows the streaming of high-quality multimedia content over the Internet, taking advantage of the standard HTTP protocol and easy implementation in the existing Internet infrastructure.
Common encryption, CENC, identifies standard encryption and key assignment mechanisms that can be used by one or more systems to allow decryption of the same file using different systems. It allows vendors to encrypt their content once and deliver it to numerous customer devices and their assorted DRM schemes.
And finally, there are the multimedia encryption extensions, EME, a W3C standard that provides a set of common APIs that can be used to interact with systems and manage the exchange of license keys. EME enables content providers to design a single application solution for all devices.
Tackling piracy
Latin America today faces a very big problem with piracy, it is easy to acquire TV content, movies, series and music for a dollar. Therefore, it has been proposed as one of the solutions or mechanisms to face this crime, from companies, platforms on demand. The region's interest in this issue is growing.
"Consumers in Latin America also want to access content when they are anywhere, without being glued to their computer. There is a lot of interest from companies in this region, I have personally spoken with people interested in adopting video on demand platforms. I have had appointments in recent days with representatives of interested companies from Panama, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador."
