OPINION: New window or new business model?
By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 8/8/2008
AUG. 8 | WOULD OFFERING major studio releases through video-on-demand prior to their release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc represent a new business model for the industry? The question may seem academic, but the answer could turn out to be crucial for DVD retailers.
Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda
The business model question is at the heart of a debate raging in Washington over whether the studios should be allowed to add selectable output control (SOC) flags to VOD streams during a proposed pre-DVD window.
The flags—small bits of code invisible to the viewer—can be used to “turn off” certain outputs on a cable or satellite set-top box so they can’t be used to send the signal to a display. The outputs the studios have in mind are those used for analog component video signals, because they do not support digital copy-protection encryption, as well as certain digital video input (DVI) connections that don’t support the level of encryption the studios want to use.
Their fear is that the unprotected connections could be used to record the VOD movies in unencrypted form for redistributing over the Internet.
Under current Federal Communications Commission regulations governing set-top boxes, however, use of SOC flags is not permitted.
The Commission adopted the ban in 2003 as part of a series of rulings meant to spur the transition to digital TV. Many early DTV sets lacked encrypted digital inputs, or relied on component analog connections between the tuner and the display, and the agency feared that use of SOC flags could disenfranchise the very early adopters it was trying to entice.
Read the full column on ContentAgenda.com.
