IP Vision 'questions Freeview HD DRM plans'

IP Vision has questioned the BBC's plan to impose greater copy protection standards on the forthcoming Freeview HD service.

Last month, the BBC defended its controversial proposal to ensure that all Freeview HD equipment will be equipped with more stringent copy protection technology.

Acting on behalf of content owners, the corporation asked Ofcom about the possibility of compressing service information data - which the boxes need to understand TV services in the data stream - on the unencrypted HD platform. It intends to offer its decompression algorithm without charge to all manufacturers who implement the technology.

IP Vision's Fetch TV Freeview+ accredited SmartBox currently offers broadcast TV and a range of on-demand content from Hollywood studios, including a recently agreed deal with Disney.

Speaking to Digital Spy, the company's commercial director David Bloom revealed that agreeing these types of deals required the company to invest in digital rights management (DRM) technology to protect the content.

This approach means that any user agreeing to a movie rental will only have that title for a 24-hour period and will not be able to copy it or transfer it to another device.

Bloom said that the BBC is pushing through its initiative because it believes that content producers view their high definition material as the "most valuable". However, he feels that in terms of free-to-air content, most users will have already "paid for that content".

"Therefore, to say to me that even though I bought the content I can only use it on one device seems unfair. But I would accept a position where there was a limit, such as Apple do with six or ten devices," he explained.

"In the lineage of free-to-air content, going back to VHS tapes, DVD writers and so on, we've never really had a proliferation of people selling BBC content on market stalls. There is just no market for it. So I am struggling to see the need for the restriction. However, maybe Ofcom will back the plans."

Bloom said that IP Vision has already made the "not cheap" investment in DRM due to its Hollywood deals, although this brings a new revenue stream into the company.

"Even though the Hollywood studios demand a lot of money, they do give you a slice. But here, the BBC is saying that it wants to introduce DRM to the device but it won't pay you for that and it's also content that you can't sell," he said.

"So if I was a manufacturer looking at the plans, I might think, 'that sounds quite costly'. It will require lots of R&D to get it working and it won't apply anywhere else, because their free-to-air content is actually free.

"I can understand their problem. We are a very UK-focused product at the moment, with the need for DRM for other reasons. So it doesn't affect us as much, but I'm a nice guy and I like to think about other people."

IP Vision intends to launch its own Freeview HD receiver in the second quarter of next year.