Project Canvas reveals DRM plans

Project Canvas, the IPTV joint venture recently approved by the BBC Trust, has outlined its content protection plans for the forthcoming platform.

The Canvas partners - BT, Arqiva, TalkTalk, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five - want to support a range of protection options to encourage more providers to make their content available to consumers.

Towards that aim, the Canvas platform will support the Marlin digital rights management (DRM) solution developed jointly over the past five years by Intertrust, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony.

Providers will be able make their content available on Canvas with no protection at all or adopt a variety of solutions, such as transport encryption, file encryption, device authentication or DRM.

The partners selected Marlin after a "widespread industry engagement with content owners, content distributors, device manufacturers and internet service providers".

From Launch, the Marlin DRM solution will give providers of premium content, such as Hollywood studios, protection on the open Canvas platform from piracy of their material. It will also offer protection for any providers offering a subscription or download service.

"Project Canvas has worked hard to account for the needs of all industry participants and ensure a rich and diverse TV viewing experience for consumers. We have also considered the submissions of key industry participants into the BBC Trust approval process," said Canvas chief technology officer Anthony Rose.

"Our content protection requirements have to cater for the widest possible number of content providers, including giving reassurance to those looking to support pay-per-view and subscription access to film.

"The industry is looking for a fully supported DRM solution, and Marlin will give content providers the best option at launch. Marlin is based on open standards, is already widely supported and is being increasingly deployed by the industry."

The publication of the Canvas content protection requirements is part of the project's Trust-imposed commitment to release all technical documents within eight months of the platform's launch.

Further technical documents will be published by the partners on July 30 and August 19, with the Canvas platform expected to go live in the first half of 2011.