Widevine Announces Product Update, List of Supported Devices and New Customers

Widevine is announcing the 4.4.4 version of its video optimization and DRM platform today, with new features, a list of supported devices and new customers. Widevine's CEO Brian Baker brought me up to speed yesterday.

Widevine is supporting HTTP streaming and also adaptive bit rate streaming for live events and shows, not just on-demand. Devices supported include Apple products, Blu-ray players (Haier, LG, Philips, Samsung, Toshiba), connected TVs, Nintendo Wii, Windows PCs and 50 models of set-top boxes. As TV Everywhere services begin to roll out, secure delivery is a key to success, and Brian explained that Widevine is positioning itself to be in the middle of the action.

On the customer front, Netflix and Best Buy are being announced as new customers. Netflix has been aggressively rolling out new content and supported devices for its Watch Instantly streaming feature. Brian wouldn't confirm, but it seems fair to assume that Widevine is the DRM solution Netflix is using for streaming to the Nintendo Wii, which, given its massive installed base could quickly become a significant percentage of Netflix's streaming use (it just went live last week). In a related move, last week Irdeto announced that Netflix had licensed its Cloakware software as part of its DRM efforts.  

What do you think? Post a comment now (no sign-in required).

Categories: Aggregators, Devices, DRM

Topics: Best Buy, Netflix, Widevine