Widevine, a Seattle-based content security firm that offers software-based conditional access (CA) systems and DRM technology to the IP-delivered video market, has received $15m in investments from cable provider Liberty Global, Samsung’s VC arm (Samsung Ventures), and an unidentified corporation it describes as “the world’s second-largest satellite provider”.

Widevine is one of the global leaders in the software-based CA segment, alongside companies like Microsoft, Verimatrix, and Latens. The new funding is the third financial injection it has received since 2003. According to Tech Flash, an online tech portal based in Widevine’s home town, Seattle,  this brings total investments since then to more than $50m.

Since Samsung Ventures and Liberty Global are existing investors, the real news is that a major satellite company now sees a future for Widevine’s products.

Satellite networks are intrinsically one-way;  in Farncombe’s view  hardware-based CA systems using smartcards offer the most effective protection against piracy for one-way networks, rather than ones that depend solely on software.

However, satellite providers are increasingly equipping their customers’ receivers with broadband links which - if properly leveraged - can potentially offer better security using software-based systems such as Widevine’s.

This trend is common to other broadcast platforms, including terrestrial ones. It represents a major reason why Farncombe concluded in a recent White Paper that, “Since the traditional pay-TV world is slowly but surely mutating into a two-way one, it is likely that there will be a gradual shift away from smartcard-based systems in favour of cardless ones.”

This poses a challenge for the major global hardware-based CA vendors, such as NDS and Nagra, whose business has traditionally been based on the provision of smartcards to operators.