Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC (DECE), whose membership includes the major Hollywood studios, has announced the agreement of a common file format that will be used to create an ‘open’ specification for the delivery of digital entertainment.
The format will play on any service or device built to DECE specifications – including the internet, mobile, cable or IPTV.
An additional 21 members have joined the organisation including Adobe, Ascent Media Group, Cable Labs, Catch Media, Cox Communications, DivX, DTS, Extend Media, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Motorola, Nagravision, Netflix, Neustar, Nokia, Rovi, Tesco and Thomson.
Rather than opt for a single DRM system, DECE has gone for the use of a variety of software-based solutions, systems from Adobe, Microsoft PlayReady, Widevine and the Marlin DRM Open Standard,
DECE has the internet as its distribution system, though the involvement of US cablenets Comcast and Cox, is interesting, particularly given their TV Everywhere project. UPC is also involved through its parent Liberty Global. Neustar’s cloud-based Digital Rights Locker plays the role that a subscriber management system would at the headend.
Full technical specifications will be available in the first half of 2010.
Two major companies are notably absent from the DECE initiative, Disney Studios and Apple, who are believed to be working together on an alternative system, tentatively called KeyChest.
