The most significant over-the-top (OTT) players make available for instant streaming, on a variety of linked devices, a vast selection of video material.
One of the factors that contribute to the success of over-the-top (OTT) platforms is the fact that users may log in to their accounts from a variety of different computers and mobile devices.
These platforms enable these devices to play concurrent streams at the same time, without the need for any of them to completely download the target video file.
This enables multiple users within a single household or within a network of friends to utilise a single user account in order to watch a blockbuster movie on a SmartTV, a television soap opera on an iPad, and play live games on an Xbox at the same time.
Using a single user account, users are even able to play the same video clip on multiple devices at the same time. This is an extremely useful feature.
These individuals are use the system at the same time. To put it another way, they are the maximum number of people who are able to visit a website or application concurrently in order to watch the streaming of digital material.
According to a survey that was conducted in 2015, two-thirds of Netflix subscribers in the United States and the United Kingdom provide their login information and password to other individuals.
Every operator of an OTT service makes available a variety of subscription options, each of which can support a varied maximum number of active users at the same time.
The maximisation of subscription plans is an effective method of monetization for over-the-top (OTT) players because it guarantees a continual stream of recurring money.
However, does this not have a negative impact on the amount of income that OTT platforms generate?
How does an over-the-top (OTT) player determine the maximum number of users that should be permitted on a single account while minimising the risk of content being leaked to the illegal file-sharing community?
OTT players rely on a reliable digital rights management and video watermarking / forensic-watermarking service in order to find answers to these and other questions of a similar nature.
The commercialization of premium high-value services is being hampered by credential sharing, which is becoming a serious concern for large over-the-top (OTT) operators.
According to Jill Rosengard Hill, executive president of the media research firm Magid, an estimated 35 percent of millennials in the United States disclose their passwords for streaming services.
Some of the other over-the-top (OTT) competitors believe that the streaming businesses are missing out on a significant amount of potentially lucrative money as a result of this.
Some people think that allowing users to share passwords is a good way to keep customers, because it makes it more difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions once they and their families and friends are all hooked onto the same account. However, other people disagree and believe that this is a good way to keep customers.
Whatever the business rationale of the OTT player may be, it is imperative that it ensures that the user authentication process is carried out in a secure manner. In this way, any illegal usage may at the very least be monitored and possibly stopped.
The OTT platform is dependent on the DRM software as a service for this purpose. For user authentication, the multi-DRM cloud servers make use of two different types of techniques: callback-type methods and token-type ways.
In the first scenario, when the multi-DRM server receives a playback request from a client device, it checks the OTT player’s callback page to determine whether or not the user is a legitimate subscriber. If the user is not a valid subscriber, the playback request is denied.
During this phase of the procedure, the callback page of the OTT player communicates with the multi-DRM server to convey information regarding whether or not the user has unrestricted access to content and how many devices they can access it from.
The information that is displayed on the callback page of the OTT player for each individual user determines the level of concurrency that can be achieved by video streams.
After the multi-DRM server has determined that the authentication procedure has been completed to its satisfaction, it will provide the necessary licence to the client device for the video stream that has been queried.
The token-type technique, on the other hand, is an authentication method that creates the user’s subscription information as tokens on the server of the OTT player.
These tokens are then delivered to the client device where they are used to verify the user’s identity. This token stores information pertaining to usage rights, concurrency, and other related topics.
When a client makes a playback question, the multi-DRM server verifies the client token and then grants the necessary licence. In this particular scenario, the client makes the inquiry.
When many clients request the same DRM protected content file on a single user account or when they request numerous video streams on separate devices, good multi-DRM solutions handle the problem of multiple authentications. This is true whether or not the customers are requesting the same file.