Samsung Electronics has signed a global agreement with Widevine to use its digital rights management and adaptive streaming technologies on Samsung’s connected devices.
The agreement, which named Widevine as a preferred provider, also includes the use of Widevine’s virtual DVD-like trick play offering.
With the Widevine technologies in hand, Samsung said it would be able to better support TV Everywhere and over-the-top services from Internet content providers, as well as cable, telco and satellite service providers. Widevine’s adaptive streaming technology covers both live and on-demand viewing.
As one of Samsung’s preferred partners, the Widevine client will be shipped on millions of Samsung devices this year. Widevine said its DRM and adaptive streaming software are already included in 2009 models of Samsung connected TVs and Blu-ray players shipped in the United States. Today’s agreement allows Samsung to expand distribution on a worldwide basis.
“Samsung is committed to meeting its customers’ evolving needs in this fast-paced, digital era,” said Yoon-Soon Ahn, vice president of research and design at Samsung. “In order to continue in this tradition, we selected a video optimization and DRM vendor that understood our success in innovation and design in order to develop devices that satisfy our customers’ requirements. We are particularly excited to add Widevine’s live HTTP adaptive streaming technology to our products.”
Seattle-based Widevine’s investors include Charter Ventures, Cisco Systems, Liberty Global and Samsung Ventures America.
