Cisco invests millions in video encryption company Reuters
Wednesday, April 19, 2006; 3:37 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/19/AR2006041900410_pf.html NEW YORK (Reuters) - Widevine Technologies, which designs technology to prevent digital video theft, on Wednesday said it had received $16 million from several investors, including network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. The privately held company's encryption technology scrambles digital video signals as they leave a service provider's main office, and decrypts them once they enter consumers' homes via television set-top boxes. "This gives Cisco pretty much a ground-floor opportunity to use Widevine's technology in some of their future home devices," said Vamsi Sistla, an analyst at ABI Research in New York. Cisco, which bought television set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta for about $7 billion earlier this year, is building its presence in the digital video market through other acquisitions and investments. Cisco is one of a group of cable, satellite and telecommunications companies, as well as television broadcasters, who are racing to provide consumers with digital movies and TV shows. "Clearly they recognize that content security is an incredibly valuable and necessary component in that video offering," said Brian Baker, Widevine's chief executive. One of the chief obstacles to digitally distributed programming is piracy. Some movie, music and TV copyright owners have tread cautiously into digitally distributing their works over fears that it could be easily ripped off and shared on the Internet. Canadian telecoms company Telus also invested in Widevine. Telus, like U.S. telecoms carriers AT&T Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc., is rolling out TV service delivered over its lines to compete with cable and satellite companies. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
