MUMBAI: Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) CTO Jim Williams recommended terrestrial broadcasters tap low-cost content protection choices at the ITU-AIBD workshop on digital terrestrial television broadcasting.

Broadcasters at the workshop were engaged by Asia-Pac Centre for Content Protection (CCP) members Nagravision, NDS, ASTRO, MPA, Microsoft and Conax who provided updates and a panel discussion on the latest issues in relation to broadcast and content protection.

Participants discussed why free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters may need to make content-protection choices, especially at the set-top box.

"It's a really exciting time for us as the digital transition begins," says CCP managing director Isa Seow, who is also a consultant for Motion Picture Association.

Jim Williams called it digital emancipation when US broadcasters turned off analog signals June 12 this year. He invited delegates from different countries to identify which stage of the digital transition they each were in, and adopt appropriate types of content protection. "Protect your free TV," he exhorted.

"Content protection helps broadcasters obtain high-value entertainment. Content owners can be more confident of channels that they will be licensing content," says Seow. "Our CCP Recommended Outputs Publication is a reference for many device manufacturers and broadcasters seeking clarifications for free-to-air set-top box outputs design."

Williams recommended low-cost alternatives such as High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), where discounts on royalties are available. "Not many organisations are focused on low-cost alternatives," he said. "One organisation that is focused on it is CCP."

In Korea, a country with one of the highest broadband penetration rates, 47% of the 33.5 mill users admitted to illegally downloading movies once a week. "If this goes on, we're going to face what happened to the music industry," says Astro All Asia Networks plc CTO Graham Stevens. He concurred that it might seem strange to talk about FTA and content protection in the same breath, but don't just go out with open-...

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