The TV Everywhere proposition is that cable, satellite & telco TV subscribers should be able to enjoy their subscription content online at different programmer properties – no longer shackled to their TVs or the Multi-Video Programmer Distributors (MVPD)’s own online portals.

In a sense a defensive mechanism against ‘cord cutting,’ the practice by which existing MVPD customers turn away from traditional subscriptions and choose to rely exclusively on online options for their TV entertainment, TV Everywhere is a recognition from those MVPDs that they need to enhance their offering to stay competitive against online video portals such as Hulu and services like Netflix.

First popularized by Comcast & Time Warner in 2009, TV Everywhere was arguably initially slow to take off. Recently however, that appears to be changing. Time Warner claims that over 40 participating networks are involved in deployments and trials. Additionally, a May 2012 report from Parks & Associates cited significant growth in TV Everywhere deployments. NPD Group NPD Group also reported earlier in 2012 that 70 percent of respondents to a global survey said that they have watched TV on a device other than a TV.

Anecdotally, the recent 2012 London Olympics served as the poster-child of TV Everywhere’s coming of age. On its blog, Comcast highlighted that more than 219 million unique viewers in the U.S. tuned in across all screens, and customers on average authenticated 2.4 devices on which to view streaming Olympics content. The BBC showedthe incredible uptick in TV Everywhere, with over 12 million requests for video on mobile across the whole of the Games to complement its 51.9 million TV viewers. Mobile viewing took off at the end of the business day, for local British viewers.

It’s clear that viewing behavior worldwide has embraced multiple devices, so how does the technology behind TV Everywhere meet this demand?  Let’s take a look at the identity infrastructure that is integral to future success for TV service providers.

In order for a subscriber to view video content at a programmer portal based on their subscription at an MVPD – the programmer must be able to verify that the user is indeed an MVPD subscriber, and that their subscription entitles them to view the video content in question. How to do this? One option would be for the programmer to ask the subscriber for their account information (i.e. account name & password) at the MVPD and use that information to query the MVPD for the relevant subscription status. While this model could work, it implies that the subscriber’s password be shared with the programmer – a less than ideal security practice (and one the MVPD would be unlikely to endorse).

The alternative model is for the programmer to, rather than itself collecting the subscriber’s name & password, instead ask the MVPD to authenticate the subscriber, and then send back the desired subscription details. In this model, the programmer still obtains the required information about the user’s subscription status & entitlements – but never learns the subscriber’s password.  This model is shown below.

Here the MVPD authenticates the subscriber

 

In the above, in Step 1, the subscriber requests to view a particular piece of video content from the Programmer. In order to determine whether or not it should grant access to the content, in Step 2 the Programmer sends the user’s browser to the appropriate MVPD, asking that the user be authenticated and their identity be returned, as in Steps 3 & 4. Then, in Step 5 the Programmer can ask if the (now verified) Subscriber should be granted access to a particular piece of content. In Steps 6 & 7 respectively, the MVPD checks the subscription and responds to the Programmer with a yes/no. If the response is affirmative – the Programmer in Step 8 grants the Subscriber access to the requested content and begins the stream.

Steps 2, 4, 5, & 7 in the above presume that the Programmer & MVPD are able to communicate between themselves – in Step 2 the Programmer needs to be able to request of the MVPD that the user be authenticated (and potentially specify a particular piece of video content the User is attempting to access), and in Step 4 the MVPD must be able to send back the Subscriber’s information. Step 5 requires that the Programmer be able to pose queries of the form ‘Can User X view content Y’? – and the MVPD must be able to respond to these queries in Step 7. This sort of communication across independent business entities demands a standard – both to normalize the syntax by which messages are communicated, but also to ensure that an appropriate level of security over the interaction is maintained.