BINDING IDS TO CONTENT

A PROGRESS REPORTAPRIL 2014

Chris LennonPresident & CEO

MediAnswers

Chair of Open ID Project

What Problem Are We Trying To Solve?

Currently, there is no open method for embedding persistent content identifiers (e.g., watermarks, fingerprints, etc.) into content, so that it survives, no matter how that content gets to the consumer

Reta

il an

d Co

nsum

er

Prod

ucts

SKU UPC

DistributionBinding

Broa

dcas

t TV

and

Film

ID Registration Consumer

No

guar

ante

e of

su

rviv

abili

ty

DistributionBindingID Registration Consumer

Content creators and distributors need an effective way of reliably binding content identifiers to audio/video content that will robustly and reliably transit an end-to-end media ecosystem

Existing identifiers, such as EIDR and Ad-ID, rely on binding an identifier to a file container, data streams within a file container, or structural metadata of the file itself, which can be destroyed during processing or delivery.

Research suggests that the only reliable approach is to bind the identifier within the audio/visual essence, so that it can survive throughout the end-to-end lifecycle.

Binding technologies exist – watermarks, fingerprints and wrappers – but today these are either proprietary, are not capable of surviving transit through the end-to-end ecosystem, or both.

Content creators and distributors need an effective way of reliably binding content identifiers to audio/video content that will robustly and reliably transit an end-to-end media ecosystem

An open standard for ID-to-asset binding can enable a wide array of capabilities:

Increased speed, transparency and accountability

in video content and advertising measurement

Improved media workflow automation

within and between M&E entities

Enablement of new anti-piracy tools and methods

Reduced asset storage

and transmission costs

More complete long-tail content

monetization

On-the-fly media asset

assembly

More granular and comparable media

ratingsAccelerated digital content

locker adoption

Improved automated content recognition and detection

Simplified and less-costly media reconciliation

Better second-screen integration and improved multi-screen content

discovery

Fewer barriers to deploying cross-platform dynamic ad insertion

• Where is this work being done?

What Has Happened Up To Now?

• Meetings every other week since group formed in July of 2013

• Use Cases , and then Requirements created

• RFI issued Dec 15, 2013• RFI closed Jan 31, 2014• Face To Face Meeting Feb 11, 2014 (6

formal, 2 informal replies)

Some Use Cases The Group Identified

Cross Platform Measurement

Second Screen Applications

Audience Measurement

4 Rs: Rights, Research, Royalties, Reconciliation

Targeted Ad Insertion (Advanced Advertising)

Requirements

• At the RFI’s core were a set of requirements. These came out of use cases discussed on the previous slides.

Requirements

• Payload– Must be able to carry representations of

Ad-IDs and EIDRs

Requirements

• Survivability Across Platforms– Must survive distribution to consumers across

all distribution platforms

Requirements

• Recording And Playback– Must survive recording and playback at a

later time (DVRs)

Requirements

• Granularity– Need to be able to detect the IDs during

short commercials, as well as longer programs.

Requirements

• Synchronization Across Platforms– Must be able to retrieve IDs simultaneously across

different platforms (second screen)

Requirements

• ID Replacement– Must be able to replace the ID if content is

repurposed within another program (e.g. SportsCenter)

Requirements

• Quality– Must not degrade the quality of the

content for the consumer

What Kind of Responses Did We Get?

• Most solutions focused on audio watermarking, although other solutions were presented (fingerprinting, XDS carriage, Time Reference Label, whistles, video watermarking)

What Kind of Responses Did We Get?

• Although watermarking was dominant technology presented, there may be advantages to coupling this with fingerprinting or other technologies

• Example: audio watermark establishes that ad played, and fingerprinting verifies that entire ad played

Next Steps• Group to focus on full report to SMPTE,

outlining suggested standardization work to achieve Open ID binding to essence.

Thank You

Questions?

clennon@medianswers.tv