-->
Content Protection

If it’s premium content, it has to be protected, both to facilitate monetization and to thwart would-be pirates. Check here for the latest news, trends, and analysis of all manner of content protection

Register now to save your FREE seat for Streaming Media Connect, May 12-14!
Features

Presenting… The 2025 Streaming Media Top 100

Here we reveal the 2025 Streaming Media Top 100, our list (appropriately enough) of the top 100 companies in the streaming universe outside of Europe. This list complements the 2025 Streaming Media Europe 51, which acclaims Europe's key streaming innovators and high achievers.

Industry Champions Revealed: The 2025 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! Here we present 19 top tech solutions of 2025, as chosen by the readers of Streaming Media .

The 2025 Streaming Media All-Stars

After a 12-year hiatus, Streaming Media is bringing back the Streaming Media All-Stars for 2025 to pay tribute to a select group of key technology innovators who are driving and disrupting the streaming industry.

The 2024 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards

The readers have spoken! We've counted all of the votes in the 2024 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards, and—drumroll, please—it is now my pleasure and sworn duty to present winners and runners-up in each of our 17 categories.

Spotlights

View From the Top: What Google’s 2027 License Service Deadline Means for Streamers

Digital rights management is the invisible backbone of streaming security, and the license service sits at its core. Every play request, entitlement check, and encrypted segment relies on a clean exchange of keys between clients, proxies, and license servers. Replacing that infrastructure under deadline pressure requires not only technical execution but strategic planning.

Why Streamers Must Become Proactive About Piracy Before It Is Too Late

For years, many streaming companies have perceived piracy as a disease that needs to be treated only after it strikes. A show is released, pirates copy it, and the platform responds with takedown notices, legal complaints, or occasional enforcement actions. That approach may have worked in the early days of online video. Today, it does not.

View From the Top: EZDRM | Thinking Security for 2026

As 2025 comes to a close, we can see that the landscape is presenting new growth opportunities in revenue security. Without losing sight of our core values of future-facing innovation and ease of use, we can respond with media solution architectures that offer a more sophisticated baseline for the video services business.

A View From the Top: BuyDRM

Today we live in a DRM-driven streaming video landscape. DRM is the sole studio-mandated streaming security technology in use across every major streaming video and audio platform in existence. While part of a broad-spectrum approach to security, DRM is the one technology standing between your content and your enemies. Thankfully, our industry has evolved DRM into a thin, scalable, nearly silent component of the streaming ecosystem with broad support on the industry's leading encoders, servers, and playback platforms.

Columns

Casual Streaming Piracy and the Cost of Chasing it

At Streaming Media NYC, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel around stream security. It's probably the fifth or sixth time that I've done so in the last decade, but an interesting dichotomy popped up during the prep meeting with panelists, and again while we were on stage during the live session. The concept was "casual piracy" and how it differed from "professional piracy" in both intent and scale.

Where Does Your Media Fit Into Web3?

Look beyond the hype and the monkeys. NFTs, blockchain, and other elements of the new decentralized web—Web3—have serious implications for video creators and publishers.

Long Live (A Different) DRM!

A blockchain-based, ledger-and-wallet approach promises a digital rights management that's just as effective as anything we have now, with the benefit of being more consumer-friendly.

The Math Behind the Magic

Whether we're talking about content delivery, player performance, live events, or even DRM, it's important to understand the algorithms that make streaming video tick.

Content Protection Companies and Suppliers