EBU publishes new standard for live content streams to root out piracy

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The EBU, in close collaboration with network equipment vendors ATEME and NEVION, has updated its royalty-free and interoperable stream protection standard (BISS) with a conditional access extension, BISS-CA, which enables real-time entitlement management for content streams over any network.

The BISS-CA mode (EBU Tech3292s1) is based on state-of-the-art symmetric AES and asymmetric RSA cryptography and carries all entitlement credentials in-stream. It allows media rights holders to grant and revoke receiving rights in real-time and includes the necessary mechanisms to ensure piracy traceability with technologies such as watermarking.

"This is a much needed technology that fills a long-standing gap", says Dr Hans Hoffmann, Senior Manager at EBU Technology & Innovation. "With BISS-CA, business partners can now exchange live content, regardless of which vendor systems they operate."

The EBU BISS (Basic Interoperable Scrambling Standard) protocol was first issued in 2002 to enable secure and interoperable stream exchange over satellite. It is a widely adopted standard for secured B2B transmissions.

Adi Kouadio, Development Lead at EBU Technology & Innovation: "Developing this new technology standard was a great collaboration between the EBU and key industry players to address an important business need in the world of live content exchange. It is a win-win for content owners and the industry at large. "

The BISS update extends the protocol's relevance beyond satellite contribution as BISS-CA is network agnostic and software friendly, aligning the technology with the growing trend of software-defined media appliances.

Oscar Teran, Senior Manager Media Network Solutions at Eurovision Media Services, says: "Securing content is at the core of our business. This new system will simplify credential management while securing our transmissions over satellite and IP. We look forward to its wider adoption in the industry."

The BISS-CA standard will be demonstrated at supporting vendors’ booths at NAB 2018 and on the EBU booth at IBC 2018.