Advanced Television

Australia: Linius to protect Roadshow Films content

October 4, 2017

By Colin Mann

Australian software company Linius Technologies has been appointed by Roadshow Films, a division of leading Australian content producer Village Roadshow to provide the company’s anti-piracy technology solution, centred on its patented Video Virtualization Engine (VVE) with IBM Corporation coordinating the design and integration of the Linius VVE anti-piracy solution with existing Roadshow Films infrastructure.

Linius and Roadshow Films have entered into an agreement to deploy the Linius VVE anti-piracy solution on selected premium video content from studio production to the retail platform, for an initial 12-month term.

The initial content will comprise a six-part TV mini-series produced by Roadshow Films, with a targeted launch date of the programme in Australia of early Q1, 2018. Application of the VVE Anti-Piracy solution has begun in studio production, and will be expanded to distribution to the retail platform, expected in Q4, 2017.

Village Roadshow is at the forefront of protecting the intellectual property rights of video content creators and efforts to reduce global video piracy.

“Village Roadshow is a global leader in tackling video piracy, and their endorsement of the Linius technology by becoming our first customer in this important vertical can’t be overstated,” declared Peter Cohen, Executive Vice President, Anti-Piracy of Linius.

“This deployment will be invaluable in our engagements with other studios around the world, most notably here in LA. In 2016 alone, in excess of 17,000 new movies, TV shows and mini-series were released. The Linius technology has applications across all these media and perhaps, the most significant factor is that virtual video is being deployed for the first time with a major industry name. The reduction of video piracy is just a start, this can have huge implications across all sectors of the industry.”

“We have previously made direct investment in Linius and are now trialling the commercial application of the Linius technology within the post production environment as well as in the distribution of feature length content directly to our digital platform partners,” advised Robert Kirby AO, Co-Executive Chairman and Co-CEO of Village Roadshow.

“Securing and protecting our film and TV assets as they move though the content creation stage and onwards to our trading partners’ technology platforms are crucial steps in eliminating the threat of piracy in the early stages of the distribution ecosystem.”

IBM, as Linius’s collaboration partner, is coordinating the design and integration of the Linius VVE anti-piracy solution with existing Roadshow Films infrastructure. This is intended to confirm a proof of value in the solution for premium-content owners globally.

Pricing under the agreement is consistent with the Company’s previously announced revenue model for the Linius Anti-Piracy Division — a per-unit software licence fee. Material revenue from this deployment is expected to be earned as distribution of the virtual files moves beyond production to end users. Actual revenue will be dependent on the number of retail channels and end users, and the resulting API calls, video ‘assets’, storage and watermarking requirements (none of which are determinable at this point in time).

Categories: Articles, CA/DRM, Content, Piracy, Production, Rights