Written by Brett L. Sappington, Director of Research

Although Viaccess and Orca have been bedfellows for some time, the recently announced merger of the two companies highlights a trend among CA/DRM providers. As the multiscreen/TV Everywhere battle among solution providers has grown, content security providers have either been the precipitators or targets of vertical integration into full-featured multiscreen solutions. Irdeto acquired Cloakware and moved to add content management and delivery capabilities. Nagra acquired middleware provider OpenTV, and the company now provides a combined multiscreen offering. Cisco's acquisition of NDS gives them access to NDS' content security as well as other software. Now, Viaccess and Orca have tied the knot.

Multiscreen software and solutions have become commonplace in the industry. A horde of companies have flooded the market with solutions for the growing number of companies offering consumer-facing multiscreen services (operators, OTT services, broadcasters/networks, content creators, retailers, CE makers, technology providers, and others). By contrast, only a handful of vendors offer conditional access and DRM solutions. So, perhaps it is not surprising to see these providers expand into multiscreen offerings (or to be added to a multiscreen offering a la Cisco).

For the new Viaccess-Orca (and other companies that are including content security in their solution portfolio), the combined company allows them to plot a common vision for their product road maps, to expand future capabilities in a way that is complementary, and to potentially explore business models that are not currently feasible as separate entities.

@BrettsView