Digital Rights Management (DRM) prevents your videos from being played back except in clients that are granted permission to do so. Implementations of DRM vary, but the usual mechanism used is to encrypt the video and decrypt it only if the client has some kind of key to authorize playback.
Also see:
For additional content security mechanisms that can be set in either the player configuration or video properties, see:
{{ site.product_short }} offers broad support for DRM:
Brightcove supports the three most popular types of DRM for HTML5 video:
You can sign up for multiple DRM types to protect your content on all devices and platforms.
Support for DRM depends on the video format, as shown in the following table.
| Browser | Minimum OS Version | DASH Widevine |
DASH Playready |
HLS FairPlay |
HLS Widevine (Live) |
HLS Widevine (VOD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Player on Desktop Devices[1-1] | ||||||
| Chrome 35+ | Windows and MacOS versions supported by Chrome | |||||
| Firefox 47+ | Windows and MacOS versions supported by Firefox | |||||
| Safari 8+ | MacOS Sierra+ | |||||
| Chromium Edge | Windows 7, 8.1, MacOS | |||||
| Chromium Edge | Windows 10 | |||||
| Legacy Edge | Windows 10 | |||||
| Web Player on Mobile Devices | ||||||
| Chrome last 3 major versions |
Android 6+ | |||||
| Safari | iOS 11.2+ | |||||
| Web Player on Set-Top Devices | ||||||
| Chrome | Android TV, Chromecast | |||||
| Chrome | Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Roku | |||||
| Safari | Apple TV (via Airplay) | |||||
| Android SDK (Native Player) on Mobile Devices | ||||||
| n/a | Android OS 6.0.1+ (all devices) | |||||
| n/a | Android TV, Amazon Fire TV | |||||
| iOS SDK (Native Player) on Mobile Devices | ||||||
| n/a | iOS 11.2+ (all devices) | |||||
| tvOS SDK (Native Player) on Mobile Devices | ||||||
| n/a | tvOS (Apple TV) | |||||
DRM for browsers is for desktop or for mobile web (Chrome on Android 6+ devices; Safari on iOS 11.2+ devices). Brightcove uses MPEG-DASH and common encryption together with Widevine Modular, Apple Fairplay, and Microsoft PlayReady to provide DRM on the desktop - which type is used depends on the browser. This provides a single set of assets that can be played across different browsers while leveraging the native DRM that is available with modern browsers.
The information below applies to apps built using the Brightcove Native Player SDKs. Note that in addition to regular playback, the SDKs also support offline playback with DRM.
For iOS devices, the current DRM solution is HLS with FairPlay Streaming.
Apple's FairPlay Streaming (FPS) technology provides a secure solution for delivering HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video to Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. It uses an established secure key protocol and minimizes the power consumption on mobile devices.
For Android devices, the solution is MPEG-DASH + CENC (Widevine Modular).
Google Widevine offers a multi-platform, multi-format DRM and video optimization solution that content owners, internet video providers, retailers and video operators can use to deliver a branded, high quality entertainment offering to internet-connected entertainment platforms.
Widevine implements a set of industry standards, including CENC encryption, licensing key exchange and adaptive streaming quality to manage video protection. Widevine supports multiple levels of streaming quality based on the security capabilities of the receiving device.
The levels of security are named L1, L2 and L3:
Android devices support either L1 or L3 security levels, based on the hardware and software configurations. Only devices that meet the L1 specification can stream HD or higher quality content from Widevine-secured servers. If your device is only L3 compliant, you will not be able to stream DRM-protected HD content.
For more details, see the following:
Offline playback allows users to download content while they are connected, and then watch it when they are offline. To protect your content, the Native SDKs use the following:
For details, see the Overview of Offline Playback with the Native Player SDKs.
MPEG-DASH is supported by many devices, including Android TV and Chromecast. Videos packaged with DRM for the desktop browser can also be played on these devices.
Many consumer electronics devices support an older form of DRM - PlayReady over Smooth Streaming
DRM requires an additional fee. Contact your Customer Success Manager about bundling DRM protection so that you can secure your content wherever it plays.
FairPlay Streaming is a DRM system developed by Apple for video content in HLS format.
To enable your account for FairPlay, you will need to:
For more information, see Content Security (DRM) with the Native Player SDKs
Widevine Modular is a system developed by Google to protect video content in MPEG DASH format.
By default, {{ site.product_short }} uses Brightcove's Widevine licensing server.
PlayReady is a DRM system developed by Microsoft. Playready comes in two forms:
{{ site.product_short }} uses Brightcove's PlayReady licensing server.
DRM must be configured for your account by Brightcove Support and your Customer Success Manager. Contact your Customer Success Manager for details.