News

DLNA Enables Premium Commercial Content Across Home Networks (11/2/2010)

Alliance Joins with Service Providers to Develop Standards to Enjoy Commercial Video and Music on DLNA Devices

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is working with cable, satellite and telecommunications service providers on the development of standards for the playback of high-quality, premium commercial video and music across devices to be certified by DLNA. There is strong demand for premium commercial content, including movies, network television programming and music with approximately 100 million U.S. Pay-TV subscribers. The new DLNA standards will make this content more easily available for playback across digital televisions, Blu-ray disc players, game consoles and set-top boxes around the home.

"The digital delivery of content to the home is now mainstream," said Scott Smyers, president and chairman of the board of DLNA and a senior vice president at Sony Electronics Inc. "Cable, telco and satellite companies, principals as they are in the delivery of that content via their expansive delivery systems, recognize that the home network as enabled by DLNA is a very suitable, convenient and available landing zone for the content and services they deliver, replete with servers to store the content and TVs on which to display it. With DLNA's rich set of guidelines to store and play content, including DLNA's content link protection guidelines for securing the high value content they deliver, service operators are anticipating the improved user experience they will be able to deliver through DLNA."

"With the new DLNA guidelines, Time Warner Cable will be able to offer premium cable content to a wide variety of retail consumer electronics devices in a secured manner and with a quality user experience," continued Mike Lajoie, CTO, Time Warner Cable Inc. "Our participation in DLNA will provide our customers with a greater number of choices in the devices they can use with our service."

"CableLabs supports DLNA's commitment to better, easier sharing of digital content throughout the digital home," noted Dr. Paul Liao, president and CEO, CableLabs. "The new guidelines will help to further the reach of cable services; giving consumers the confidence that the DLNA Certified® devices they purchase in retail outlets will work with their set-top boxes."

There are more than 6,000 DLNA Certified® devices available that address the full spectrum of consumers' digital lifestyle needs. These devices adhere to DLNA standards (interoperability guidelines) and meet stringent interoperability tests. With the new guidelines, products certified by DLNA will work with set-top boxes from consumers' service providers. In the future, the guidelines could assist service providers in reducing the number of set-top boxes per home.

"We're working to continually innovate our products and services to offer consumers unparalleled choice and control for a differentiated entertainment experience," said Tony Werner, executive vice president and CTO for Comcast. "The new DLNA guidelines and certification will support that goal by giving our customers the ability to enjoy content when and how they want on a range of devices."

"At Cox, we are dedicated to helping our customers get more out of their digital lives," noted Scott Hatfield, executive vice president and CTO of Cox Communications, Inc. "The new DLNA guidelines have the potential to transform the delivery of premium content. Customers who prefer to access music and video on-the-go could augment their current set-top box with the ability to have services delivered to their media devices."

The first new guidelines, for playback of high-value, premium commercial content across home networks, will be published later this year.

www.DLNA.org