Adobe Updates Its Primetime TV Publishing Platform With Improved Analytics And Cloud DRM, Signs Up Turner Broadcasting

Earlier this year, Adobe launched its Primetime TV publishing and monetization platform to facilitate TV Everywhere solutions for TV networks and other video providers. Today, the company is updating this platform with a range of new analytics capabilities, as well as a new cloud-based cross-platform DRM system.

In addition, Adobe today announced that it has signed up Turner Broadcasting as a new partner. Turner will use Primetime to power its apps and websites for properties like TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, AdultSwim, NBC League Pass and TruTV. Turner will use Adobe’s Primetime Player, DRM, ad insertion technology and PayTV Pass services across its iOS, Android and desktop apps.

As Adobe’s VP of video monetization Jeremy Helfand told me earlier this month, he believes that the company’s heritage has been rich in helping companies through industry transformations, and the TV industry is clearly undergoing a lot of change right now. Consumers today want access to their TV content online and across devices, he noted, and the content owners want better monetization tools on these new platforms. Primetime, Helfand argued, is the solution the TV networks are waiting for, and it is clearly seeing a lot of momentum.

Besides Turner, Adobe is also working with Comcast, NBC Sports, the Tennis Channel and – outside of the U.S. – RTL Group’s M6. In the third quarter of 2013, the service pushed out 29.3 billion video streams. Tablets are leading the growth in streams, with a 150 percent increase in video starts between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013. Almost 16 percent of U.S. households now watch pay-TV online and Adobe powers the vast majority of them.

Better Analytics And Cross-Platform DRM

With today’s launch, Adobe is giving its customers a large range of new analytics tools to keep track of how consumers are using their videos. Content owners, Helfand told me, will now get second-by-second data, for example, to better understand their viewer’s engagement. In addition, Primetime will now also monitor the quality of service viewers are receiving by tracking bitrates and the quality of the streams, for example.

As for the new DRM service, Helfand told me that the major pain point for content distributors today is the plethora of devices they send their content to, with mobile DRM being especially difficult. Adobe’s new Cloud DRM, the company argues, simplifies and manages the deployment of protected videos across platforms while also handling compliance, management and scalability.