The digital rights management (DRM) market will grow at a rate of 12% annually to become a $1.2 billion market by 2018, while the related conditional access (CAS) market will decline slightly to dip below $1.5 billion annually, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Opportunities within the DRM market include multiple components, comprising authentication, intellectual property and tools, core DRM technologies, and implementation services and Pay TV services, says the research group. The Pay TV services submarket, which most closely mimics the classic CAS market, represented only about 35% of the total addressable market in 2012.

"Pay TV content protection markets are being turned on their heads as responsibility at delivering IP video content to the consumer is starting to shift from Pay TV distributors, such as Comcast, DirecTV, and Sky, to programmers including NBCUniversal, HBO, and ESPN," says Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research. "The shift from classic CAS products which, simply speaking, deliver content to a set-top box to more DRM products, which can work with third party smartphones, tablets and connected TVs, has already been well described."

He adds: "Equally surprising is that many of these technologies will become standardized through MPEG-Dash and Ultraviolet such that the responsibility will shift from encryption algorithms to end-to-end system implementation. Premium value content protection, as well as live streaming of TV Everywhere, are emerging areas within the DRM landscape; it is these areas where providers need to be focused on differentiation today."