Google Bolsters Its Video DRM and Streaming with Widevine Acquisition

Google is on a roll today. It's not getting its hands on Groupon, but it has made a couple of smaller acquisitions. One of them is video-on-demand software maker Widevine used by a wide range of customers, from big Hollywood studios to web-only companies. Widevine's technology and existing partnerships should be put to good use by Google for services such as YouTube and, more importantly, for Google TV.

"We’re pleased to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Widevine. The Widevine team has worked to provide a better video delivery experience for businesses of all kinds: from the studios that create your favorite shows and movies, to the cable systems and channels that broadcast them online and on TV, to the hardware manufacturers that let you watch that content on a variety of devices," Mario Queiroz, VP of Product Management at Google, announced.

"By forging partnerships across the entire ecosystem, Widevine has made on demand services more efficient and secure for media companies, and ultimately more available and convenient for users," he explained.

Widevine's interest is in streaming video. It offers video streaming and optimization tools for those wanting to make their content available online, but it also offers DRM technologies for streaming video.

The latter part was probably more of interest to Google since the company's streaming technologies are advanced enough. YouTube is the world's largest video site, by a fair margin, and Google is an engineering-centric company, even as it moves towards media and content.

Another big reason for the acquisition is Widevine's existing partnerships with media companies. It has deals with big Hollywood studios as well as with online distribution platforms, notably Netflix.

Finally, Widevine's technology is used by a large number of device manufacturers. As Google moves to push Google TV into more devices, the Widevine technology and, more importantly, its relationship with these companies could prove very useful.