SAN DIEGO--Widevine Technologies announced at the Telco TV show that it has signed a deal with TVN Entertainment to deploy the vendor’s Mensor technology to watermark its entire video-on-demand content line-up.

The deal is the first publicly announced customer since Widevine unveiled the product, which is designed to give content owners an additional layer of protection against piracy. Watermarking content such as pay-per-view movies puts digital data into the video stream that is undetectable to the human eye or ear, but lets studios track which service provider is sending content to which set-top box.

In the case of the Widevine/TVN partnership, the watermark is placed at the content aggregator and can be traced to additional devices such as personal video recorders, PCs and mobile devices. If a pirated copy of any content that is watermarked shows up on a peer-to-peer network, content owners will be able to trace back the originating path.

“If it becomes aware that you can identify the source, you have a way of providing a theft deterrent,” said Matt Cannard, vice president of marketing for Widevine.

TVN has signed distribution deals with about 30 carriers including Verizon, Century Tel and SureWest. Increasingly, those carriers are being asked to tighten up their security. That’s particularly true as they begin exploring video models that will allow users to transport video assets to devices such as wireless handsets and laptops, Cannard said.

“Going forward, they may be required to track that content even further than the set-top,” he said.

Though the concept of watermarking has become well accepted for delivery mechanisms such as DVDs, not every security is convinced it’s suited for the IPTV market.

“I think you have to figure out who goes out and analyzes the content,” said Andy Mathieson, director of Latens, noting that adding the technology only adds cost right now. “The differentiator for telcos is zip.”