Summary - J.1043 (07/2026) - Digital rights management for video and audio content distribution – Compliance and robustness rules

The service requirements for the application of new generation video and audio technologies, along with new video service models coupled with a diverse range of consumer devices used for the reception of content, bring new demands and opportunities to the video industry, especially broadcast and television video services, which increases the requirements on digital rights management (DRM). See Recommendation ITU-T J.1040 (2024), Digital rights management for video and audio content distribution – Requirements. The DRM system not only needs to have well-defined security levels to meet the content protection requirements of different quality and different distribution window periods, but it also needs to have sufficient platform compatibility to cover various terminal devices. In addition, higher encryption/decryption efficiency and encryption/decryption modes decoupled from content encapsulation are required to match the rapid development and transformation of video and audio technologies. In addition, an interoperability mechanism is required to achieve a more open DRM ecosystem.
Recommendation ITU-T J.1043 is part 4 of a multiparty deliverable composed of four parts. This part 4 describes compliance and robustness rules of digital rights management for video and audio content distribution (DRMVACD), including DRM server compliance and robustness rules, DRM client compliance and robustness rules and best practice for DRM system implementation.
Digital rights management (DRM) specified in this Recommendation is restricted to technical and operational implementations on telecommunication network/services, it does not define any legal compliance framework and does not correspond directly to the intellectual property rights (IPRs) DRM of the WIPO point of view.
Network operators/service providers recommended to seek as much as possible compliance with IPRs DRM (WIPO) and try not to overlap or contradict existing terminology, definitions or operational procedures.