System and method for watermarking of media segments using sample variants for normalized encryption (SVNE)

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a plurality of network interfaces configured to receive media content assets from one or more headend nodes, wherein a media content asset comprises a plurality of composite segments, each composite segment including a segment portion of a main ISOBMFF track and a corresponding portion of at least one ISOBMFF sample variant track, the ISOBMFF sample variant track including variant data for a subset of samples of the main ISOBMFF track, and wherein the main ISOBMFF track contains a first watermarking payload and the at least one ISOBMFF sample variant track contains a second watermarking payload, the first watermarking payload and the second watermarking payload each identified by a respective watermarking identifier (wmID);
• and
• one or more persistent memory modules having program instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, perform the following;
• responsive to receiving a manifest request from a client device with respect to accessing a watermarked media content asset, generating a custom manifest including a watermarking signature comprising a unique sequence of segment variants relating to the media content asset;
• receiving a segment request from the client device to access a particular watermarked segment variant;
• determining whether the client device includes a variant extractor module, and
• upon determining that the client device includes a variant extractor module, transmitting a composite segment including the particular watermarked segment variant to the client device authorized to be extracted for playback by the client device.

A user equipment (UE) device configured to consume watermarked media content, the UE device comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a persistent memory module having program instructions thereon which, when executed by the processor, perform the following:
• generating a manifest request to a client controller node with respect to accessing a watermarked media content asset;
• receiving a custom manifest including a watermarking signature comprising a unique sequence of segment variants relating to the media content asset;
• responsive to the custom manifest, generating a segment request to an origin server having a plurality of composite segments for the media content asset, each composite segment including a segment portion of a main ISOBMFF track and a corresponding portion of at least one ISOBMFF sample variant track, wherein the main ISOBMFF track contains a first watermarking payload and the at least one ISOBMFF sample variant track contains at least a second watermarking payload, the first watermarking payload and the at least a second watermarking payload each identified by a respective watermarking identifier (wmID);
• and
• further performing, upon determining that the UE device includes a variant extractor module:
• receiving a composite segment from the origin server, the composite segment including a particular watermarked segment variant authorized to be consumed;
• extracting and assembling the particular watermarked segment variant from a combination of the main ISOBMFF track and the at least one ISOBMFF sample variant track based on associated watermarking IDs (wmIDs) to which the UE device has access to form an output composite segment that is assembled only from the main ISOBMFF track and the extracted particular watermarked segment variant;
• and
• decrypting and decoding the output composite segment for rendering by a player application of the UE device.