How does DRM solve "the revenue problem"? If you're currently distributing non-DRMed video for free, wrapping it in DRM won't create money out of nowhere. Are you talking about ad-blocker-blockers or something?
Flash was (and is, but I think the prevalence is declining or at least growth has slowed or stopped) used to deliver much content that I would consider to be or in the nature of being (before ginned up) static.
(Perhaps not the best example with respect to my concern here, but one widely cited example of this: Flash to view the menu of a restaurant I'm interested in or scheduled to visit.)
I fear a DRM mechanism in the standard (and so, with broad, built-in deployment) will be used the same way. You won't get any content without enabling the DRM, and whatever payment mechanism is associated with that.
Whether subscription, or ads. And while I'm not adverse to useful, non-intrusive, safe ads, we've yet to see those realized in a consistent and reliable manner. With DRM, content can be inextricably tied to bad, exploitative, and unsafe ads.
It's not what one thinks it will be used for. It's whatever a developer can twist it to do.
What I find to be similar arguments exist for e.g. not permitting the government to backdoor communications and security systems. It's not always the overt use we worry about; it's often the covert use, whether by government or by third parties.
P.S. I'll add that I'm not a technical expert in this particular area. But, I tend to suspect -- or regardless, look for -- the worst, and I often end up finding it. And doing that in technical environments has been a significant part of my career, where I've done quite well at finding and solving problems before they cause catastrophes (or, as the case may be, after).
TL;DR: I fear this baked in DRM as a closed channel for any and all sorts of dangerous as well as annoying crap and behavior.
I'm not claiming to have a solution to all the current woes. But I don't see this going in the right direction.
EME spec covers only a JS API for metadata exchange with unspecified magical CDM plugins.
The spec deliberately doesn't cover how CDM gets integrated with the browser (currently: you're Google and you make a deal with Netflix privately and get binary to bake into closed version of ChromeOS).
* It might be that CDMs will be shipped with the OS (Widevine in Android/ChromeOS, WMDRM in Windows, FairPlay in OS X) and you'll have to rent licensing servers from each vendor.
* It might be that browser vendors will allow ActiveX-like download or allow regular .exe installers add components to the system and you'll have convince viewers that you're not giving them a virus.
* Or it might be that major browser vendors will license Netflix DRM, Hulu DRM, Amazon DRM and that's it.
In either case if you're a small player, you probably won't be able to use the DRM. The only option for you will be the default ClearKey which is as pathetic as the name implies. It can be broken with:
javascript:MediaKeys.prototype.update = function(key){alert("game over " + key)}
