Stegawave Debuts Real-Time Forensic Watermarking to Tackle Piracy in Live Sports Streaming

Stegawave Debuts Real-Time Forensic Watermarking to Tackle Piracy in Live Sports Streaming

Brie Clayton April 13, 2026

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Irish anti-piracy startup deploys real-time watermark detection, achieving 100% piracy source identification and takedown

Stegawave, an Irish technology company specialising in forensic watermarking for video content, today announced the launch of its anti-piracy platform for live sports streaming.

Using a proprietary watermarking algorithm to embed invisible patterns into live streams, Stegawave identifies piracy sources in real time, shutting down illegal redistribution within minutes of detection. The platform integrates with existing streaming workflows and distribution systems, requiring no changes to a content owner's existing infrastructure. Stegawave customers also have the option to push alternative content or messaging to the illegal stream destination.

Stegawave Dashboard

Live sports piracy costs the global broadcasting industry billions annually, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimating the impact on the US economy alone at more than $29 billion per year. Illegal IPTV services, often referred to as dodgy boxes', restream content within minutes of broadcast, and legacy content protection technology cannot identify the source of a leak. For smaller and mid-tier organisations, the financial impact is proportionally even greater, as lost subscribers directly threaten the viability of grassroots and regional sports attendance and coverage.

The announcement follows a successful deployment with Clubber TV, a leading live sports platform. Sports broadcasters worldwide are facing persistent piracy from illegal IPTV services that directly impact subscription revenue and the financial viability of the coverage itself. Stegawave was deployed across live broadcasts, detecting pirated streams and identifying the specific subscriber accounts responsible. Stegawave achieved a 100% detection rate across all streams, and because many illegal IPTV services share the same source account, blocking a single compromised account simultaneously disabled multiple pirate streams, amplifying the impact of each enforcement action.

Piracy is a massive threat to the sustainability of sports broadcasting at all levels, including grassroots coverage. This technology is potentially game-changing for us to ensure, following significant rights fee investments, that fans are only watching Clubber games on our platform, said Jimmy Doyle, CEO, Clubber

It's been a pleasure to work alongside Clubber in stopping piracy of their premium matches. The work we have done together has helped us improve the Stegawave product and also resulted in new features. With the increase in illegal streaming not just in Ireland but worldwide, there is real momentum behind tackling this problem, and Stegawave can play a key role in tackling it both here and internationally. We look forward to supporting sports rights holders and broadcasters across the globe in recovering lost revenue and protecting their premium content. said Sean Fahey, CEO, Stegawave

Stegawave is now available for streaming platforms, sports broadcasters and rights holders who are looking to protect their premium content and maximise their Pay-Per-View and Subscription revenues.

The Stegawave team will be attending NAB Show in Las Vegas from 18-22 April 2026, showcasing the platform to technology partners, content owners and wider media.

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