During lock down, when schools and offices closed, people were binging content and spending money on entertainment inside of the house. Many subscribed to various SVOD services and there has been a positive correlation between lockdown and increased consumption of media. According to Omdia, we saw more than 220 million new online video subscribers - a level of growth that we have not seen to date and will not likely see in the future.
To meet this demand numerous streaming services from Disney+ to HBOMax have saturated the market, making online streaming a growing medium for content owners to get their content in front of the eyes of viewers. IP-based content distribution, shortened movie distribution windows and live-streaming of high-value premium content is the norm.
Unfortunately, players within the M&E ecosystem are not the only beneficiaries of this emerging digital world. Pirates have seen the opportunity of the distribution of content over IP and they are taking advantage of this new access point to high-quality, in-demand content. Shocking in its impact, pirate subscription services are a billion-dollar industry in the U.S. alone.
The begs the questions, How is the piracy threat evolving? and What strategies and tools are available to help aid the fight? These questions and more were recently uncovered during the DTVE Digital Symposium, Content Piracy in the post COVID-19 era: The evolving threat and how to fight it.
With the increase demand for content, it would seem that having numerous streaming service options would be everything a consumer would want. However, the opposite tends to be true. Subscription fatigue is real, both in terms of ease-of-use and costs. When you add up the cost of each service, consumers are quickly approaching similar costs to what they would be paying for a traditional cable service in the U.S. This combined with having to keep track of what content is on what service and how to find desired programming, can be cumbersome.
What's more is that, according to Omdia, consumers who pirate content go the cinema twice as much as non-pirates. They also participate in what can be perceived as more expensive services, such as viewing pay-per-view content four time as much as non-pirates. In short, these consumers are willing to pay for content - but prioritize convenience and accessibility.
Pirate services are an attractive alternative. Monetizing valuable content that they have stolen, they can offer consumers virtually any content, all on one platform at minimal costs. Consumers tend to go on the path of least resistance, making accessibility and ease-of-use more attractive than doing the right thing. While many consumers do not have malicious intent, the outcome of consuming pirated content is malicious.
Providing an excellent user experience, with great content is key to keeping consumers withing the legitimate value chain. At the same time, anti-piracy technologies and services much be adopted by the entire M&E ecosystem to address the issue of piracy. There are number of technologies and tools content owners, broadcasters and service providers can embrace to do their part in protect content - the industry's most valuable asset.
Forensic watermarking: Forensic watermarking enables content owners and pay-TV operators to embed a unique serial number in the content as it is playing, or at any point within the content value chain. By detecting these marks it is possible to identify which legitimate clients the stream is leaking from, and then to stop the distribution through that point.
Monitoring: Powerful monitoring with sophisticated data collection is essential in fighting commercial piracy. Because there may be many different forms of piracy active for a given service at any particular time, an analysis of which one is having the biggest impact on the business must be carried out on an ongoing basis through automated monitoring. An effective monitoring service employs a great deal of complex technology to quickly and accurately identify illegal streams and files and then alert anti-piracy analysts.
Take down: When it comes to take-down services, technical countermeasures must be on point. With the right solutions in place, it is possible to identify weaknesses in any part of the illegitimate services distribution chain. Once identified, action can be taken to allow the content rights holder to disrupt or shut down the illicit service.
Legal Action: In some cases, litigation, such as blocking orders, cease-and-desist orders or criminal complaints, is the only way to achieve results. Such is the case with recent legal victories from IBCAP, where NAGRA's technical services were leveraged to fight content piracy. Or the example of Deutsche Fu ball Liga (DFL), the Spanish Football League (LaLiga), NAGRA and Nordic Content Protection, the Spanish National Police, and law enforcement agencies throughout Europe, for cracking down on an international illegal IPTV streaming network boasting 40,000 video channels and VOD content and 2 million subscribers.
Industry Collaboration: It is time for content owners (studios, sports rights owners), broadcasters and pay-TV service providers to come together to understand, manage and disrupt the ecosystem in which pirates operates. To be successful, anti-piracy measures must go beyond these typical players to include adjacent industries as well - such as government/legal entities, ISPs, cloud vendors, social media sites and even payment vendors.
The good news is that all players in the M&E ecosystem have access to the technologies, tools and expertise to improve their defense against all forms of piracy. Together, the industry can continue the fight and preserve the integrity of the legitimate content value chain.
The DTVE symposium session is now available on-demand. It featu
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
23/07/2026
Evergent (5.A86) will showcase its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform for streaming services, sports leagues, pay-TV operators at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterdam, 11...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
23/07/2026
David Dvir, 2D founder (left), Sundeep Reddy (center), and Jean-Marc Bouchut (right), both of Zeiss...
23/07/2026
Screen Australia announces new national documentary accelerator program 23 July 2026
Screen Australia has today announced the Above the Line Documentary Accel...
23/07/2026
RT Commercial today announced Honda as sponsor of Today with David McCullagh RT Radio 1, weekdays 9am 11am.
Broadcasting directly after Morning Ireland in ...
23/07/2026
RT News is pleased to announce Barry Gallagher has been assigned as the new journalist covering news from Cork, Kerry and the wider Southern region
Working al...
23/07/2026
Lock in and load up the cloud. GFN Thursday brings fresh updates and new adventu...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang today visited the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to commission an NVIDIA DGX GB300 system - bringing one...
During lock down, when schools and offices closed, people were binging content and spending money on entertainment inside of the house. Many subscribed to various SVOD services and there has been a positive correlation between lockdown and increased consumption of media. According to Omdia, we saw more than 220 million new online video subscribers - a level of growth that we have not seen to date and will not likely see in the future. 
