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
