The TV industry is continually facing disruption, especially as more OTT and D2C offerings are launched. This disruption has also created a haven for those intent on streaming illegal content. These modern-day pirates have seemingly endless numbers of services to attack but why has the move to OTT streaming created such rich pickings for them?
Unlike traditional pay-TV services that have one route between provider and end device - the set-top box - the new distribution landscape is a maze of devices and networks spread across the internet; much of which providers cannot control and are finding increasingly difficult to protect. This creates many different potential weak points that pirates can exploit, and we're now seeing not just content being stolen but entire services, the most infamous case being beoutQ's theft of beIN Sports' service.
Consequently, service providers need to rethink their service protection strategies to ensure they're fit for purpose, especially as more and more people are consuming streamed content.
We spoke to Tim Pearson, Senior Director, Product Marketing at NAGRA to find out how it is helping service providers to ensure they have a comprehensive service protection strategy in place that enables them to continue making investments in compelling content.
What are the main challenges for service providers who want to launch or expand their streaming services?
While many traditional pay-TV operators have and understand CAS systems, in part because they can see and control the endpoint device, the growth of OTT and D2C has disrupted many elements of the TV industry, including how it fights piracy. This landscape evolution has brought with it an exponential set of challenges and threats largely due to the increased surface area that operators delivering streaming services have to navigate to deliver their content. These factors make it significantly harder to track and stop pirates from stealing content, and potentially the entire service.
Many providers currently assume that they will be safe if they stick with their existing DRM solutions - and there's no disputing that such technologies do indeed protect the content, but it's the passage of that content across the network that now means that the wider service needs additional protection as the maze through which it travels has pirates lying in wait.
What is the implication for the Operator's business?
This problem gets greater as the service scales, with new threats constantly arising. While some of the largest Tier 1 providers could invest in large scale service protection strategies straight away, it may not be at the top of Tier 2 operators and D2C providers' investment lists.
However, investments made incrementally in direct response to risks identified by an operator makes for a pragmatic rebuttal of illicit consumer behaviour. Looking at these challenges from a business perspective, operators are also starting to become increasingly cognisant of patterns of consumer behaviour - such as where account activity shows a sudden and sustained spike in consumption from multiple devices and locations. This may be a potential warning sign that increased levels of service or content piracy are being evidenced; requiring an increasingly forensic analysis of consumer behaviour patterns - particularly in the current pandemic situation - meaning there is a clear need to ensure that services remain secure and any patterns of pirate behaviour are acted upon to ensure such behaviour isn't continued beyond the end of the lockdown.
How is NAGRA helping service providers to overcome these challenges?
The first step is to create an OTT streaming service protection strategy that captures the types of devices to be secured, the threats expected together with their mitigative actions, a data source for business decisioning and a legal framework through which to take corrective action.
To then support the strategy and to help service providers of all scales combat the piracy threat, NAGRA has created a toolset called Active Streaming Protection. It is designed to give service providers the tools they need to solve their specific business problems. Taking multi-DRM as a baseline, operators can then add additional tools and capabilities as they scale their service - meaning that there are no costly upfront investments in solutions that won't be fully realised until a later date.
Stay tuned for the second instalment in this interview, where Tim discusses some of tools available to operators within Active Streaming Protection and examples of where solutions have been deployed.
Contact us to find out how NAGRA's Active Streaming Protection can help you protect your service.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
The TV industry is continually facing disruption, especially as more OTT and D2C offerings are launched. This disruption has also created a haven for those intent on streaming illegal content. These modern-day pirates have seemingly endless numbers of services to attack but why has the move to OTT streaming created such rich pickings for them?
