NAGRAs Tim Pearson argues that the content industry needs to collaborate in order to defeat piracy - that includes content owners, operators and even governments
By Contributor
Published: September 11, 2020
NAGRA's Tim Pearson argues that the content industry needs to collaborate in order to defeat piracy - that includes content owners, operators and even governments
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> NAGRA's Tim Pearson argues that the content industry needs to collaborate in order to defeat piracy - that includes content owners, operators and even governments
https://www.tvbeurope.com/media-management/content-piracy-is-it-a-game-of-whack-a-mole-or-collaborative-cat-and-mouse title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Today's content landscape is unlike any that has ever been seen before.
Consumers hunt down content that they've had recommended to them via social media, influencer videos or referrals at a pace that would put Sherlock Holmes to shame. But this voracious hunt for content has also changed the dynamic in the industry - from long-term relationships with operators to increasingly short-term relationships with content providers such as new entrants like Disney+ and HBO Max alongside their traditional foes Netflix, Amazon Prime and pay-TV operators. To a number of consumer segments within the market, if the content they want is no longer available as part of their current subscription, they terminate and take out a new subscription with someone who can offer the content. This subscription economy has made consumers far more transient as they pursue their quest for the latest content.
But to paint a picture that shows consumers subscribing to multiple services is to project a false summit. The challenge is that subscription fatigue is a growing problem. In fact, The Trade Desk recently reported that consumers in the US and the UK are only prepared to pay $20/£20 per month for all their subscriptions - and worryingly, 33 per cent of the UK cohort said they'd ideally want to get to £10 per month. Now, monetisation models aside with targeted advertising a likely victor, this increasing view that content should be free' is driving consumers to search out illicit means of accessing their favourite content and, some of the illicit sites they discover can be surprisingly convincing.
So, is the industry doomed or is there a way that it can collectively fight back? For some time now, a number of vendors such as NAGRA have offered comprehensive anti-piracy solutions designed to target illicit use of content by an operator's consumers. With recent advances in AI/ML, these tools can offer a comprehensive level of protection to pay-TV operators and content owners looking to secure their boundaries against leaks. When combined with watermarking, and leading-edge technologies such as IP-blocking, the solution becomes even more compelling with impressive results.
However, there are a group of pirates that need a far more tactical approach. This group have sophisticated tools and technologies and approach piracy more as organised crime than their consumer counterparts hellbent on getting access to the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Therefore, a far more collaborative and strategic game of data-driven cat and mouse is required.
This approach takes the anti-piracy services discussed above as a baseline alongside comprehensive investigations, tracing, intelligence and data analytical capabilities to identify the depth and breadth of the piracy problem alongside its geographical spread to identify the main sources of piracy and eventually neutralise them, as content and service piracy does not recognise international boundaries.
In some situations where it is not possible to hack the hackers' to disrupt pirate services, tools such as website blocking, IP-blocking and DNS redirection are required with the sole aim of preventing viewers accessing video content offered by rogue providers.
To illustrate this, the English Premier League have some of the most valuable sports rights in the world and NAGRA has been working with them in Singapore since 2018 for judicial blocking measures against pirate apps and websites. The approach has been successful in a market that is both commercially significant and often used as a reference for the region.
Such industry-wide collaboration is key to tackling some of the larger piracy challenges faced today. To provide another example, a cross-industry coalition of La Liga, the DFL, Nordic Content Protection, NAGRA and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) were recently successful in filing a criminal complaint with the Spanish National Police against a major international piracy ring who were providing access to over 2m paying users with over 40,000 video channels and associated video-on-demand content that spanned a wide range of channels, sports events, films and documentary series. This collaborative effort shared insight, intelligence and legal expertise that created a dossier of evidence that allowed the Spanish National Police to raid the HQ of the pirates in Barcelona during June 2020. Over 50 servers were shut down across Europe as the service was dismantled resulting in a termination of services in many countries. Commenting on the coalition's success and the key role such collaboration plays, Melcior Soler, audiovisual director at LaLiga said, Piracy is a global problem and it's critical for the industry as a whole to come together to fight it, share knowledge and leverage key partnerships and anti-piracy technologies to preserve high-quality content for our fans.
Content and Service Piracy has and will continue to be a major issue for content owners and operators alike and current trends suggest this has been heightened further by the recent Cov
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
28/10/2025
ESPN Announces Monsters Funday Football', Its Latest Real-Time Animated Bro...
28/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Catherine Chalfant, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe Ole Miss alum is an operational force behind ESPN's extensive college-football catalo...
28/10/2025
Elevating the experience: AI and data take Ryder Cup to the next level By Joe OHalloran
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 - 10:25
Print This Story
NBC produced th...
28/10/2025
Conquering the Air (waves): Taking a close up look at the IBC Accelerator Priva...
28/10/2025
World Series 2025: Spectrum SportsNet LA Brings Dodgers Fans Closer to the Actio...
28/10/2025
Dylan Southern and Benedict Cumberbatch at the premiere of The Thing with Feathers (photo by George Pimentel / Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
28/10/2025
For three weeks in Lagos, Spotify's Greasy Tunes Caf pop-up brought the cit...
28/10/2025
Once a niche subculture, German rap has evolved into an influential cultural movement. Now, Spotify is giving the genre a new home with OFFCULT, a playlist dedi...
28/10/2025
Shane Delia's Malta serves up the Mediterranean this summer
28 October, 2025
Media releases
Feast on 9,000 years of culinary history Mondays from 24 No...
28/10/2025
SBS's global sporting festival continues with the FIVB Beach Volleyball Worl...
28/10/2025
Bilbao, October 28, 2025 - AgileTV, a leading technology solutions company for t...
28/10/2025
Disney, NBCUniversal, FOX, Paramount Each Achieve Double-Digit Monthly Growth
...
28/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has announced an agreement to sell WRTV, its local ABC-affiliated station in Indianapolis, to Circle City Broadcasting for $...
28/10/2025
Berklee College of Music and Berklee Valencia Named to Billboards 2025 Top Music...
28/10/2025
NEW YORK As AI usage continues to spike, a new study from IAB delves into an important aspect of how AI is transforming the advertising business with new data s...
28/10/2025
Charlie Jablonski, a broadcast tech pioneer who helped shape the modern era of Olympics television coverage, died Oct. 25 at his home in Lake George N.Y., the N...
28/10/2025
VIENNA, Austria Bitmovin has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insights into video playback. The so...
28/10/2025
LOS ANGELES LucidLink, the file streaming platform, has announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities at Adobe Max....
28/10/2025
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced that it has joined the Ama...
28/10/2025
Lightware, an industry leader in connectivity and signal management solutions, has announced a major update to its Taurus
platform, which now delivers flawless...
28/10/2025
Following a successful mid-September International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, Hiltron Communications will promote its full range of satellite communi...
28/10/2025
Open Broadcast Systems has chosen MC&S (Media Consulting & Services) as a reseller to help strengthen its presence in France.
With over twenty years of experi...
28/10/2025
Bitmovin, leading provider of video streaming solutions, has launched Bitmovin Observability, a new stand-alone video data solution that delivers real-time insi...
28/10/2025
Ease Live, the leader in interactive TV technology, today announced the successful launch of interactive graphical overlays for UEFA Champions League matches fo...
28/10/2025
LucidLink, the file streaming platform, today at Adobe MAX announced a Frame.io integration and expanded mobile capabilities, streamlining collaboration and hel...
28/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has promoted Nick Hasenecz to general manager of WNDU, its NBC affiliate in the South Bend-Elkhart, Ind., market....
28/10/2025
Applications Open for Berklee Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant Boston nonprofits can apply by December 12 for funding to support community projects that ...
28/10/2025
28 Oct 2025
VEON's JazzCash Wins Silver Award for Innovation in Lending at ...
28/10/2025
Guests include Wayne Rooney, Maya Jama, Dame Laura Kenny, Chloe Kelly, Chris McC...
28/10/2025
The two-hour special, recorded live from the iconic Dolby Theatre in LA, will ai...
28/10/2025
Eutelsat upgrades teleports with Rohde & Schwarz satellite uplink amplifiers High efficiency and resilient Ku-band amplifiers for excellent RF performance
...
28/10/2025
These appointments come at a pivotal time for ABC, as the organisation continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of a digital-first media ecosystem. The ne...
28/10/2025
Scripps Research awarded $4 million to advance platform for neurodevelopmental disorders The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grant support...
27/10/2025
You can touch this: Haptics becoming central to the virtual live experience By Adrian Pennington
Friday, October 24, 2025 - 09:12
Print This Story
The vid...
27/10/2025
A tale of two trailers: France's Stop & Go doubles up with its new hybrid tr...
27/10/2025
Pro Padel League Stages City's Cup Finals Inside NYC's Hammerstein Ballr...
27/10/2025
World Series 2025: Sportsnet Delivers Made-in-Canada' Moment for a Nation U...
27/10/2025
ESPN Extends Partnership With Sony's Beyond Sports To Expand Animated Altern...
27/10/2025
Reid Davenport attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Life After at The Ray Theatre on January 27, 2025, in Park City, UT. (Photo by Robin Marsha...
27/10/2025
As the days grow shorter and the nights get darker, there's nothing like getting swept up in a story that sends shivers down your spine. In honor of spooky ...
27/10/2025
UPDATE: Both parties have reached a new carriage agreement....
27/10/2025
LONDON As Hollywood jumps into the production of mini-dramas, a new study from Ampere Analysis finds that more than one in 10 internet users have watched drama ...
27/10/2025
LONDON Yealink, a provider of unified communication and collaboration solutions, has joined the NDI ecosystem with the availability of its SmartVision 80 premiu...
27/10/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has named Chris Conroy as general manager of its stations in Cleveland, leading WOIO, a CBS affiliate, The CW station WUAB and Telemundo outl...
27/10/2025
ESPOO, Finland European connectivity leaders Nokia and Ericsson, have partnered with Berlin's Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), to shape and drive ...
27/10/2025
PHILADELPHIA Comcast has expanded NOW TV Latino, its Spanish-language live TV and streaming offering, adding five more channels from Univision, ViX Premium with...
27/10/2025
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, will present its latest products and solutions at InterBEE 2025 (Hall 5, Booth 5218) Makuhari Messe in Chiba, ...
27/10/2025
Back to All News
City of Shadows, the New Netflix Thriller Arrives on December 12
Entertainment
27 October 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Downl...
NAGRAs Tim Pearson argues that the content industry needs to collaborate in order to defeat piracy - that includes content owners, operators and even governments
