As the world was limbering up for the World Cup, my colleague Pascal Metral, a proud Swiss supporter and NAGRA's VP of Anti-Piracy Services, was heading to the Global Media Congress in Dubai. As a guest of Abu Dhabi Media, he was there to share some thoughts about anti-piracy in the MENA region, its causes, and likely implications.
Piracy is popular, prevalent, and unfortunately, highly profitable. To break that down, Statistica in Q3,2021 estimated that in the U.S. alone, there had been over 5 billion visits to piracy sites offering film content. That's just film content and doesn't include gaming, music or any other content. To compound the situation, in the U.S., 9 million households subscribed to a pirate IPTV service in the same period. It's therefore not surprising that annual pirate subscription revenues for IPTV in the U.S. topped $1b. Given this as a backdrop, there's perhaps little wonder that NAGRA customers in the MENA region are starting to get concerned about the impact of piracy on their businesses.
But, why now?
Piracy in the MENA region is growing, fast. Regional streaming services including ADTV, StarzPlay and SwitchTV need content, and this has driven demand for original Arabic content which in turn has increased the amount of content produced in the region. The appetite for local content is matched by challenges seen elsewhere too. These are a fragmented content offering - and in particular sports which are distributed by major players such as Abu Dhabi Media, Etisalat and beIN Sports - overwhelming customer choice and an increased demand for safeguards. The sum of all these parts makes for a larger attack area for pirates who in turn create new consumer offers where full catalogues of content can be accessed in one place for an unbelievably low price.
As a result of these prevailing market conditions, key regional players such as Abu Dhabi Media put a lot of time, energy and focus into the fight against piracy. As a guest on Abu Dhabi Media's stand at the Global Media Congress, Pascal Metral sought to explain how the local market was reacting to these new trends and how key partners such as NAGRA were tackling the problem.
NAGRA has worked with major rights owners across the MENA region for several years to limit the impact of piracy. With the World Cup being held in Doha, the team were also busy helping to shut down a number of anti-piracy operations ahead of the first ball being kicked. Effective anti-piracy strategies typically involve a combination of pro-active and re-active approaches.
Pro-Active Approaches to Piracy
For customers who have already launched streaming propositions, and particularly those with premium sport content, the challenges get magnified as richer pickings are spotted by pirates. Themes such as CDN content theft, credential sharing and app protection all require consideration as does protecting content from the outset with forensic watermarking (so the source of leaks can be detected later).
The NAGRA Active Streaming Protection framework is designed to address threats posed by streaming piracy. Featuring several different options and technologies, it aims, through a central security monitoring and analytics dashboard, to provide a clear, end-to-end view of the challenges facing the network. For today's streaming providers, multi-DRM isn't enough, and the distributed nature of OTT delivery means there are several aspects that need to be holistically considered to gain a true picture of the streaming piracy threat. The NAGRA approach seeks to secure video content and services in multiple dimensions, manage risks with a complete and flexible solution and, perhaps most important of all, simplify the integration so solutions can start working as quickly as possible.
Re-Active Approaches to Piracy
In the event of a leak being detected or piracy evidenced, deploying relevant countermeasures as quickly as possible is key. In live sports, time is of the essence and NAGRA solutions are optimized so shutdowns can be implemented in minutes to disrupt pirate operations and demonstrate to consumers that watching content illegally can mean you pay your money and then lose access without recourse.
For wider anti-piracy operations, a more strategic focus is required. This involves gathering evidence of content piracy, identifying the main players and then launching investigations that result in either criminal or civil enforcement proceedings.
NAGRA Anti-Piracy solutions support in-house anti-piracy teams and dynamically create a comprehensive overview of active piracy. Firstly, the NAGRA Threat Intelligence service shows which pirate services are actively distributing an operator's content. Next, using the Ecosystem Explorer investigators enter the name of the pirate service and then plot other key datapoints which ultimately reveal who is behind the piracy ring. The final step is then to open an investigation that collects evidence to submit during legal proceedings. For organizations without anti-piracy teams, NAGRA can provide a full intelligence and investigation service and has also provided evidence to industry alliances such as Alianza in Brazil for major takedowns such as Operation 404.
To learn more about our anti-piracy solutions, see a demo or just continue the conversation, get in touch with our MENA Sales Director, Chrys Poulain and hear how NAGRA can help your organization tackle content piracy.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
As the world was limbering up for the World Cup, my colleague Pascal Metral, a proud Swiss supporter and NAGRA's VP of Anti-Piracy Services, was heading to the Global Media Congress in Dubai. As a guest of Abu Dhabi Media, he was there to share some thoughts about anti-piracy in the MENA region, its causes, and likely implications.
