![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
If you've read the first part in this blog series, you'll be aware that NAGRA recently interviewed a pirate to gain first-hand insight into the motivations, methods and results of pirate activity. If you missed part one, where I explored a pirate's human motivation, you can catch-up here.
The Hidden Foe in Plain Sight
Today's video streaming landscape is heavily fragmented. Multiple services all offer specific content and if you're after a particular genre of content, no matter how niche, there's a service for you. However, this increased competition among service providers is not the end of the story. Hard pressed consumers are also sourcing their favorite content from pirate services - meaning legitimate services are competing with their pirate foes.
In the smartcard era, faced with complex hardware-based cryptography, piracy was technically complex although, as the pirate points out, the overheads were low. A simple script did the job and when a vendor countermeasure was deployed, the same script needed updating. Fast forward to the IPTV/ streaming era and the situation is different.
Pirates are now software experts and have larger overheads, estimated to be about 30% of their revenue'. Equally, we learn that they have their own, hard to come by datacenters that can handle the illegal traffic being routed through them. At a technical level, the pirate industry has a cast of contributors that rivals those of the premium content they seek. Originally it was a technical exercise to just access the content. The pirate told us, I thought I can write website code, I can modify that script, I'm going to have my own website.' This has subsequently expanded with the average pirate network relying on business, marketing and technical professionals through which to create highly realistic services that lure consumers in with a promise of low prices and infinite levels of content.
If You Can't Stand the Heat...
Today's pirate enterprises can be vast in size. Often starting as a simple website that has 1,000 subscribers, they can scale to become major organizations. They grow through syndicating services (for a percentage of revenue) to resellers who in turn sell to more subscribers. This means a single pirate enterprise can quickly support tens of thousands of subscribers. When this is scaled further, some of the largest pirate organizations support millions of subscribers through the same approach. However, the pirate is quick to point out that with scale comes pressure - both financial and legal. Put another way, the larger your pirate enterprise gets, the more it costs to run and the more attention it receives from anti-piracy organizations who represent an industry intent on stopping this illegal activity. Success, the pirate tells us, depends on the level of heat you can bear. He mentions that large pirate IPTV organizations with full marketing organizations simply imploded as they couldn't handle the external industry pressure. That's good news for the industry as it shows deterrent and investigative techniques deliver results. But what about the smaller providers that may be operating under the radar?
The Barber Shop Guy
If subscribers don't engage with pirate services online, they're just as likely, we learnt, to purchase services at local outlets such as their local barbershop or corner store. Pirates build distribution networks which rely on effective marketing and the re-sellers often have scant knowledge of what's technically going on under the hood. This is deliberate as if the marketing end of the operation gets shut down, the technical operations can re-launch elsewhere. This means that your average barbershop or corner store can be selling multiple pirate services and can quickly adapt if they need to. One example is the KboxServ operation in Switzerland that sold boxes for $160 through retail stores and was successfully shut down through a Canal+ and NAGRA operation.
Pirate Business Models
In the main, pirates make money from selling too-good-to-be-true offers for illicit gain. Within the pirate economy however, there are a multitude of business models driven by a pirate's motivation. Some are experts in a particular group of channels and undertake to always keep them on-air'. Some focus on re-selling to others and take a percentage of the re-sellers' revenues. Others front the pirate service with highly functional websites that may even include subscriber support options. Then there are those who blend broader cybercrime with piracy. Here, as part of the subscriber's service enablement they will also deploy hidden malware onto devices which mine identity and financial information that's then traded on the dark web. We also asked if, given all the different approaches, pirates competed. They do and we were surprised to learn that this also includes pirating pirate content which in the streaming era is a lot more commonplace than it was in the smartcard era; largely due to how accessible content is. Each of these approaches demonstrates the scale of the pirate ecosystem intent on damaging our industry. In other words, the services that are advertised on the internet are the tip of the pirate iceberg.
Intelligence-Led Investigations
In looking at the motivations and ecosystem of a pirate, it's clear that the deterrent offered by the industry today does deliver results. Solutions such as forensic watermarking and anti-piracy intelligence help to heap the pressure onto pirate organizations who, as the pirate explained, may simply implode under the pressure. However, for those that don't, different approaches are required.
NAGRA Anti-Piracy services are designed to generate intelligence on pirate operations, explore the
More from Nagra Media Uk Ltd
22/07/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - July 22nd 2024 - The Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), the world leader in digital security, announced tod...
16/07/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - July 16th 2024 - The Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), the world leader in digital security, today announc...
03/07/2024
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland a...
18/06/2024
In todays digital landscape, content piracy poses a significant threat to busine...
14/06/2024
Barely a day passes without Generative AI appearing in the headlines. Its role as an emerging technology enjoying mass-market adoption across multiple industri...
09/05/2024
Ahmedabad, India-May 8, 2024 - GTPL Hathway Limited, India's largest MSO tod...
08/05/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix, (AZ), USA -7 May, 2024 - NAGRA, ...
30/04/2024
We were excited to be back at NAB, and connect with our customers, partners and ...
19/04/2024
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland - April 19, 2024 - The Annual General Meeting of Kudelski SA (SIX:KUD.S) was held...
13/04/2024
In todays digital age, where the consumption of media content has shifted towards streaming platforms, the importance of safeguarding digital assets against pir...
10/04/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - April 9, 2024 - NAGR...
27/03/2024
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA, March 27 2024 - The Kudelski Group has published its 2023...
15/03/2024
This year's annual telecoms jamboree in Barcelona attracted a record breakin...
22/02/2024
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix (AZ), USA - February 22nd, 2024 - The Kudelski Group (SIX: KUD.S), th...
06/02/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland - February 6...
19/01/2024
As new year celebrations faded, it was time to head for Las Vegas. Providing an interesting juxtaposition of tourists enjoying the delights of the strip, inter...
19/01/2024
The CONNECTIONS Summit is an annual event hosted by international research firm Parks Associates at CES in Las Vegas, focusing on new trends, emerging technolog...
07/01/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - January 7, 2024 - At CES 2024, the Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S), the world leader in digital security,...
09/10/2023
This year's 2023 APOS conference did not disappoint! As the defining voice for the Asia Pacific Media, Telecom and Entertainment industry, it hit all the ex...
28/09/2023
There seemed to be much trepidation ahead of this year's IBC. Would the Schiphol fiasco and train strike that blighted the escape from the RAI in 2022 be a...
26/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix, (AZ), USA - September 26, 2023 -...
20/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix USA - Sept. 20, 2023 - NAGRA, a ...
15/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - September 15, 2023 - NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and one of the worlds leading indep...
14/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - September 14, 2023 -...
14/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - September 14, 2023 - NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and the worlds leading independent ...
13/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - Sept. 13, 2023 - NAG...
12/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - September 12, 2023 - NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and the worlds leading independent ...
08/09/2023
The media industry, often regarded as one of the most dynamic and innovative sec...
06/09/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Berkeley (CA), USA - September 6, 2023 -...
29/08/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - August 29, 2023 - NA...
26/08/2023
Recently, when watching a linear commercial channel in the UK, an advert implored me to look at the latest offering from a leading multi-service provider. Toda...
25/08/2023
A medida que las Telcos de todo el mundo atraviesan diferentes fases de transfor...
24/08/2023
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Highlights:
Total Group revenues and OOI increased to USD 339.9 million, from USD 333.4 million in the first half 2...
24/08/2023
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, Phoenix (AZ), USA, and Stamford (CT), USA- August 24, 2023 - Finacity Corporatio...
22/08/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix, (AZ), USA - August 22, 2023 - NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and the worlds leading independent pr...
08/08/2023
Unbelievably, the summer vacation season is already nearing an end here in the United States. School is back in session already, which means early morning drop...
02/08/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix, (AZ), USA - August 2, 2023 - NAG...
20/07/2023
Summer evenings in London are rarely without some form of red carpet event that draws both the crowds and the press - such as the recent premiere of Oppenheimer...
18/07/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix, (AZ), USA - July 18, 2023 - NAGR...
19/06/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix, (AZ), USA - June 19, 2023 - NAGR...
15/06/2023
As Telcos worldwide go through different phases of digital transformation, one o...
15/06/2023
When the first cardless solution was introduced to the market over a decade ago,...
14/06/2023
Hace poco me tom una cerveza en el Llandoger Trow de Bristol. Cuenta la leyenda que el pub fue la fuente de inspiraci n de Robert Louis Stevenson para crear al...
14/06/2023
Si le ste la primera parte de esta serie de blogs, sabr que NAGRA entrevist recientemente a un pirata para conocer de primera mano las motivaciones, m todos y...
14/06/2023
Si ya has le do los otros dos blogs de esta serie, estar s totalmente al d a. Si no, puedes ponerte al d a sobre las motivaciones humanas de un pirata y una inm...
08/06/2023
The one thing that is constant in this market is change. Literally nothing stands still which is why our space is an exciting one to be in right now. Recogniz...
06/06/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix (AZ), USA - June 6, 2023 - The Ku...
05/06/2023
As my colleague Tim Pearson recently wrote in his blog series about Inside the Mind of a Pirate', high-traffic live events have always been a target for pi...
24/05/2023
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix (AZ), USA - May 24, 2023 - NAGRA...