YouGov and Edgeware research finds forensic watermarking could half the losses from online video piracyAnti-piracy measures could save billions as 39% of consumers admit they are likely to watch pirated film or tv content
2018 NAB Show, Las Vegas - March 20, 2018 - Edgeware, the pioneer of TV CDN technology, working alongside YouGov, an international data and analytics group with access to an online panel of five million people worldwide, has found that the billons lost to online piracy could be halved by putting in place anti-piracy measures. Edgeware's research found that 50% of viewers who said they would watch pirated content, would be dissuaded from doing so if they knew a program they were watching could be tracked back to its source using forensic watermarking.
The YouGov and Edgeware online research looked into the extent of illegal online television consumption and the impact of anti-piracy measures. The research surveyed more than 4000 people globally and found that 39% of viewers are likely to watch pirated content on-demand by downloading or streaming illegally shared versions of popular film and TV. At the same time more than one fifth (21%) said they would watch live events - like live sports - from unsolicited online sources.
The results of the survey are included in Edgeware's new report - TV piracy research watermarking could save billions of dollars a year - which you can download here.
Key findings from the report
29%of viewers watch pirated content at least once per month
39% of viewers are likely to watch pirated TV or films online, and 21% likely to watch pirated sports content
50% of viewers would be unlikely to watch pirated content if they knew it was watermarked[1]
The most cited reasons for viewers watching pirated content is its ease of availability (32%), followed by cost (24%).
Viewers in Hong Kong are significantly more likely to watch pirated content than those in the US or UK.
Broadcasters and content owners lose billions to online piracy each year with illegal content more readily accessible on live streaming services, which has a huge, detrimental effect on the global TV and film production industry.
Piracy due to the downloading of TV and films alone is set to cost the industry 52 billion USD per year by 2022, with the US suffering the greatest loss at 11.6 billion USD[2]. These figures don't even include losses from the live sports market in which rights are worth 43 billion a year. If the 21% of adults who were likely to watch pirated sports events did so, the loss of revenue from live sports events - as outlined in the Edgeware research - could equate to content owners losing upwards of 9 billion USD per year.[3]
The Illegal distribution of programming is a huge problem for content distributors and owners with piracy costing them billions in lost revenue, said Richard Brandon from Edgeware. This research has shown that digitally watermarking content as it's streamed will have a significant benefit. Those watching pirating content could drop by half and then forensic watermarking will also make it faster and easier to identify those illegally distributing content.
Edgeware's award-winning forensic watermarking solution allows for implementation of a bit-stream based watermark. It allows content owners and distributors to embed a unique visual code which can be tracked to each individual user. Much more efficient than more traditional manifest-watermarking techniques, bitstream-based watermarks are faster to implement and track and much harder for pirates to get rid of.
Edgeware's watermarking solution will be demonstrating on the company booth (#SU10201CM) at the 2018 NAB Show between April 9-12 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
*end*
About the research
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 4,252 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th to 29th December 2017. he survey was carried out online.
Hong Kong
Total sample size was 1,014 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th to 29th December 2017
US
Total sample size was 1,137 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th 27th December 2017.
UK
Total sample size was 2101 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 18th 19th December 2017
About Edgeware
Edgeware offers leading operators and content providers the solutions to deliver modern TV services on a huge scale and at a low cost. Edgeware's unique technology gives control and insight back to the content provider with an outstanding viewing experience. In recent years, Edgeware has experienced rapid growth, reaching sales of SEK 237 million in 2017.
Edgeware is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with a subsidiary in the US and offices in Hong Kong and Mexico. Edgeware also has sales and technical sales support staff in several locations in Europe, Asia and North and Latin America.
Edgeware media contacts: Red Lorry Yellow Lorry
Kayla Millhouse t: +44 (0)20 7403 8878 (EMEA)
Martin Izzard t: +1 310 773 3760 (Americas & APAC)
edgeware@rlyl.com
[1] Calculated as 50% of the 85% of respondents who knew whether they were likely or unlikely to watch illegally-distributed content.
[2] Source: Digital TV Research October 2017
[3] 9bn is calculated as 21% of the live sport rights market said to be worth $43bn per year
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
YouGov and Edgeware research finds forensic watermarking could half the losses from online video piracyAnti-piracy measures could save billions as 39% of consumers admit they are likely to watch pirated film or tv content
