
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. CDN vendors have provided excellent delivery capabilities to their clients. However, access control has not always been top of mind, particularly in the context of OTT, where content has been protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) - and sometimes only when the content has been deemed valuable enough to protect.
And as the industry is experiencing, there's a rise in pirate activity to access, consume and resell content. Industrious pirates are always in the mix, such as gaining access to CDN-hosted content via vulnerabilities with Widevine DRM and DRM content keys. Some pirates deliver their services by directly connecting to legitimate CDNs - which has the net result of the operator not only losing potential revenue but also having to pay for the pirate activity too. The damage inflicted is significant; in a research piece NAGRA authored with the Digital Citizen's Alliance, it's estimated that piracy costs the U.S. market $1Bn per year - and estimations suggest a similar figure for Europe.
Such market developments are now reaffirming a need for streamers to increase their security approach to better manage access control of their CDNs to block those illegitimately trying to access their content.
Security Solutions and Considerations
Many security tools are available to service providers to protect OTT streaming, such as multi-DRM, device authentication, application hardening, and watermarking. Streaming operators can also consider a multi-CDN strategy to better address scale, reach, latency, and resiliency issues.
To help strengthen CDN security, NAGRA offers a holistic session management approach. NAGRA's Active Streaming Protection solution framework builds a bridge between CDNs and streamers security platforms to provide consistent access control, fraud detection, and immediate remediation should a leak occur.
How does NAGRA Active Streaming Protection drive holistic session management? It works by:
Collecting Playback sessions' logs
Collecting CDN logs
Collecting Watermarking logs and leakage reports
Triggering Analytics on the logs to detect content and service frauds
Creating remediation plans
And what are the benefits to streaming operators?
Consistent access control
Authorization across multiple CDNs
Session control at both CDN and TV Platform levels
Manage CDN traffic smartly by providing content delivery rules aligned with business context
Fraud detection
Consumption monitoring and Fraud/Anomaly detection
Forensic watermarking with piracy detection
Immediate remedial actions on CDN sessions, Playback sessions, subscriber accounts, and devices
Enhanced business performance
Security Monitoring & Analytics blends data from all NAGRA Active Streaming Protection framework components to help identify a range of threats and recommend specific actions.
Enforce geographic limitations on the ability to access video streams even for authenticated users
Prevent exploding CDN costs in the case of piracy
While many OTT services already have some form of session control in place, most remain incomplete or weak from a security standpoint. A true holistic session management approach provides complete and consistent control over different types of sessions covering the full breadth of OTT streaming: Application Playback sessions, CDN delivery sessions, Watermarking sessions across communication sessions between applications and servers, across the whole OTT ecosystem. The right solution should also have the capability to accommodate broad needs such as multi-CDN and low latency while also fighting against content piracy and service fraud.
Reach out for a Security Assessment Today!
NAGRA works with major video operators across the pay-TV and streaming industry to secure both services and revenues. This continual dialogue means we understand the markets challenges and are ready to help! Perhaps you are mid-migration to OTT or are launching an OTT service for the first time.
Contact us here to learn more, chat with one of our security experts, or request our security assessment service to identify any weaknesses in your current defenses; we'd love to continue the conversation.
More from Nagra Media Uk Ltd
27/06/2025
In our latest blog post, Rafael Rivera highlights the rising threat of online scams, and the important role cybersecurity plays in protecting families across ge...
02/06/2025
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni unpacks the myth of Broadcast TV's decline and shows how OpenTV ENTera is helping broadcasters and sports rights holders t...
09/05/2025
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni dives into the shifting currents of change in the digital entertainment landscape, revealing the trends that will keep viewers...
03/04/2025
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni highlights key points from the webinar on hyper-personalization held on March 20th 2025, hosted by XroadMedia and featuring in...
02/04/2025
With a focus on safeguarding premium content value and authenticity, NAGRA highlighted key areas of interest in the media and entertainment industry. Of note wa...
02/04/2025
In our latest blog, gain insights into the media industry's challenges and how NAGRA Active Streaming Protection provides a framework for holistic content p...
02/04/2025
In our latest blog Tim Pearson considers Generative AI and the opportunities it presents as well as some of the challenges it can cause for media, entertainment...
02/04/2025
Learn valuable insights into strengthening your content protection strategy and discover how multi-DRM helped transform content security for leading post-produc...
02/04/2025
This year's IBC 2024 was an incredible opportunity to connect with industry leaders and innovators, and the conversations around consumer cybersecurity were...
02/04/2025
As a lifelong sports enthusiast from the U.S., I've always been captivated by how sports can unite people. From the roar of the crowd during major events to...
02/04/2025
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson caught up with Julian Williams at Anthropic to explore the science of conversations and how the increasing adoption of generativ...
02/04/2025
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson considers recent industry successes in dismantling large-scale pirate operations and what defensive steps video service provider...
02/04/2025
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni explores OpenTV ENTera, the latest innovation from NAGRAVISION that's designed as a blueprint for today's streaming se...
20/03/2025
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni reflects on this year's Connected TV World Summit recently held in London, and explores how innovative bundling, premium c...
04/03/2025
In our latest blog, Laura Rognoni explores OpenTV ENTera, the latest innovation from NAGRAVISION that's designed as a blueprint for today's streaming se...
22/01/2025
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on CES 2025, the latest trends, and the key conversations held with visitors to the NAGRAVISION booth.
Connect the wor...
03/12/2024
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson considers recent industry successes in dismantling large-scale pirate operations and what defensive steps video service provider...
04/11/2024
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson caught up with Julian Williams at Anthropic to e...
30/10/2024
As a lifelong sports enthusiast from the U.S., I've always been captivated by how sports can unite people. From the roar of the crowd during major events to...
09/10/2024
Streaming security, consumer engagement, and consumer cybersecurity were top of mind in NAGRAVISION's IBC 2024 showcase, as highlighted by Tim Pearson in ou...
01/10/2024
This year's IBC 2024 was an incredible opportunity to connect with industry ...
11/09/2024
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on CES 2024 where AI was omnipresent, innovation abounded, and conversations focused on creative solutions to address e...
11/09/2024
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on a busy Mobile World Congress that wa...
27/08/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, and Phoenix (AZ), USA - August 27, 2024 - NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company and one of the worlds leading independ...
22/08/2024
Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland and Phoenix (AZ), USA - August 22nd, 2024 - The Kudelski Group (SIX: KUD.S), the world leader in digital security, announced ...
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
Learn valuable insights into strengthening your content protection strategy and ...
14/06/2024
In our latest blog Tim Pearson considers Generative AI and the opportunities it presents as well as some of the challenges it can cause for media, entertainment...
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
With a focus on safeguarding premium content value and authenticity, NAGRA highl...
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 our latest blog, gain insights into the media industry's challenges and how NAGRA Active Streaming Protection provides a framework for holistic content p...
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
Get exclusive insights from industry leaders at CES 2024 and the pulse of consumer concerns about privacy and security in the connected home space, with key sta...
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
In our latest blog, Olivier Biot reflects on the recent APOS event in Bali and how the APAC M&E industry is planning to navigate the disruption.
This year'...
28/09/2023
In our latest blog, Tim Pearson reflects on IBC 2023 and how NAGRA helped visitors to its booth plot a course and navigate the disruption.
There seemed to be m...
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 -...