In today’s digital landscape, content can be pirated at any point on its journey – during production, post production, promotion, distribution, and of course, consumption. However, the image of pirates swashbuckling their way across the seas in search of their latest victim is now somewhat inaccurate. Increasingly, content and service piracy operates in a highly-technical ecosystem driven by, let’s face it, highly-skilled engineers creating a landscape that is powered by a mind-boggling array of technology,
as a recent raid on a Spanish piracy ring shows.
It will therefore surprise no one that an increasing number of content owners now require operators to take measures to protect their content against theft as part of any licence agreement. Driven by a wider availability of premium/4K content, such as live sports and the collapse of content windows as new movies head straight to streaming platforms, this is a trend that is likely to gather speed against the piracy tempest ahead.
It is therefore increasingly critical to mark content to determine the source of a leak quickly and efficiently using forensic watermarking, and to ensure remedial action can be taken. A powerful tool in any operator’s arsenal, forensic watermarking can offer reassurance that the illicit source will be found and the leak plugged. However, by deploying watermarking as part of a comprehensive security strategy, along with other tools, such as anti-piracy services, operators and service providers can take systematic and conclusive action against the pirates.
A strong anti-piracy strategy combined with effective watermarking can deter pirates by identifying the source, such as the offending set-top box (STB), mitigating the revenue loss and proactively shutting down the illegal content streams; particularly important as more quality content is delivered over-the-top into an environment that’s much harder to control.
Operators upgrading their STBs also have a role to play with a strong anti-piracy strategy – especially when you consider that it’s where most pirated content still comes from. This is fine for new STBs, but what about legacy boxes? It is possible to retrofit watermarking into such devices? It’s not as complex as you may think, and it can be done in a scalable way, across multiple legacy boxes. Given that forensic watermarking technologies are capable of recognizing a channel, a burnt in channel logo, the source where it was leaked from, and the device used to capture content, this becomes an invaluable tool for any solution and makes the integration effort worthwhile.
Aside from these more combative technologies is another range of tools for those seeking to protect their service and revenue streams. Features, such as device authentication, account authorization and session management, coupled with multi-DRM, will all play a role in protecting a service and ensuring future investment is available to license and deliver engaging content that will drive subscriber acquisition. Alongside such tools, realtime or planned, edge-based or hub, watermarking deployments enable effective leak monitoring to then form a complete picture of the pirate threat. Combined, these tools, together with their analytic output, can give operators the evidence they need to take data-driven action to stop pirates in their tracks in the most effective way. After all, no two operators are exactly the same, and neither are the pirates stealing from them.
Looking ahead, with more and more content being delivered online-first, the industry needs to adopt a sophisticated, pragmatic and value-driven philosophy to manage piracy risks. While it’s important to incorporate a strategy into individual business models, wider action is also called for – and not just by operators. Alliances formed by members from throughout the industry and regions around the world can open up new opportunities to mitigate the threat. By coming together to share ideas, knowledge and best practice – such as Alianza has done in Latin America – a united front can be built across the industry that will make it much harder for pirates to operate effectively.
Knowing where your content is leaking from is one thing – having the road map in place that enables you to take systematic, conclusive action is another. And in the end, it needs to form part of a wider end-to-end content protection strategy that enables full-service protection for service providers and content owners alike.
Tim Pearson is the senior director of product marketing at Nagra (https://dtv.nagra.com). Nagra is the digital TV division of the Kudelski Group and deveops secure, engaging and smart solutions that address the entire digital media ecosystem.