How to Fight Increasing Content Piracy

A report on the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in third countries published by the European Commission in January 2020 highlighted video content piracy in Saudi Arabia. The European Commission has accused Saudi Arabia of causing harm to European business by supporting pirate sports channel BeoutQ, which is believed to be pirating and redistributing content from BeIN Sports. BeoutQ is accused of distributing content belonging to E.U. sport event organizers and E.U. right holders in Saudi Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the European Union without authorization. Content piracy is, in fact, not limited to MENA, but rather a major global concern that is causing huge revenue losses for different stakeholders in the pay TV industry. For example, 2018, BeIN claimed more than US$1 billion of damages against BeoutQ due to piracy.

Video content piracy is done in multiple ways. The hacking and cloning of smart cards have been used to access pay TV services illegally. As broadband infrastructure improves and content is delivered online, pirated content is now being redistributed online as well. Content can be pirated from any weak point along the distribution pipeline; screen recording during replay using software, recoding through video output devices, accessing video from different location with Virtual Private Networks (VPN), etc. Credential sharing is another piracy issue service providers need to pay attention to. In many cases, end users share their service account credentials within their social circles, which does not seem to be a huge problem. However, large-scale credential sharing can have negative impact on service providers in the long term. Not only can it lead to a loss of potential new subscribers, but pirate organizations can also use credential sharing as a tool to resell a service to multiple users.

Once the content’s security is compromised, it can be redistributed on social media platforms such as Facebook or YouTube. Pirates may also be using software running on a PC or mobile device with add-ons to enable users to access the content. The availability of low-cost video streaming boxes loaded with apps to access the illegal content also enables a new business model for pirates, who sell such streaming devices preloaded with apps and charge a monthly service fee, similar to legitimate video streaming services but at a lower cost. They can also supply a wide selection of content pirated from multiple streaming services, which makes them appealing to consumers. Many of the consumers who use these services are even not aware that they are involved in illegal activities.

The Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA)’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) has mentioned ongoing content security threats in emerging markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where consumers access streaming piracy websites or torrent sites to access premium content. A significant number of households in North America are also reported to be accessing pirated content. Live streaming content such as Live Sports programs are at high piracy risk in Europe. Pay TV operators in Latin America have also raised concerns about piracy as some of the pirate organizations even run brick and mortar shops. As a result, illegal streaming activities are leading to consumers cancelling their legal pay TV or Over-the-Top (OTT) subscriptions.

Conditional Access Systems (CAS) have been used to securely deliver broadcast TV content. As the pay TV landscape continues to shift toward online streaming platforms, Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions are increasingly used for content protection over IP networks. However, increasing device fragmentation and continuously evolving pirating technologies are causing continuous piracy threats to pay TV and OTT. Broadcasters and service providers need to understand that neither traditional CAS solutions nor DRM solutions are enough to protect content. Investments in the integration of content protection solutions from CAS and DRM to piracy tracking, monitoring, and response technologies are required.

Many content security vendors are providing End-to-End (E2E) piracy control solutions using watermarking and fingerprinting technologies. Vendors such as Nagra and Synamedia recently showcased their anti-piracy solutions at CES 2020. Other vendors including Irdeto, Friend MTS, Viacces-Orca, and many others are also introducing anti-piracy solutions. Service providers need to evaluate factors such as cost, scalability, and Time-to-Market (TTM) when selecting partnerships with content security solution vendors. In addition to protecting the content, vendors need to focus on giving service providers insights into credential sharing and piracy behavior, which can be used for privacy prevention strategies and as a tool to expand their subscriptions and revenue. Service and solution providers also need to partner with governmental organizations to take legal actions against pirates. As pay TV and OTT service providers battle for market shares, revenue loss due to piracy needs to be prevented and only service providers that deploy the right anti-piracy technologies will be able to succeed.