If video piracy is eating into your revenues and negatively impacting your business, find out how we can prevent digital piracy by all acting together.
There is little doubt that global video piracy is a serious problem. It has been estimated that in 2023, there were 141 billion visits to pirate sites worldwide. This upsurge is driven by numerous factors which overlap each other.
- The move towards live streaming rather than file sharing
- The increased streaming of sports
- Greater ultra-fast broadband penetration
- Economic slowdown impacting consumers
- New sophisticated forms of piracy
The figures are alarming. In Europe, for example, the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) says that TV video piracy is on the rise once more.
Digital piracy as a whole increased 3.3% in 2022 (the last year for which the EUIPO has complete figures), and pirated TV content experienced a 15% increase. The most pirated genres are television shows and series and on-demand movies. This is followed by anime productions (series and films) and live streams of sports events, and dedicated sports channels. The latter is rising particularly fast.
So, what can companies do? How can they prevent the pirates from stealing their revenue? And how can they keep up with the latest well-funded and technically sophisticated forms of video piracy? Here are our key insights, driven by decades of experience in the field.
Key elements in preventing digital piracy
Pirate attacks are possible at every stage of the business process and content workflow. In the end it takes a joint effort to combat it.
What can companies do? An effective anti-piracy strategy has seven key pillars. These are:
- Offer your customers a compelling service at a competitive price. A high-quality service discourages customers from signing up to an illegitimate service.
- Make it easy for customers to sign up and manage their accounts. Remove as many barriers as you can.
- Utilize the latest anti-piracy technologies such as Dynamic Watermarking and AI-assisted proactive monitoring
- Ensure you can act fast to back all this up. From take-down notices to session revocation, the key after initial detection lies in a rapid response.
- Collaborate internally across all departments and externally with other media companies and organizations.
- Educate. Create and/or participate in campaigns that seek to delegitimize video piracy.
- Be holistic. Piracy can attack any part of your company and an anti-piracy strategy needs to be across everything you do from broadcast workflow to business planning to technological investment.
A complex situation demands a complex response. Effectively combatting video piracy has long become a task that has outgrown most media companies, no matter the size of a broadcaster or operator. It takes investment in skills, technology, R&D, and deep expertise to stay ahead of the pirates. It also requires constant research and evolution of technologies and strategies to keep up with the continuous evolution of piracy.
How we can prevent digital piracy by working together
Over the years, our approach to digital piracy at VO has evolved. We are always monitoring the situation and what the pirates are doing. Piracy is not a backroom operation anymore. It is a sophisticated industry featuring some very clever people bankrolled by huge funds from organized crime. Fighting piracy effectively requires a profound understanding of the field, as well as mature experience utilizing various technologies, including AI.
VO’s holistic approach is manifested in our Anti-Piracy Center, where we combine a set of services to counteract any pain point, type, or source of video piracy. These are the main elements of our approach:
24/7 real-time monitoring, data collection, and detection of illegally distributed content for both live and VOD content.
Sending DMCA-compliant take-down notices to Content Platforms, Cyberlockers, ISPs, CDNs and more.
Offering Watermarking-as-A-Service, enabling you to identify the source of re-streaming within seconds.
Using AI and Machine Learning to detect password sharing and hacking attempts throughout the whole video delivery chain.
Constantly monitoring the pirate landscape for new threats, such as CDN Leeching.
Employing a dedicated team of global experts with decades of experience, including video security experts, trained investigators, ISO-certified security auditors, and legal experts.
Taking action together
Video piracy is organized and it is everywhere. Fighting it can sometimes seem like a never-ending battle, and anti-piracy efforts are often one of the first items to fall off the budget when times are tight. This is a mistake. To combat piracy requires an investment. It takes time, effort, and yes it takes money. But the ROI on anti-piracy actions is always worthwhile. It is a way of safeguarding your revenue now and into the future.
Staying vigilant and taking action is the key. In an era when the number of visits to pirate websites is rising, acting to stop it at every step of the way is more important than ever.
