irdeto_irdeto 30/09/2013 15:54 Page 2
COMPANY CONTRIBUTION
Live Event
Streaming and
Sports:
A Strong Defence
against Piracy
growing. Live event streaming is a big venture and it’s more important than ever to
make the protection of sports content a priority.
Sports content has long been the ultimate
'must-have' for operators. In delivering live and
on demand entertainment across multiple
screens, operators have the opportunity to build
customer loyalty and create new revenues. But
unlike Video on Demand (VOD) content, the
value of sports content is intrinsically linked to
its 'live' nature, as viewers join to watch events
unfold in real time.
ers in the eyes of sports content owners.
Social Media: The Disseminator’s
Dream
Increasingly, social media is being used as a
tool to distribute pirated content. The 2012
Olympic Games were referred to as the 'first
social media Olympics', and other sports are
increasingly being discussed on social media
sites. Social networks have greatly increased
the ease of legitimate and pirated content discovery. Those looking to access pirated content
no longer have to actively search for it in hardto-find online locations frequented by criminals
– instead, links can be shared quickly and
openly among friends on social networking
sites. The spread of illegal content through
social networks is not confined to a criminal
element of consumers. Many people who find
links to live sports broadcasts on social media
are not aware that the content is illegally hosted – an understandable mistake given the
sophistication of embedded video players and
even advertising on illegal sites, all of which
leads to a false sense of security for the viewer.
The Challenger: Piracy
The challenge faced by broadcasters with regard
to live content is ensuring that they monetize it
to its full potential in the short window when
consumers want it and it is most valuable. And
if consumers can’t obtain it easily and affordably, they will seek out the next most convenient source – which is usually a pirated stream
of the event. Not only that, but broadcasters
must contend with more organised efforts to
illegally redistribute their valuable sports content for monetary gain. In July 2013, the High
Court of Justice in England, prompted by the
English Premier League, ordered Internet service providers in the U.K. to ban FirstRow
Sports, one of the most popular
sports streaming websites on the
Internet, based on charges of copyright infringement. FirstRow sports
was being used in sports bars and
pubs to profit from unauthorised
streams
Live stream piracy – intentional
or not - has wide ranging, detrimental effects on everything from a
broadcaster’s revenue to its standing
in the eyes of content owners.
Broadcasters who fail to adequately
protect premium sports content could lose their
content rights altogether. Identifying and isolating the source of the illegal content should
therefore become top priority for those concerned with live event broadcast.
Live content piracy is big business, with the
number of people viewing pirated versions of
popular sporting events now tipping one million
per stream. This represents a significant loss of
revenue in terms of subscribers, not to mention
the reputational damage suffered by broadcast-
Understanding the Play Field: The
Piracy Continuum™
Although there are legal online offers, consumers of content demand more than ever
when it comes to sports broadcasts. Consumers
will take any steps necessary to access content
– including visiting illegal sites. Content owners, content distributors and security vendors
have traditionally characterised digital 'pirates'
as a single malicious group with ill intentions.
However, with recent developments in consumption habits this is simply not true. Piracy
is not a single behaviour, but rather a continuum of behaviours. Within the Piracy
Continuum™, there are six distinct groups:
The Motivation: What drives
consumers to piracy?
Piracy is easier than ever and although some
pirates steal content for commercial gain, other
individuals on the Piracy Continuum™ are
driven to obtain illegal content through frustration. Looking a t piracy from a different perspective can teach content owners more about
their customers. As piracy is not a behaviour,
but a range of behaviours along a continuum,
not all pirates illegally download content for
criminal purposes. For example, a customer in
the UAE may be illegally streaming a show
from the US due to the time zone difference perhaps driven to consume the content from
frustration.
The Offensive Play: Counteracting
Piracy
The sophistication of piracy requires increasingly powerful countermeasures. Effectively
tagging content is a crucial step for those looking to screen sports content online, with content watermarking allowing broadcasters to
embed unique invisible data in audio and video
that can be used to trace individuals who are
illegally redistributing content in real time.
Once the source of the pirated content is identified, it can be shut down and further action
considered against the pirate.
In addition, there is a need to locate the
sites where stolen content is hosted, a task that
has grown more complicated in recent years
due to the proliferation hosting and indexing
websites that offer illegal video. Having the
knowledge to find these sites and remove content and links to live streams is a major plus
point for content owners and broadcasters
looking to secure their investment.
The Goal: Providing a Better
Alternative to Piracy
Operators must take three important steps into
account when working to reduce piracy:
1. Affordable and accessible content: good pricing and multiscreen capabilities to boost discoverability
2. Deterrence: aim for a capability to trace and
pull down pirated content
3. Win the arms race: ensure that
technology is up to date and easily
renewed
Pricing and discoverability are two of
the key building blocks of piracy – if
broadcasters address these “sells”
then they begin to reduce the attraction of illegal content. This is only
half of the battle, however. Security
techniques such as watermarking are
a boon to broadcasters, improving
content protection and reassuring
content owners.
Most importantly, broadcasters must
understand the motivations of those involved
in piracy – be they consumers or hackers – and
ensure that they are addressing these on a business level with countermeasures or better content availability as appropriate.
Irdeto is an expert in Revenue
Assurance and anti-piracy, as well as
one of the founding members of the
AAPA. For more information, please
visit www.irdeto.com
Content Security Special 13