By Colin Dixon, Founder & Chief Analyst, nScreenMedia. nScreenMedia is Piracy Monitor’s event partner for the 2021 Video Security Summit.
For many, piracy has turned the virtuous cycle of live sports video into a vicious circle. Synamedia breaks down the tools you need to break the circle of sports piracy.
Because of their high value, live sports are among the most pirated form of video content. Some sports rights holders believe they are losing as much as 80% of the value of their live event.
Steve Hawley, Managing Director of Piracy Monitor and event partner in the upcoming Video Security Summit, interviews Simon Brydon, Senior Director for Security Business Development for Sports at Synamedia. He breaks down the tools that are necessary to combat sports piracy. You can hear more from Synamedia and many other video security experts at the Video Security Summit on October 19 and 20th. If you are listening to this podcast, you can sign up for the summit for free.
Video interview
Introduction (0:50)
Mr. Brydon explains his role at Synamedia and how the company is involved in piracy remediation.
The business case for taking on piracy (1:50)
The best way to make the business case for piracy remediation is to identify the most damaging use case. Live sports is often the best example.
The urgency of shutting down sports pirates (4:00)
Identifying the pirate wholesalers – those that are reselling the illegal streams – is critical. Consistency in shutting down the sports pirates is important so that the wholesalers don’t develop a regular audience. Some sports rights owners believe as much as 80% of the value of an event leaks away to pirate streams.
Why analytics is core to addressing piracy (8:40)
AI/ML is a key tool in identifying customers abusing their access to premium content.
OTT providers pay to deliver pirated streams to viewers! (11:00)
Unlike theft from a traditional pay TV operator, OTT providers end up paying to deliver the content to the pirate’s customers.
The technologies of piracy protection (16:00)
From watermarking to cyber intelligence, Mr. Brydon runs down some of the key technologies required to defeat piracy. He also discusses how the virtuous cycle of content development – where creators create jobs and revenue, which helps them create more – has become a vicious circle.
What to do first to defend against piracy (20:40)
Mr. Brydon cites two things to do first to begin to address piracy:
- Protect your service
- Understand the scale of the piracy problem.
