The IBC 2022 conference, arguably the media and entertainment industry’s best technology event, drew people from around the world to Amsterdam to share perspectives and shop for the latest. The show evolved over the years from a focus on broadcast, as pay TV and later, IP video moved to mainstream and as video business models have evolved. In this year’s IBC, piracy and anti-piracy began moving toward center stage.
In 2019, the most recent IBC prior to this one, piracy was characterized as a “sky is falling” phenomenon involving theatrical movie releases, TV series programming, and broadcast programming; particularly live sports. Three kinds of piracy were understood by the mainstream at that time: credential theft that results in the theft of services, detectable through analytics; the theft of content which can be watermarked and tracked by monitoring, and industrial-scale theft from broadcast or satellite distribution such as the infamous beoutQ case in the Middle East.
Now that’s changed. Piracy is now a service for other pirates. Games and NFTs are subject to compromise. ‘Theft of infrastructure’ has resulted in greater focus on cybersecurity, and pirate apps that appear to be legitimate but aren’t has resulted in a focus on app security.
Industry Awards reflect anti-piracy
Several anti-piracy entries were category winners in the 2022 CSI Awards, an event held annually by Cable & Satellite International since 2003. This year’s awards fell into two groups: Winners and Highly Commended Winners. There was a total of 22 categories. The judges were all industry analysts and technology specialists, one of whom is Piracy Monitor’s managing director.
Irdeto’s Anti-Piracy Suite was Highly Commended in the “Best Cybersecurity product or service,” while Nagra’s Holistic Cyber Protection was also the Winner that category. Verimatrix’ Streamkeeper, a suite of technologies that includes multi-DRM, software shielding and a client-side security agent, won in the “Best Content Protection technology.”
Why it matters
Piracy has moved more directly into the industry’s sights, and a variety of stake-holders are looking for ways to fight it. Providers of anti-piracy technologies and cybersecurity services are rising to the opportunity to help.
Disclaimer
Piracy Monitor strives to remain an impartial source for the media and entertainment industry, but in order to remain free of charge, it is supported by sponsorship. Several of the companies mentioned in this article are present or past Piracy Monitor Sponsors. However, this article is intended to be factual and not to endorse or promote any of these companies’ offerings.