“The Content Streaming Gold Rush is a Hacker’s El Dorado.
A glut of paid content has created a piracy renaissance. Can a cybersecurity crisis be far behind?”
By: Adam Levin
Source: Inc.
July 18, 2019
“Instead of sharing its intellectual property with Netflix, Disney is launching its own streaming service, Disney+. NBC is pulling its tremendously popular workplace comedy, The Office, from Netflix and Hulu and making it available exclusively on NBCUniversal. AT&T is following suit with its recent acquisition of Time Warner and HBO. Apple, Google, and Facebook are all entering the ring as well. Most of these services are throwing massive amounts of money at original content and licensing to make their own platforms “must-have.”
Read the full story at Inc.com
Why it matters
As major media distributors move to boost subscribership by making their video programming exclusive to their own service platforms, or to limit its availability, consumers will seek alternative ways to find and consume it. As pirates step in opportunistically to give consumers what they want, consumers will suffer as an unintended consequence of this exclusivity.
Video providers that make their content more available across more distribution channels will be less likely to attract piracy. Furthermore, this issue is not a call for video providers to relax their security methods or to make their content free.
