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Video Piracy: A Threat to OTT/VOD Content

Despite numerous live events still on hold in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for live-streamed events has diminished dramatically, and so has the need to protect them. On the flipside, the exact opposite effect is seen in the OTT VOD material. Netflix, for example, added a mammoth 15.8 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, more than double the 7.2 million expected. So much remains the challenge of securing OTT VOD content, particularly for those who produce exclusive content for direct delivery to consumers.

With the passage of time, the VOD content does not lose its interest as easily as the live content. Watching a TV show or film a few days, weeks, or even months after its release doesn’t automatically affect its importance – unlike a match or a game that becomes ‘a thing of the past’ just a few minutes after its aired live.

OTT/VOD Content Security: Top Priority!

To content providers, therefore, the main goal is to retain their exclusive content for a longer period, because exclusivity is the key to the success of their service. They need to make sure that no one can steal their content from the network, or any legal OTT TV devices, or destroy their value-add.

Exclusive OTT VOD content owners strive to remain the sole source of this valuable content, specifically in the early distribution window (within a few days or weeks). But they are generally overwhelmed by the multitude of alternative pirate locations and legal places where their content becomes available, even during the early distribution window. That is exactly what happened in the ‘Game of Thrones’ season 8 of the HBO show, where, according to MUSO, a whopping 76.6 percent of content consumption came from pirated outlets – with over 55 million pirated downloads in the first hour.

Once a video pirate accesses VOD content completely, it can be re-encoded, repackaged over time and copied indefinitely. Which means it will appear over time through a variety of pirated websites, pirate subscription / paid networks and legal social channels, all discoverable from either Google searches, social media, or online marketplaces. Clearly, exclusive OTT VOD providers require protection solutions that can restrict access to, or leakage of, their exclusive VOD content and protect against its unrestricted distribution.

Illegal access to content: How does it happen?

There are currently some fairly popular ways for non-malevolent viewers to access VOD content illegally for free, or for pirates to steal it and make a profit. Why are those things happening?

  • Sharing credentials – a subscriber can access a friend’s or family member’s credentials to view VOD content for free.
  • Credentials stuffing – Video pirates may illegally obtain access to other legitimate accounts using large-scale automated login requests and sell their credentials on the dark web or open the Web.
  • Trial fraud – a new trial user could build fake identities to continue free trial of SVOD services.
  • As with live content, a pirate can access VOD content from the OTT service provided by the SVOD / TVOD provider bypassing DRM content protection or by intercepting content over HDMI, taking advantage of the HD content protection (HDCP) that has been breached.

Prevention & Safety Measures

OTT providers require good security safety when it comes to user credentials, to differentiate between paying users and freeloaders with key structures and tools to detect and take action.

  • To counter the exchange of credentials, OTT providers should be able to approach the service’s sharers and turn them to paying subscribers on their own.
  • To fix the stuffing of credentials, OTT providers should be allowed to blacklist and/or automatically delete the fraudsters to protect the protection and privacy of their subscribers and avoid negative repercussions.
  • To tackle trial fraud, OTT providers should be able to prevent all users from enjoying more than one free trial to avoid loss of revenue.
  • SVOD / TVOD providers should be able to: Remove and track leaked material from their services.
  • Deploy additional protection capabilities on top of their DRM to prevent their VOD content from being illegally accessed through unauthorized applications, screen grabbing or jail broken devices.
  • Automate the location of illegal distribution sources using a combination of web, human, and network intelligence, along with advanced content identification fingerprinting capabilities.
  • Using legal, network or advanced covert techniques to take surgical action to impede the original piracy contributors / facilitators by eliminating or restricting access to their exclusive high value content from those locations.
  • Watermark their OTT VOD content to later detect the source / account of initial OTT piracy and disable that source / account to minimize future theft of content.
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MediaGuru is a Global Services Company offering end-to-end solutions in the area of content digitization and preservation, turnkey technology projects and digital media from our offices in UAE, Singapore, South Africa and India.

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