32 SECURITY FOCUS Content Protection
he statistics make for disturbing reading. According to a recent report by Digital TV Research, the cost of online streaming piracy is on course to hit $52 billion by 2022. TV-orientated content and the latest movie releases will account for around 70% of unlawful content consumption, while the US, Russian Federation, Brazil, India and UK can expect to have the dubious distinction of being the countries with the most enthusiastic consumers of illegal piracy websites. Despite the alarm, Karl Petermichl, technical director of Austrian public service broadcaster ORF, believes that the situation in Europe is relatively “calm and stable” – for now, at least. New mass- appeal OTT services have given viewers access to “a broad range of content by means of relatively cheap subscriptions”, while social media sites such as YouTube have had some success by implementing fraud discovery mechanisms, often in collaboration with broadcasters.
In ORF’s own case, fulfilling their obligations towards the licence holders where they buy their content involves conditional access for satellite and terrestrial viewing, contracts on cable and IPTV services, and DRM mechanisms for streaming and OTT platforms. “We are currently looking again at audio and video watermarking solutions, to have some ground in case we have to submit a copyright infringement claim in the future,” says Petermichl.
Escalating rights fragmentation in sports – in some ways a direct consequence of the OTT boom as
federations start to go direct to consumers – is likely to be among the main reasons this stability will be short-lived. In a more complex service environment, hints Petermichl, consumers could be “more inclined to use illegal sources again”. Counterfeit sites will become more credible in posing as legitimate services, while a fragmented market may mean “people care less again about peer-to-peer activity and account credential-sharing”. “Broadcasters seeking a secure future should be placing importance on the development of long-term content
protection strategies that are executed across platforms and formats,” advises Karl Petermichl.
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