Hackers use a range of techniques to steal content and run it through a complex network of resellers and distributors, inflicting huge financial losses and damaging reputations, says Synamedia senior executive Yael Fainaro. Her company works with its customers and other industry players to fight the phenomenon
Malicious cyber actors pose a threat to the media and entertainment industries on a daily basis, not only during high-profile mega events like the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Eurovision song contest and the World Cup.
Financially-backed, highly skilled video pirates regularly steal content and then resell and distribute it to consumers, a senior executive of Synamedia said at the Cybertech Global 2020 conference.
"Fighting piracy is very similar to fighting cyber crime. It's a cat-and-mouse game and you have to have a holistic approach in order to win," said Yael Fainaro, the company's SVP Security, in a speech on January 29.
"The video piracy industry is a well-funded, well-organized global business that is operated by highly sophisticated people both technically and commercially. The pirates use cyber as well as other hacking techniques to steal content, run it through a complex network of resellers and distributors, leverage legitimate services such as cloud, CDNs (content delivery network) and payment systems, in order to offer us, the consumers, a service that looks very normal, only that it's not," said Fainaro.
Piracy is estimated to cost media and entertainment business $66 billion a year in lost revenue, or about 30% of the revenue the industry generates from legitimate sources, according to the executive. It also damages the reputation of the service providers.
Sports is one of the most popular forms of piracy, accounting for about 75% of all piracy streams, she said. A recent study by the BBC found that more that 50% of football fans in the United Kingdom view games through illicit, illegal sources.
The global value of sports media rights is estimated to be about $51 billion.
"We at Cynamedia have been living and breathing the pirate world for more than 30 years. We have range of technologies and tools that allow us to prevent, detect, respond, recover and identify those attacks and also a robust intelligence platform that guides our actions."
According to Synamedia, the company's advanced end-to-end open video delivery solution helps service providers around the world deliver, protect, and monetize video content.
Fainaro said that during the last World Cup, the company monitored 25 games of the tournament for one of its service provider customers in Latin America. "During those games we were able to disrupt the pirate service through a range of technologies we had deployed with that service provider."
"We work closely with our customers and other players in the industry to fight piracy because we don't want piracy to kill the video for entertainment and sports industry. Unlike the music industry that found a different source of revenue than the form of live performances, the video industry does not have that option," she said.
"You can hardly see the entire cast of 'Game of Thrones' going on a world tour in a way that would generate enough revenue that would compensate for the billions of dollars that this content generates in licensing deals from legitimate and legal services today."
