Home Newswire RAI leverages watermarking and anti-piracy services to prevent illicit sharing of streaming...

RAI leverages watermarking and anti-piracy services to prevent illicit sharing of streaming content

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NAGRA, which provides content protection and multiscreen television solutions, announced last month that Radio Televisione Italiana (RAI) – Italy’s public broadcaster and a major producer of original content across Europe – is using its NexGuard forensic watermarking and anti-piracy services in a bid to prevent illicit content sharing. Thierry Legrand, SVP Sales EMEA at NAGRA, said: “Our watermarking-based anti-piracy solutions are essential for RAI to effectively monitor copyright infringements and secure the value of the content distributed over OTT/AVOD.”

The fight back against the illegal streaming of original/exclusive TV (and the associated hit to advertising and subscription revenues for broadcasters and content owners) has seen watermark-based content protection emerge as a solution for the rapid detection of illicit sharing. Watermark technology involves embedding media with an invisible, unique digital watermark, which can be detected by automated crawling engines as they scour distribution channels, allowing anti-piracy services to efficiently and accurately designate content that is being unlawfully distributed, and take action in real-time.

RAI has also opted to make use of NAGRA’s Anti-Piracy Services, employing its crawling engines to scan the web and pirate IPTV channels and track potential copyright violations, while providing RAI with potentially valuable data insights into the sources of illicit streaming.

In a survey conducted by Irdeto (another content security and cyber services provider), covering 25,000 adults across 30 countries, 52% of responders admitted to viewing pirated videos, with a further 59% claiming they were unaware that streaming or downloading pirated content is illegal. The need for content protection is particularly salient in a climate of rising production costs, diffuse and covert illicit distribution channels, and increasingly sophisticated pirating strategies for evading copyright action.


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