Advancements in technology, increasing broadband availability and speed, varying laws and enforcement bodies in different countries are some of the other factors that contribute to online piracy (aka content redistribution) being the biggest threat facing Asia- Pacific pay-TV operators and content rights holders today. Nowadays, online piracy only requires broadband Internet access for content delivery, and as little as two to three Mbps is sufficient to access hundreds of pirated pay-TV channels and movies from almost everywhere in the world in HD or near HD quality. Combined with the ease, simplicity and low cost nature of IPTV streaming devices, the industry is facing a wave of piracy bigger than ever.
According to a global survey conducted by Irdeto, more Asians embrace pirated content as compared to Americans and consumers in the UK. 40% of respondents in Australia, 31% in Singapore, 40% in India and only 9% in Indonesia confessed a reluctance to watch illegal content compared to 70% in America and 72% of UK consumers. Another study from Irdeto that explores consumer consumption patterns of video content, confirmed that most consumers are driven to watching pirated video content due to a lack of content availability (37%) and pricing concerns (29%).
Across the content and media industry, there have been various moves from both OTT service provider and traditional pay-TV service provider to tackle the piracy issue by providing consumers with the content that they demand at various price points. With Netflix soon to be launched in Australia and New Zealand, traditional pay- TV providers are under pressure to not only compete with piracy, but also cheaper alternatives delivered over the Internet. In Australia, Foxtel recently halved subscription fees for its cable and satellite offerings in order to drive subscriber growth to a new level. Singapore’s leading telco, SingTel, has also stepped in to fill a void in the market by entering a joint venture with major Hollywood studios to launch an online streaming video service in Asia called HOOQ.
From a legislative standpoint, authorities in Asia-Pacific are also under immense pressure to address the piracy situation in this part of the world. To tackle the piracy situation in Australia, the local government set a deadline of 8 April this year for ISPs and right holders to agree a code relating to piracy. This has led to the unveiling of a draft code from the Communications Alliance which represents ISPs. In it, a copyright notice scheme is created through which residential fixed Internet users alleged to have infringed copyrights online (including video) will receive an escalating series of infringement notices. In Singapore, the amendments made to the Copyright Act sees that content owners can now seek High Court orders to obtain permission from ISPs to ban websites that are clearly infringing on copyright issues.
When it comes to enforcement, regulatory bodies, anti-piracy companies and even the operators themselves are taking a leadership role in fighting both broadcast and online piracy. Last year, Foxtel and Irdeto assisted the Australian Federation Police in a piracy case involving the sale of pirated set-top boxes which led to the arrest of two men. The father and son were charged and sentenced in court for their role in the provision of unauthorised access of Foxtel services. The Sydney court sentenced one of them to serve a six month jail term followed by home detention and community service, while the other was placed on a good behaviour bond for his involvement.
Despite several moves being made to address the piracy issue and provide better legal alternatives, the question is – are these moves sufficient, or is it too little too late? As technology continues to evolve and consumer demand requires content available sooner and on more devices, the competition between pirates and the various players in the pay-TV and broadcast industry is bound to escalate.
Irdeto believes that the next three to five years will be a defining time for how piracy evolves – or is mitigated in the Asia-Pacific region.
Local legislative authorities, pay-TV operators and broadcasters, content providers and technology vendors must work together to determine how best to counter the threat of piracy with a combination of technology, education, legislation and more compelling (and legal) multiscreen services.
An understanding of the fundamental needs and concerns of consumers – content availability, quality of the content and price, and security – is the first step to reducing customer churn towards piracy. With that in mind, below are three key areas that content providers should bear in mind when strategising how to address the piracy conundrum.
Content availability
Content is king for customers. One reason why most consumers in Australia (26%) and Singapore (31%) choose to watch pirated video content was because the video content they wanted was not available legally in their location. Content owners need to realise that illegal downloading and content consumption is a symptom of real market demand that is not being met. Irdeto’s Business Intelligence data, from global reports comparing downloads for OTT and premium TV show titles found that within Asia- Pacific, Australia saw high numbers of peer-to-peer downloads in titles that had limited or non-existent OTT rights availability in the region. In order to combat this, some pay-TV operators are moving the release windows to be as close as instantaneous with the U.S. window. The delayed release of content in different markets at different times becomes a problem in a world where consumers expect content at their fingertips as fast as possible.
Whether pay-TV or OTT, content providers can partner with companies that can provide piracy and business intelligence data that leads to greater insight into media consumption patterns. By identifying where piracy leaks are happening and what content is being pirated, operators can not only mitigate revenue loss, but also increase revenue potential by capitalising on latent demand.
A Premium User Experience
As Asia-Pacific is a price-sensitive market, with price being a top driver for consumers in India (29%) and Indonesia (36%) to watch pirated video content, content providers need to shift the focus from serving the masses to more personalised experiences for the individual.
Consumers must see the inherent value in paying for legitimate content.
To ensure that legal services are of better quality than pirate offerings, there is a need to provide additional functionalities. A good example is ensuring that HD content is readily available across all popular consumer devices. The growth of smart device ownership in Asia-Pacific has influenced the way people consume content. It is important to deliver a solution that prepares, protects and delivers content onto any screen, especially mobile devices. Content providers can work with technology partners to publish and secure the premium content they have invested in onto more screens in order to reach new markets and generate more revenue. For example, in Malaysia, Astro designed Astro On-the-Go to nurture and attract new subscribers with a more personalised, flexible entertainment experience beyond the living room.
By making use of their extensive user database, content providers can also provide features such as search, discovery and recommendation to create a more compelling, quality user experience, thereby increasing customer loyalty and generating new sources of revenue.
Protecting Premium Content
Content providers want to protect their investment in premium content and adhere to the licenses they have, but pirates are adapting to the market and using video business complexity to their advantage. Traditional solutions are no longer sufficient.
For content owners and providers, the piracy threat is shifting from broadcast related piracy such as control word sharing to online or streaming piracy. To effectively protect business models against new threats, content owners and providers must evolve their anti-piracy strategy and implement more innovative technologies as well as leverage different expertise and networks to track down and stop pirates. Governments can also assist with policies that help encourage new technological innovation and reduce illegal download activity. These efforts serve as a deterrent as they make the theft of content more complicated.
Content providers must also ensure uncompromising security on any device to satisfy content owners, or they may have risk losing their rights to premium content in addition to facilitating piracy.
The Road Ahead
There is no “one size fits all” solution to solve the piracy conundrum – and no single legislation or piece of technology will completely resolve such a complex problem. There are, however, many tools and services that can help to reduce piracy. A collaborative effort is needed from both industry and the government to protect the intellectual property rights of copyright holders. It is important to have an open conversation between all stakeholders, including content owners, pay-TV providers, OTT service providers, government and technology developers on how to implement the best solutions in order to reduce piracy.
Advancements in technology, increasing broadband availability and speed, varying laws and enforcement bodies in different countries are some of the other factors that contribute to online piracy (aka content redistribution) being the biggest threat facing Asia- Pacific pay-TV operators and content rights holders today. Nowadays, online piracy only requires broadband Internet access for content delivery, and as little as two to three Mbps is sufficient to access hundreds of pirated pay-TV channels and movies from almost everywhere in the world in HD or near HD quality. Combined with the ease, simplicity and low cost nature of IPTV streaming devices, the industry is facing a wave of piracy bigger than ever.
According to a global survey conducted by Irdeto, more Asians embrace pirated content as compared to Americans and consumers in the UK. 40% of respondents in Australia, 31% in Singapore, 40% in India and only 9% in Indonesia confessed a reluctance to watch illegal content compared to 70% in America and 72% of UK consumers. Another study from Irdeto that explores consumer consumption patterns of video content, confirmed that most consumers are driven to watching pirated video content due to a lack of content availability (37%) and pricing concerns (29%).
Across the content and media industry, there have been various moves from both OTT service provider and traditional pay-TV service provider to tackle the piracy issue by providing consumers with the content that they demand at various price points. With Netflix soon to be launched in Australia and New Zealand, traditional pay- TV providers are under pressure to not only compete with piracy, but also cheaper alternatives delivered over the Internet. In Australia, Foxtel recently halved subscription fees for its cable and satellite offerings in order to drive subscriber growth to a new level. Singapore’s leading telco, SingTel, has also stepped in to fill a void in the market by entering a joint venture with major Hollywood studios to launch an online streaming video service in Asia called HOOQ.
From a legislative standpoint, authorities in Asia-Pacific are also under immense pressure to address the piracy situation in this part of the world. To tackle the piracy situation in Australia, the local government set a deadline of 8 April this year for ISPs and right holders to agree a code relating to piracy. This has led to the unveiling of a draft code from the Communications Alliance which represents ISPs. In it, a copyright notice scheme is created through which residential fixed Internet users alleged to have infringed copyrights online (including video) will receive an escalating series of infringement notices. In Singapore, the amendments made to the Copyright Act sees that content owners can now seek High Court orders to obtain permission from ISPs to ban websites that are clearly infringing on copyright issues.
When it comes to enforcement, regulatory bodies, anti-piracy companies and even the operators themselves are taking a leadership role in fighting both broadcast and online piracy. Last year, Foxtel and Irdeto assisted the Australian Federation Police in a piracy case involving the sale of pirated set-top boxes which led to the arrest of two men. The father and son were charged and sentenced in court for their role in the provision of unauthorised access of Foxtel services. The Sydney court sentenced one of them to serve a six month jail term followed by home detention and community service, while the other was placed on a good behaviour bond for his involvement.
Despite several moves being made to address the piracy issue and provide better legal alternatives, the question is – are these moves sufficient, or is it too little too late? As technology continues to evolve and consumer demand requires content available sooner and on more devices, the competition between pirates and the various players in the pay-TV and broadcast industry is bound to escalate.
Irdeto believes that the next three to five years will be a defining time for how piracy evolves – or is mitigated in the Asia-Pacific region.
Local legislative authorities, pay-TV operators and broadcasters, content providers and technology vendors must work together to determine how best to counter the threat of piracy with a combination of technology, education, legislation and more compelling (and legal) multiscreen services.
An understanding of the fundamental needs and concerns of consumers – content availability, quality of the content and price, and security – is the first step to reducing customer churn towards piracy. With that in mind, below are three key areas that content providers should bear in mind when strategising how to address the piracy conundrum.
Content availability
Content is king for customers. One reason why most consumers in Australia (26%) and Singapore (31%) choose to watch pirated video content was because the video content they wanted was not available legally in their location. Content owners need to realise that illegal downloading and content consumption is a symptom of real market demand that is not being met. Irdeto’s Business Intelligence data, from global reports comparing downloads for OTT and premium TV show titles found that within Asia- Pacific, Australia saw high numbers of peer-to-peer downloads in titles that had limited or non-existent OTT rights availability in the region. In order to combat this, some pay-TV operators are moving the release windows to be as close as instantaneous with the U.S. window. The delayed release of content in different markets at different times becomes a problem in a world where consumers expect content at their fingertips as fast as possible.
Whether pay-TV or OTT, content providers can partner with companies that can provide piracy and business intelligence data that leads to greater insight into media consumption patterns. By identifying where piracy leaks are happening and what content is being pirated, operators can not only mitigate revenue loss, but also increase revenue potential by capitalising on latent demand.
A Premium User Experience
As Asia-Pacific is a price-sensitive market, with price being a top driver for consumers in India (29%) and Indonesia (36%) to watch pirated video content, content providers need to shift the focus from serving the masses to more personalised experiences for the individual.
Consumers must see the inherent value in paying for legitimate content.
To ensure that legal services are of better quality than pirate offerings, there is a need to provide additional functionalities. A good example is ensuring that HD content is readily available across all popular consumer devices. The growth of smart device ownership in Asia-Pacific has influenced the way people consume content. It is important to deliver a solution that prepares, protects and delivers content onto any screen, especially mobile devices. Content providers can work with technology partners to publish and secure the premium content they have invested in onto more screens in order to reach new markets and generate more revenue. For example, in Malaysia, Astro designed Astro On-the-Go to nurture and attract new subscribers with a more personalised, flexible entertainment experience beyond the living room.
By making use of their extensive user database, content providers can also provide features such as search, discovery and recommendation to create a more compelling, quality user experience, thereby increasing customer loyalty and generating new sources of revenue.
Protecting Premium Content
Content providers want to protect their investment in premium content and adhere to the licenses they have, but pirates are adapting to the market and using video business complexity to their advantage. Traditional solutions are no longer sufficient.
For content owners and providers, the piracy threat is shifting from broadcast related piracy such as control word sharing to online or streaming piracy. To effectively protect business models against new threats, content owners and providers must evolve their anti-piracy strategy and implement more innovative technologies as well as leverage different expertise and networks to track down and stop pirates. Governments can also assist with policies that help encourage new technological innovation and reduce illegal download activity. These efforts serve as a deterrent as they make the theft of content more complicated.
Content providers must also ensure uncompromising security on any device to satisfy content owners, or they may have risk losing their rights to premium content in addition to facilitating piracy.
The Road Ahead
There is no “one size fits all” solution to solve the piracy conundrum – and no single legislation or piece of technology will completely resolve such a complex problem. There are, however, many tools and services that can help to reduce piracy. A collaborative effort is needed from both industry and the government to protect the intellectual property rights of copyright holders. It is important to have an open conversation between all stakeholders, including content owners, pay-TV providers, OTT service providers, government and technology developers on how to implement the best solutions in order to reduce piracy.
