DAZN is bolstering its anti-piracy defenses. The sports streaming service is teaming up with cybersecurity company, Irdeto, to use its forensic watermarking solution, Tracemark. The tool will help DAZN track security weaknesses in distribution channels and identify and disrupt individual pirate sessions and unauthorized streams, according to Irdeto.
Piracy has become significantly easier in the last few years. When streaming service subscriptions spiked in 2020, the use of illegal IPTV services climbed alongside it. Live sports streaming is a lucrative market projected to reach over $93 million by 2030. In August, DAZN said piracy costs the entire sports industry $316.9 million annually.
“Premium live sports is one of the biggest forms of content driving the OTT live streaming industry, making live sports a primary target for piracy,” Irdeto CEO Dough Lowther said in a statement. “Irdeto’s insights from decades of fighting piracy and cyber threats, coupled with the best technology and DAZN’s team of experts, will be key to shutting down pirates and cyber criminals.”
Irdeto’s Tracemark tool places an invisible, unique forensic watermark into live content. This will allow DAZN to find the offending end-users more efficiently and take action, according to Irdeto.
“With these solutions, DAZN hopes to more effectively tackle pirates through enforcement and the better use of technology, while educating fans of the risks of accessing pirated content,” Sandeep Tiku, DAZN Group Chief Technology Officer, said in a statement.
In May, DAZN said it was partnering with Videocities to use AI to locate illegal sports streams online — even social media. The AI would be able to detect illegal streams even if the video had been altered. To avoid detection, pirates sometimes flip or rotate images. DAZN also began working with the Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment and 52 other companies to further combat digital piracy.
The world is rapidly becoming more digital and in turn, there are more opportunities for bad actors to operate illegally. DAZN’s new security tech won’t eradicate illegal IPTV services, but it will likely see some success.