We live in the golden age of streaming with multiple platforms, from Netflix to HBO and Disney+ to Amazon's Prime Video, creating and distributing amazing content. And one would have thought that with such easy access to online content, piracy would become a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the reality is very different. The music industry saw something very similar, with advances in technology leading to greater copyright infringements. Streaming didn't just make downloading music illegally cheap, it had made it incredibly convenient.

The fact is that streaming sites saw a 16% increase in piracy in 2021, with 132 billion pirate site visits in the first 9 months of the year alone. Pirated video content gets more than 230 billion views a year, while over 80% of online piracy worldwide is attributed to illegal streaming services. The result is annual revenue losses between $40 billion and $97 billion globally in the movie industry alone.

The Impact of Piracy on Streaming Services

In 2021, Black Widow, Wonder Woman 1984 and Godzilla vs King Kong were available on piracy sites days before they became available on legal streaming sites. Piracy is not just leading to loss of revenue for streaming services, it is decimating the livelihood of content creators and directly impacting wages in the sector. In the USA alone, between 230K and 560K jobs are lost, while $47.5 billion to $115.3 billion is lost from the GDP due to online video piracy each year.

The real problem is that 70% of online users don’t see anything wrong in viewing pirated content. What’s more, 34% of Gen Zers are using stream-ripping. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that online movies and TV are projected to lose more than $50 billion in revenues in 2022.

Intellectual property lawyers will have their hands full with all this piracy, but does it really help to deal with the situation after the damage is done? Wouldn’t it be better to prevent piracy in the first place?

How to Protect Your Assets

There are some things that streaming services and content creators can do right away to curb piracy. Here’s a look.

Educate Your Audience

Piracy is so common these days that many people don’t even know that they are watching illegal content. So, the first step is to educate your audience. The main goal should be to highlight that piracy is a criminal offense. Secondly, let them know that you put your heart and soul into creating unique, engaging and thrilling content, but are robbed of your well-deserved rewards due to intellectual property theft and copyright infringement.

Reduce Service Costs

One of the key reasons that people turn to pirated content is because it is cheap, if not free. Although you cannot run your streaming service by providing free content, you could consider tweaking the fee. The consumer should view their subscription as providing them value for money. For example, Netflix’s packages start at $9.99 in the United States and go up to $19.99, depending upon the number of screens that can use the same subscription simultaneously. Could Netflix benefit from going back to its low subscription charges?

Along with reduced costs, user experience is crucial. Today’s consumer has high expectations of video or picture quality with no buffering. If a streaming company can provide all this, along with personalised recommendations and experiences, they are more likely to win customer loyalty.

Watermark Your Content

A major method of preventing your content from being shared on pirated sites is to put a watermark on your content. The watermark may be visible or invisible, based on the viewer. This technology uses several pieces of information, such as IP address or geographical location, to display or not display the watermark. If a pirated copy of the content is then found on the internet, special software can identify the watermark and the original purchaser.

Limit Password Sharing

Most people don’t see password sharing as stealing. There are malicious elements who take advantage of this and offer password sharing at a much lower cost than the actual subscription fee to the streaming service. Statistics show that one in five users are logging into Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video using someone else’s credentials. These “subscription moochers” usually continue with this for up to 26 months on average, leading to continued revenue losses for the streaming service.

Use Technology to Prevent Piracy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) offer a powerful way to protect your copyright content. These technologies can scour millions of simultaneous data connections to find patterns and anomalies in real-time. Red flags can then be immediately raised so that action can be taken before any loss of content occurs.

AI and ML can also track login processes, IP addresses, geographical locations of users and more to identify unauthorised access. In fact, AI can also be used to establish identity proof.

Mediastalker is a pioneer in providing powerful AI/ML solutions to proactively protect online content against piracy. With the use of cutting-edge technologies, we have built a plug-and-play software solution that enhances the speed and accuracy of security measures, as compared to manual processes. With the power of technology, we ensure real-time monitoring and threat identification, so that measures can be taken before any damage is done. Our clients gain access to real-time data and analytics, so that they can see how their assets are being protected at all times.

Contact us to learn how we can help you protect your intellectual property and your company’s revenue.