DAZN, Irdeto team to fight premium sports piracy
November 28, 2022
By Colin Mann
Recognising that the past few years have proved that the only way to tackle piracy in sports streaming broadcasting is for the industry to collaborate and form a unified approach to address the cyber threats, sports streaming platform DAZN and digital platform cybersecurity specialist Irdeto are joining forces to address the misuse of premium content and fight video piracy in sports streaming.
The existing partnership has been extended to include Irdeto Anti-Piracy services, enabling DAZN to strengthen its efforts in keeping its premium content safe from illegal streaming and sharing. Simultaneously, Irdeto has become DAZN’s primary multi-DRM provider.
DAZN’s significant growth has been driven by geographical expansion and live sports rights over the past few years, making fighting piracy a top business priority. If unchecked, piracy results in sports losing vital funding globally throughout the value chain, from the world’s top leagues to grassroots clubs, negatively impacting the entire industry.
“DAZN is committed to creating a global sports streaming service that delivers for fans and partners alike,” stated Sandeep Tiku, DAZN Group CTO. “To do that takes significant investment in acquiring rights and developing technology. The damaging effects of piracy are clear – potentially reducing investment for sports at all levels, exposing fans to privacy and security risks, and funding organized crime. Working with Irdeto, DAZN can more effectively tackle the pirates through enforcement and better use of technology, while educating fans of the risks of accessing pirated content.”
DAZN has used Irdeto’s digital assets management and protection expertise since 2020 when the company integrated Irdeto Control into their technology. Earlier in 2022, the existing partnership was strengthened by Irdeto becoming the primary multi-DRM provider. Since the full implementation of Irdeto Control, DAZN latency has decreased significantly. Additionally, Irdeto forensic TraceMark and a range of Cybersecurity Services (CS) have been added to the products and services mix provided by Irdeto.
The Irdeto Anti-Piracy Suite can be leveraged to solve a broad range of business threats as well as to predict the challenges on the horizon. The suite is tailored to DAZN’s needs and allows DAZN to prepare, adapt and respond to the diversity of cyber and piracy threats that may affect them easily and quickly. With the Anti-Piracy Suite, DAZN can identify new piracy activities, sale of counterfeit products, and analyse emerging market trends to implement best practices and ensure they are one step ahead of the pirates.
The dedicated anti-piracy team of DAZN works closely with the Irdeto team of experts to counteract piracy through investigation and enforcement operations, injunctions and continuous innovation in subscriber protections. They will continue to act to protect premium content, to back the sports streaming industry as activists in this space and to secure the integrity of the industry fans.
According to Irdeto, the extended partnership between Irdeto and DAZN will result in a more profound knowledge sharing of the ever-evolving challenges related to the world of live sports streaming. It will allow Irdeto to tailor and evolve Anti-Piracy Services and solutions to address emerging industry issues.
“Premium live sports is one of the biggest forms of content driving the OTT live streaming industry, which has made live sports a primary target for piracy,” commented Mark Mulready, VP of Cyber Services at Irdeto. “We are very excited about taking our partnership with DAZN to the next level, working together to protect their premium content. Irdeto’s wisdom and insights gained 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 cybercriminals.”