Falcon Media House : Overcoming the pirates of Game of Thrones

30 August 2017

Creators and content owners around the world would have flinched at hearing therecent newsthat HBO's latest series of Game of Thrones had been pirated more than 90 million times. According to analysis firm Muso, this makes it one of the most illegally watched pieces of content ever. This certainly isn't an accolade the writers, producers and directors, not to mention the millions of paying viewers would wish for the series, now in its seventh season.

An old problem, but bigger

Piracy isn't a new problem facing the creative industries; copying of analogue music and video tapes long preceded the Internet and the Digital boom, and its earliest roots can be traced back tosilent movies at the end of the 19th century when exhibitors screened rented films for longer than they had paid for.

The same issues that prevailed then exist today, except that the Internet multiplies the size of the problem by a huge factor, as it enables greater scale, scope and immediacy; which explains the staggering number of illegal views of the latest Game of Thrones episodes.

Half-measures = half solutions

Technology is only part of the solution. Production, business and distribution processes must all change to tackle this growing problem.

The staggered release windowing system represents an opportunity for the pirates to take content from the first territory and release it elsewhere, one way of alleviating this is to unify the release windows.

Digitally stored and distributed content such as DVDs is basically a means of providing the pirates with first generation master copies, but as DVD distribution volumes continue to fall and real-time streaming takes over, this source of original content will abate.

Other measures are limited in their abilities to curb the illegal reproduction and sharing of content. Basic Watermarking is only effective by enabling the copyright owner to follow the distribution, it's not a preventive piracy measure. Conditional Access as a part of the DRM process is a validation process that remains useful to manage service access, but it's not content protection as such and does not prevent piracy.

Reason for hope So how do the creative industries protect themselves from the same headaches that the people behind Game of Thrones have been suffering from? And how can they insure against future privacy violations in the future?

A big stride in the right direction to limiting the negative impact of piracy would be to treat the world as one addressable audience and use real-time OTT streaming, whilst not allowing local storage or downloads. It would also help manage digital copy leaks during the pre and post production phases. This is a fundamental shift that should give all DRM companies food for thought about what to do next, including the huge potential of Blockchain technology.

Our Quiptel technology can enable Hollywood's production houses to offer their audiences a seamless OTT viewing experience, whilst helping them make life a lot harder for pirates who illegally and unfairly profit from their craft. We're positive that a better future lies ahead, and one where OTT can help see the pirates walk the plank.