As we near the end of the year, FMTS have been looking back at the huge summer of sport that we enjoyed in 2024. With highlights including The Paris 2024 Olympics, UEFA Euros, Wimbledon and the Tour De France, it’s been a busy summer for sports fans to soak in. But as with any popular streaming event, piracy is not far behind. FMTS has been involved in anti-piracy efforts for a number of high-profile events this summer, so we thought we might take a look at some of the major sporting events that took place, and how we helped our clients take the fight to the pirates and win back revenue.
A summer of sport
Analysis shows that half of sports fans prefer following big events rather than following sports all year round, meaning that large summer sports competitions draw some of the highest viewership figures seen that year. And the value of the rights to these sports is big business. Estimates indicate that the media rights for The Olympics alone are in the region of $3.4 billion.
High-value, high-interest content always attracts pirates, who are quick to step in and divert revenue from legitimate providers. This year was no exception.
FMTS protecting sport in 2024
FMTS is well-versed in protecting live sports. From working closely with UEFA to help protect the beautiful game to teaming with Canadian broadcasters to safeguard major sports leagues, our award-winning technology helps stop piracy around the world.
This summer, we protected over 8,000 hours of live sports content, locating almost 400,000 instances of piracy. FMTS also issued over 900,000 escalation notices, working closely with content owners and, media rights holders, and ISPs and regulatory bodies to keep content secure.
As a world leader in live event content security, our solutions are the fastest, most scalable and most accurate available to sports, media and entertainment. FMTS is trusted by the world's largest and best-known sports leagues, broadcasters and media partners: protecting close to $60bn worth of media rights for our customers around the world. But how are these live events protected?
The secret to protecting live sport
Unlike some other types of content, protecting live sport is a matter of speed. With some live sports events lasting only a matter of minutes – protecting this content requires specialist technology and expertise, both technical and legal.
End-to-end protection is essential, and there are three essential areas to focus on; Monitor, Identity, and Disrupt. Scalable, highly automated monitoring systems can quickly find stolen content anywhere in the digital landscape, whilst watermarking swiftly identifies the origins of illegal redistribution, allowing you to take immediate action. Enforcement solutions then put a stop to this piracy, cutting off the sources of piracy that threaten the value of live sports content.
Live sports and blocking
One of the most effective enforcement strategies is blocking. No less than three recent studies concluded that when sites were blocked, traffic decreased to those sites between 70-89% in different locations, and a fourth separate study concluded that legitimate streaming services saw a 5-8% uptick in lawful streaming as a result. This data proves that blocking can truly turn the tide upon illegal redistribution and drive viewers back to legitimate sources.
There are a number of blocking options available, and which might be most suitable can depend on your content and geography. But whether live sports are protected by Domain Blocking or Dynamic Server Blocking the evidence is clear: blocking effectively protects live sports. This summer, during the busy sports season, FMTS identified over 24,000 IP addresses to be blocked to help keep live sports exclusive to rights holders.
Work with FMTS to protect your live sports
Whatever your live sports content, FMTS has the expertise to help you protect your revenue and drive viewership back to legitimate sources.
Contact us today to find out more.
