beIN Media Group’s TOD sports and entertainment OTT subscription service has chosen FMTS’s watermarking and anti-piracy services to protect its content including blockbuster movies, the Premier League and the US Open.
As part of a commitment to rights holders and subscribers to fend off piracy, TOD chose to partner with FMTS watermarking for its proven robustness, low-latency extraction, unrivalled anti-piracy capabilities, and the flexibility to customise specific elements to meet its unique requirements.
“Our parent company, beIN, has been vocal about its efforts to tackle piracy and, here at TOD, we are committed to building on that reputation for innovative thinking and leadership,” said James Walmsley, Director of Technology, Product and Analytics at TOD.
“It is not just about securing our valuable content, but we also take seriously our responsibility to protect our TOD subscribers from the harms of piracy. We chose to partner with FMTS due to its impressive client list, great results, as well as its seamless integration into our workflows. It was rapidly deployed with minimal infrastructure investment, providing a fast and efficient solution to combat piracy.”
The FMTS watermarking solution enables TOD to quickly identify any sources of piracy and protect all types of content, including immediate intervention during live sports, where every second matters. By embedding watermarks at the subscriber level, FMTS can trace which specific subscriptions are being exploited to illegally re-stream content. Once these accounts are pinpointed, the TOD team can promptly take action including revoking the user’s account and disabling the pirated content.
Shane McCarthy, CEO, Friend MTS, said, “This was a great collaboration between us and the TOD and beIN anti-piracy teams to integrate our industry-leading watermarking solution into the latest version of the TOD platform. TOD had some specific requirements on top of the standard solution, and our team went above and beyond to deliver this unique feature set within the timeframe.”
Since going live across MENA in January 2022, TOD has made a series of technical innovations. The latest version of the platform delivers 4K streaming across all devices – including iOS, Android, and smart TVs – and offers new interactive features for sports fans such as multi-view, real-time stats, player positioning, and match highlights.
