Streaming the World Cup: Preventing Piracy on the Global Playing Field

[Commentary] With the 2014 World Cup kicking off, there is significant opportunity to engage fútbol aficionados by putting access to the games in their hands -- both literally and figuratively.

Univision’s Spanish-language coverage is disrupting the sports streaming model by eliminating all barriers and providing live, around-the-clock coverage for 56 matches on multiple screens, including TV, online and several mobile platforms, including Unimás and Univision Deportes.

During 2010’s World Cup, Univision reached more than 32 million viewers, and that number is expected to grow across all platforms. We are focused on broadcasting the games to as many viewers as possible and in as many platforms as possible. As new products and providers emerge every day, live-streaming piracy is on the rise and is a challenge that requires serious attention -- yet it also represents a significant opportunity to learn from business intelligence and to deliver on unmet consumer demand.

Here, we explore three key steps to help content owners and distributors disrupt piracy, reengage consumers, and uncover business intelligence from piracy.

• Good defense: Disrupting piracy and protecting your rights isn’t just about setting up barriers and thinking, “my content is secure now.”
• Reengage your fans: Give them the stadium experience anywhere and everywhere. People of all ages watch the World Cup.
• Use data to predict the next move and come up with a better game plan: This step is possibly the most important, because content owners and distributors can’t move ahead unless they know what pirate activity happened during a broadcast.

[Viva is Vice President, Univision; Ragland is Vice President, Irdeto]