LYNDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems is reporting that its DASDEC Emergency Alert System (EAS) platform supports the new password requirements recently adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), enabling users to comply with the new rules through capabilities that are built into the system.

The announcement follows the Federal Communications Commission’s adoption of FCC 26-38, which establishes new cybersecurity requirements for Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants, including a requirement that passwords be at least 15 characters long. All current versions of DASDEC software already support passwords up to 16 characters, enabling users to meet the new requirement immediately without installing software updates or waiting for new password-management features.

FCC 26-38, the Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking establishing the new cybersecurity password requirements, requires EAS participants to comply within 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. While the publication date has not yet been announced, DASDEC customers are already equipped to meet the new password requirement using capabilities built into current versions of the platform.

“Cybersecurity has been a core design principle for DASDEC for many years, not merely a response to changing regulations,” said a spokesperson for Digital Alert Systems. “The FCC’s new password requirement aligns with established security best practices that our customers have already been able to implement. Our goal has always been to provide broadcasters, cable operators and other EAS participants with practical security tools that help protect these critical public safety systems.”

Beyond password length, DASDEC incorporates multiple layers of security designed to strengthen access control. The platform requires users to replace the factory-default password upon first sign-in, blocks common and prohibited passwords, prevents password reuse and warns administrators when passwords are more than 180 days old. DASDEC also locks accounts after multiple unsuccessful login attempts, helping slow automated brute-force attacks.

For organizations managing multiple facilities or EAS devices, DASDEC supports enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) integrations. SSO enables administrators to manage user authentication centrally, assign role-based permissions, monitor access and quickly revoke credentials across connected systems when personnel changes occur. By reducing the need to maintain separate passwords for individual devices, SSO also encourages the use of stronger, more complex credentials throughout the organization.

More information is available on the company’s website.

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland, and PHOENIX, Ariz.—Nagravision has launched Nagra Venturi, a new intelligence-led streaming security offering that helps service providers and rights holders detect threats, combat piracy, and safeguard revenue.

Nagra Venturi brings Nagravision’s streaming security capabilities together under a single intelligence-led model, shifting anti-piracy from fragmented, reactive tools to coordinated, data-driven offering.

“With AI in the hands of pirates, the market has reached an inflection point,” said Morten Solbakken, executive vice president and COO at Nagravision. “As piracy becomes faster, more automated, and increasingly intelligent, the industry needs a new approach. Nagra Venturi is built to fight AI with AI, giving operators and rights holders the ability to move faster and with greater precision, providing the clarity to see the full picture, the focus to target the threats that matter, and the impact to protect revenue and the audience experience.”

The new offering is designed to address the fact that today’s pirate operations are automated and increasingly AI-assisted, scaling illegal services globally within minutes and targeting live sports during the narrow window when content is most valuable. That has put operators and rights holders in the difficult position of managing growing volumes of data and alerts, without clarity on which actions will make the biggest difference.

Nagra Venturi answers that challenge by transforming security data into prioritized, decisive action. It aggregates and analyzes data from across the streaming ecosystem to create a real-time view of piracy activity, identifies the highest-value threats, and coordinates targeted intervention where it will have the greatest business impact. Rather than reacting to every signal, teams can focus on the threats that matter most to their business.

Through its managed service option, Nagra Venturi includes Nexus, the Nagra Anti-Piracy Center, where analysts coordinate monitoring, intelligence, investigation, and enforcement against a global view of piracy activity. Because Nagravision tracks the wider ecosystem rather than a single network, it can uncover pirate infrastructure and leaked content that individual operators may never see, then coordinate disruption across multiple points at once to maximize impact. Individual solutions, including forensic watermarking and multi-DRM, remain available as standalone solutions within the Nagra Venturi portfolio.

“For more than 30 years, Nagravision has protected the world’s most valuable content,” adds Solbakken. “Built on that heritage—and informed by decades of front-line anti-piracy intelligence—Nagra Venturi moves content protection from a reactive, tool-based model to a proactive, intelligence-led one designed for today’s piracy landscape. Nagravision is proud to be leading the charge to help its customers demonstrate the impact of their anti-piracy strategy—one that proves its value in commercial terms, not just technical ones.”

To learn more about Nagra Venturi, visit nagra.vision.

AMSTERDAM—Axel Gallant has been named as the new CEO of Irdeto, a digital platform cybersecurity firm owned by French media company Canal+.

Gallant succeeds Doug Lowther, who had served as Irdeto’s CEO since 2015 and will step down from the company.

Gallant has worked at The Canal+ Group since 2013, managing various pay TV businesses across Africa, Europe and Asia.

“This track record gives him the experience and perspective to guide Irdeto through its next phase of growth and innovation,” Stéphane Baumier, chief technology officer at Canal+, said.

During Lowther’s tenure as CEO, Irdeto more than doubled its video security market share and developed new businesses in video games and smart mobility, the company said. Prior to being named CEO, Lowther had been executive vice president, digital TV, expanding Irdeto’s product line into new services such as video-on-demand and streaming TV.

“Doug has provided strong leadership during a pivotal period in Irdeto’s history,” Baumier said. “On behalf of the Canal+ Group, we thank him for his contributions and commitment to Irdeto.”

Lowther and Gallant will work together to ensure a seamless leadership transition for customers, partners and employees, the company said.

“The last decade has been marked by constant change in the world and in the industries we serve, and it’s been a great honor to lead the incredible people at Irdeto during that time,” Lowther said of his 11-year tenure. “I’d like to thank our customers, partners, and stakeholders for the trust they have placed in us and the privilege of working with them.”

For more on Irdeto, visit its website.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Netgear has announced a global technology partnership with EVS Broadcast Equipment to deliver certified, interoperable AV–over–IP solutions for broadcast and live production teams. The companies have validated EVS live production systems on Netgear AV switching platforms, giving customers a pretested network foundation for IP–based workflows.

The partnership focuses on open, standards–based deployments that help customers adopt SMPTE ST 2110 and related IP workflows with less integration effort and more predictable results in real–world productions, the companies said.

“When productions shift to IP, the network can’t be an afterthought,” said Dieter Backx, Vice President of Control and Orchestration at EVS. “We’ve validated our media infrastructure solutions on Netgear’s AV switches so customers can spend less time tuning infrastructure and more time running shows. It’s a practical and efficient path to SMPTE ST 2110 workflows, or any other IP transport mechanism such as NDI or Dante, whether on site, remote, or distributed environments.”

Netgear and EVS jointly tested EVS technologies—including Cerebrum, Neuron and Strada—across Netgear M4350 and M4250 series switches. Netgear also provides supported configuration guidance and Netgear Engage Controller profiles, backed by AV–focused technical support services, so teams can bring validated configurations online faster.

The validated approach supports fully IP–based live production workflows and improves day–to–day deployment consistency. Customers can use out–of–the–box configurations designed to shorten setup and reduce risk. The result is more predictable behavior across key network requirements such as broadcast–grade timing, QoS, and bandwidth handling, the companies said.

Beyond lab testing, the partnership includes joint work on customer deployments, training, and global technical support. Netgear and EVS are focused on helping broadcast teams build interoperable AV–over–IP environments that scale as production needs evolve. The partnership is global in scope, with no geographic limitations, and becomes effective upon the joint announcement.

“As live production continues its transition to IP, customers want proven solutions they can deploy with confidence,” said Richard Jonker, Vice President of Commercial Business Development at Netgear. “By validating EVS live media infrastructure solutions on our AV switches, we’re providing a reliable, standards–based network foundation that simplifies deployment while delivering the timing accuracy and performance required in mission–critical broadcast environments.”

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland and PHOENIX—Nagravision today announced the launch of a new fully managed, event-based watermarking-as-a-service solution with Harmonic, extending a long-standing collaboration. The solution will be available as an upgrade for existing Harmonic VOS 360 Media SaaS customers or as part of the NAGRA Streaming Security solution.

The combined, event-ready watermarking-as-a-service solution builds on deep technical integration between Harmonic’s VOS 360 Media solution and NAGRA NexGuard forensic watermarking, a core component of the NAGRA Streaming Security solution that allows rights owners to quickly identify and mitigate illegal restreaming during live events. Together, they enable major live sports and OTT event streamers to activate A/B watermarking— increasingly mandated by content rights holders — with dramatically reduced operational burdens, complexity, and cost.

In addition, the solution removes the challenges of deploying and maintaining the infrastructure required for high-volume, low-latency switching. By deploying NAGRA NexGuard forensic watermarking as a fully managed service on Harmonic’s cloud-native SaaS solution, operators pay only for the events where forensic watermarking is required. Harmonic manages the end-to-end orchestration, scalability and service up-time. This new operational model significantly reduces both per-event cost and internal engineering overheads, Harmonic said.

“As consumers increasingly turn to streaming to watch live events, our customers need powerful security solutions that are effortless to deploy and deliver strong business outcomes,” said Gil Rudge, Senior Vice President, Solutions and Americas Sales at Harmonic.

“Through our long-standing collaboration with Nagravision, we are delivering watermarking-as-a-service that eliminates complexity, lowers costs and activates only when needed. This is exactly the type of agile, event-based security model the market has been asking for.”

“As our industry continues to face high levels of live sports piracy, our customers need solutions that deliver uncompromising security to protect their investments in premium content,” said Stéphane Le Dreau, senior vice president, Global Product Management & Sales Development at Nagravision.

“Our expanded solution with Harmonic makes our well-established edge-based forensic watermarking accessible as an on-demand service that fits the operational realities of today’s major event streamers. It is the pragmatic innovation that the market needs as more live events are delivered via streaming.”

Harmonic will be in Booth W2831 and Nagravision will be in meeting room W2379MR, both in the West Hall of the LVCC during the 2026 NAB Show, April 19-22 in Las Vegas.

The recent crackdown led by the U.S. Department of Justice targeting several large-scale piracy websites should be seen as both a win and a warning for the media and entertainment industry.

In a coordinated international operation, authorities seized domains tied to some of the most popular piracy platforms, including sites that attracted tens of millions of visits annually and enabled widespread distribution of unauthorized movies, TV shows, and other digital content. These platforms hosted thousands of infringing works and facilitated millions of illegal downloads, generating significant revenue in the process.

On the surface, this looks like progress. And it is. But it also highlights a deeper issue that the industry can no longer ignore. By the time enforcement actions like this take place, piracy has already scaled, monetized, and caused substantial damage.

The Reality Behind Modern Piracy Operations

What the recent takedown reinforces is just how advanced piracy ecosystems have become. These were not small, niche operations. They were highly trafficked platforms, in some cases ranking among the most visited websites in their regions.

This reflects a broader shift. Piracy is no longer a fragmented activity driven by individuals. It has evolved into a structured, scalable business model. Today’s illegal platforms are often built using cloud infrastructure, automated ingestion tools, and sophisticated distribution pipelines. In many cases, they offer user experiences that closely resemble legitimate streaming services. For consumers, the line between legal and illegal access has never been more blurred.

This is why the concept of “piracy-as-a-service” is no longer an exaggeration. Entire ecosystems now exist to support the rapid deployment and monetization of stolen content.

Enforcement Alone Can’t Keep Up

The DOJ-led seizure demonstrates that coordinated enforcement can be effective. But it also illustrates a fundamental limitation. Enforcement is, by definition, reactive. Authorities step in after platforms have already gained traction, attracted millions of users, and distributed vast amounts of content. Even when domains are seized and infrastructure is dismantled, the underlying networks and expertise often remain intact. New platforms can and do emerge, sometimes within days.

We see this pattern repeatedly. A major operation shuts down one set of sites, only for others to take their place. It is an ongoing cycle that mirrors a game of whack-a-mole, but at global scale. For broadcasters and streaming providers, this creates a critical gap. By the time action is taken, the most valuable window for protecting content has already passed.

The Live Content Problem and Expanding Attack Surface

Nowhere is this more evident than with live programming. Sports, news, and special events derive the majority of their value in real time. If a live stream is captured and redistributed during the broadcast window, even a swift takedown may come too late. The audience has already migrated, and the revenue opportunity is lost. This is why relying solely on enforcement is increasingly risky. It does not align with how quickly piracy operates today.

Another factor complicating the challenge is the rapid expansion of the content delivery ecosystem. Streaming services now reach audiences across a wide range of unmanaged devices, including smart TVs, mobile apps, browsers, and connected set-top boxes. Each of these endpoints represents a potential entry point for piracy.

If protections at the device or session level are insufficient, streams can be captured and redistributed with minimal effort. In parallel, techniques such as CDN leeching allow bad actors to exploit legitimate delivery infrastructure to scale their operations further. The result is a vastly larger and more complex attack surface than the industry has faced in the past.

Why Proactive Defense Is No Longer Optional

The lesson from the recent DOJ action is not just that piracy is widespread. It is that the industry is still largely responding after the fact. To change that, the focus must shift toward prevention.

A proactive anti-piracy strategy starts with visibility. Operators need to understand how their content is being accessed, where it is flowing, and how it behaves across networks and devices. Abnormal patterns, such as unusual concurrency levels or unexpected geographic distribution, can provide early indicators of illicit activity.

From there, the goal is to reduce the opportunity for piracy to occur in the first place. This includes strengthening device authentication, limiting credential abuse, and deploying forensic watermarking to trace leaks back to their source. Real-time monitoring and automated response mechanisms are equally important, enabling operators to act immediately rather than in hours.

Perhaps most importantly, anti-piracy systems must be adaptable. Pirates are constantly evolving their methods, often iterating on new techniques within hours. Defensive strategies must be just as dynamic.

The recent enforcement serves as a snapshot of an ongoing battle. It also serves as a reminder that the industry cannot rely on enforcement alone to solve the problem. Legal action will always play a critical role, but it is only one part of the equation.

For broadcasters, streaming providers, and content owners, the path forward requires a true shift in mindset. Instead of asking how quickly pirated content can be taken down, the more important question is how to prevent it from appearing at all. That shift from reactive to proactive is a strategic necessity. Because in today’s piracy landscape, being even a few steps behind is no longer sustainable.

Learn more at www.verimatrix.com.

Deepfake images can be easily manipulated to remove ‘AI fingerprints’ making it difficult to conclude if an image has been AI generated, a study has found.

It is also possible for hackers to change an image’s AI fingerprint so it falsely appears to come from a different model. This could be used to wrongly blame legitimate tech companies for harmful images their systems never actually created.

Experts say improvements in AI fingerprinting techniques combined with watermarking of AI-generated images would strengthen the detection of deepfakes.

Generative AI is now capable of creating images nearly indistinguishable from real photos, raising concerns about the use of these technologies for scams and misinformation campaigns.

Hinder Investigations
One promising approach to mitigate these risks is AI fingerprinting—a group of techniques that detect unique, invisible traces that AI models leave in their images, which helps identify the specific generator that produced them.

Removing fingerprints would hinder forensic investigations into deepfakes. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh have found that these fingerprints can be removed or manipulated using various modes of attack.

In the first part of the study, a security evaluation of fingerprinting techniques for generative AI was performed. Adversarial attacks were then developed that aimed to remove or forge fingerprints across a range of threat scenarios.

These scenarios ranged from powerful attackers with full access to the inner workings of the image generator to low-resource attackers with no special access.

The scientists simulated these attacks on 12 image generators and 14 fingerprinting methods in the largest evaluation of such techniques to date.

Many fingerprinting methods were found to achieve high accuracy in detecting unaltered deepfake images, but performance drops dramatically once the image is attacked.

'Smudging Fingerprints'
Fingerprint removal was found to be highly effective, often achieving more than 80% success for attackers with full knowledge of an image generator and just over 50% for simple attacks with no knowledge of the generator’s inner workings.

In several cases, simple changes to an image such as JPEG compression, resizing or blurring are enough to 'smudge' the fingerprints.

Fingerprint forgery—misrepresentation of the AI model used to generate the image—was less effective than removal overall, but half of the image generators evaluated were vulnerable to this kind of attack.

All attacks were imperceptible to the human eye, leaving no visible evidence on the images. None of the evaluated fingerprinting techniques delivered both high accuracy and resistance to attack across all threat scenarios.

By pinpointing where and why current approaches fail, it should be possible to build stronger methods of deepfake detection, especially when paired with watermarking – the process of embedding a hidden digital signature into AI-generated content.

The findings from this work were peer reviewed and will be presented at the IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning (SaTML) in Munich this week. A copy of the final version of the paper is available here.

This work was supported by the Edinburgh International Data Facility, the Data-Driven Innovation Programme and the Generative AI Laboratory, all at the University of Edinburgh.

Kai Yao, PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics and author on the paper, said: “We were surprised to find just how fragile these AI fingerprints truly are. We expected that sophisticated attacks would be effective, but seeing that simple, everyday image edits could effectively ‘smudge’ the forensic evidence was a real wake-up call. It suggests that many of the deepfake detection methods based on image fingerprinting might fail the moment an image is shared or edited in the real world.”

Dr Marc Juarez, Lecturer in Cyber Security and Privacy at the University of Edinburgh and also an author on the paper, said: "Deploying these techniques without considering the threats they face could give a false sense of security. If fingerprinting is to be used to hold bad actors accountable, it must ensure that fingerprints cannot be easily removed or forged, as any accountability tool will itself become a target for attack. The community must therefore move beyond optimising for performance alone and incorporate adversarial robustness into their evaluation methodology."

WASHINGTON—In an important development for news organizations and video producers using drones, the Federal Communications Commission updated its Covered List of banned products to remove four Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS). The agency made the move after the Department of War (DoW) determined they do to not pose national security risks.

The Covered List is a listing of products that can not be sold in the U.S.

In December of 2025, following an interagency determination of unacceptable national security risks, the FCC added all UAS and UAS critical components produced in a foreign country to the Covered List, preventing them getting approval for the import or sale of new models in the U.S.

The agency stressed that the ban is on the sale of new models and products that have not been approved. Owners of existing products from DJI and other manufacturers who were put on the Covered list can still be used and operated, though getting parts to repair them could pose problems.

In January of this year, DoW made a further determination that (until Jan. 1, 2027), three types of UAS and UAS critical components do not pose security risks and the FCC removed them from Covered List.

Those three types are: (1) UAS and UAS critical components included on DoW’s Blue UAS Cleared List; (2) UAS and UAS critical components that qualify as “domestic end products” under the Buy American Standard; and (3) UAS and UAS critical components that receive “Conditional Approval.”

On March 18, the FCC received its first batch of Conditional Approvals and updated the Covered List accordingly to exempt “devices which have been granted Conditional Approval.”

The four exemptions are:

• SiFly Aviation, Inc. Q12 Uncrewed Aircraft System
• Mobilicom SkyHopper Series / M Band / Tactical Data Link, Various Controllers, and ICE, OS3 Security Software
• ScoutDI Scout 137 Uncrewed Aircraft System
• Verge, Inc. X1 Uncrewed Aircraft System

Content is still king and when it comes to protecting it, you need the latest insight on the technology, regulations and expertise required to combat piracy. In our Special Guide to Content Protection, TV Tech and TVBEurope examine the current state of content protection and the technologies being developed to lessen the threats that can impact your business.

Download the Guide here.

I can still remember the first time I clipped a lavalier microphone on someone for a TV broadcast. It was during my internship at AT&T Corporate Television in 1978, back when razor blades were still used for editing and the smell of hot glue meant progress.

The mic was a Sony ECM-50, a small, rugged piece of engineering that quickly became my favorite. It needed a quirky little “N” battery that you could only find in specialty stores, but it sounded beautiful.

A few months later, I met what felt like pure science fiction: my first professional wireless microphone system. It was a Sony UHF transmitter and receiver paired with that same ECM-50 element, and for the first time, I could capture sound without being chained to a cable. The audio was clear, the signal was stable, and there were no wires to trip over. It just worked.

For a long time, wireless microphones felt like magic. Today, they feel more like triage. The magic has been replaced by management. Behind every concert, broadcast, or corporate event, there’s now a quiet war being fought over invisible real estate: radio spectrum.

The Shrinking Airwaves
Wireless microphones used to have plenty of room to breathe. For decades, most systems operated comfortably within the UHF television range from 470-806 MHz. These frequencies offered the perfect balance of power, antenna size, and propagation. But that was before governments realized the commercial value of those airwaves.

The first big hit came in 2009, when the transition to digital television freed up the 700 MHz band. The Federal Communications Commission auctioned that space to mobile broadband carriers like AT&T and Verizon, shrinking the number of open TV channels available for wireless microphone use. A few years later, it happened again with the 600 MHz band, much of which went to T-Mobile. Each time, the usable spectrum for professional microphones shrank.

While those auctions raised billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury, none of that windfall ever found its way back to the professional audio community that once depended on those frequencies. Wireless microphone users—from broadcasters to theaters to houses of worship—lost access to critical portions of the spectrum without compensation or assistance to transition. The mobile carriers that won the auctions gained valuable assets, while production teams were left scrambling to replace equipment and redesign systems at their own expense. In effect, it was a one-sided trade: Culture and communication ceded ground so commerce could expand.

What had once been an open field is now a narrow alley. In most major cities, there may be only one or two available TV channels left for unlicensed wireless microphones. The rest belong to high-power mobile networks or other licensed users. As one engineer put it, “It’s like trying to park 50 trucks in a two-car garage.”

Problems and Solutions
I recently sat down with Mike Sinclair, a professional sound designer, to chat about problems and possible solutions. He's worked on everything from live events to concerts to corporate audio and described it bluntly: “You can plan every cue, map every signal path, and test every channel, but if you don’t have enough frequencies to manage the production there’s very little you can do.”

Even when you do find enough open frequencies, it doesn’t mean it will stay quiet. Modern environments are packed with devices that share or spill into the same spectrum. Multiple digital services are now actively competing for what is ultimately the same limited bandwidth.

The problem isn’t just about congestion; it’s about unpredictability. What used to be simple “set and forget” gear now requires active management. Sound engineers who once mixed audio now find themselves either running RF scans, plotting frequency tables, and negotiating for airspace—or spending a boatload of additional cash buying wireless systems that will do the investigating and hopping for you. Every production feels like a temporary truce with chaos.

The answer is often counterintuitive. You might think throwing more power and more money at the problem would make things easier, but in many cases, it doesn’t. As Sinclair told me, when multiple wireless systems have to coexist in tight spaces, very close together—like, for example, Broadway theaters—the solution is precision, not brute force. Engineers have to be surgical, using highly directional antennas and carefully tuned devices that keep their signals tightly contained to avoid interference.

Devices Fight Back
To survive in this new landscape, manufacturers have had to reinvent their technology. Early wireless microphones operated on fixed frequencies. Modern systems can tune across wide ranges, automatically scan for open spectrum, and adjust power output on the fly.

One possible approach could be treating each microphone as a separate radio signal, using one wide channel to transmit dozens of audio streams using time-division multiplexing. In simple terms, it sends tiny slices of each audio channel in rapid succession so that multiple mics can share a single piece of spectrum without stepping on each other. Sennheiser, one of the world’s leading innovators in professional wireless audio, has been at the forefront of developing new spectrum-efficient technologies, such as Wireless Multichannel Audio Systems (WMAS).

Joe Ciaudelli, the company’s director of spectrum and innovation, explained that WMAS technology "occupies a broader bandwidth but transmits multiple audio channels within that space using time-division multiplexing. This design dramatically increases spectral efficiency, enabling dozens of microphones to operate in a single TV channel.”

Solutions like this allow both microphones and in-ear monitors to operate in the same RF channel, dynamically allocating bandwidth based on priority. A lead performer can get full-fidelity, low-latency audio, while a backstage communication channel can tolerate higher latency and lower quality. For large productions, this means far more microphones can coexist peacefully in the same space.

For high-profile events, technology alone isn’t always enough. On-site professional frequency coordination can offer productions peace of mind by managing and accounting for each frequency.

Companies like Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) provide RF management and coordination for various events, including major productions like the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Jim Van Winkle, general manager at PWS, emphasizes that their competitive edge lies in on-site experience. He notes that an experienced RF coordinator is a "game-changer," bringing invaluable knowledge for pre-planning and crucial troubleshooting if issues arise.

For smaller or budget-limited productions, advanced technology safeguards can still help avoid chaos. One such approach uses wireless transmit/receive pairs that continually search for and stand by with clean backup channels. If interference or dropouts are detected on the main channel, the devices automatically switch to that backup while beginning a new search for the next available path.

Another company that has fully embraced the need for adaptability is Wisycom, a manufacturer long respected for its RF engineering in broadcast, live performance, and location sound. Its CEO, Davide Morsiani, said RF coordination has become "one of the biggest challenges in modern production—not because engineers lack skill, but because the spectrum itself is shrinking and unpredictable. Every location behaves differently, and even the same venue can change throughout the day. Our goal is to give users visibility and flexibility across the widest possible tuning range, so they can adapt instantly rather than rely on luck."

And one final approach that should be mentioned, despite its quixotic nature, would be for the FCC to actually begin policing the use of approved frequencies, as it's clear that everyone isn’t playing nicely in the sandbox.

Unified Voices
Technology alone isn’t enough. The professional audio industry has also learned that it needs a stronger and more unified voice in the policy arena. Shure led the formation of the Wireless Microphone Spectrum Alliance (WMSA), bringing together manufacturers, engineers, and end users to create a coordinated front at a time when spectrum access continues to shrink.

Shure has been deeply involved in the development of regulations in the United States and other countries, with spectral efficiency as the center point of its advocacy. According to Prakash Moorut, Shure’s global head of spectrum and regulatory affairs, WMSA now provides a platform for the industry to proactively educate policymakers about preserving wireless microphone access to spectrum, even as manufacturers innovate to use the remaining airwaves more efficiently.

The WMSA's work is already gaining traction. With more than 200 members, it has begun drawing attention in Washington at a critical moment, as the United States prepares to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup and later welcome the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, two enormous global events that will rely on hundreds of wireless microphones for live performance, broadcast, and ceremony production.

Its outreach spans the White House, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), FCC, and Congress, reinforcing how essential wireless microphones are to live performance, broadcast, cultural storytelling, religious services, and civic engagement. As Sinclair put it, “We can innovate all we want, but without spectrum, we’re just building better paperweights.”

Sinclair also floated an idea that goes beyond better microphones and smarter antennas—fixing the imbalance at its source. Many parts of the radio spectrum are still occupied by legacy government systems that haven’t been modernized in decades. Instead of pleading for scraps of spectrum, the professional audio industry could partner with agencies to modernize their outdated communications equipment, offering better technology in exchange for access to cleaner airwaves.

He suggested manufacturers and private sector innovators could help by providing modern replacements for that aging infrastructure, freeing up underused bands for shared, coordinated access. “There are military and public safety systems out there still running gear designed in the 1970s,” Sinclair said. “They’re holding huge chunks of spectrum hostage because no one’s upgraded them.”

As Moorut noted, during the 600 MHz auction, broadcasters—one of the largest groups of professional wireless microphone users—received roughly half of the auction’s proceeds, around $10 billion. That scale of compensation underscores how valuable this spectrum is to the wider media ecosystem, why the wireless production community must be included when national spectrum decisions are made, and how meaningful funding already exists to support the kind of modernization Sinclair is calling for.

Engineering Creativity Under Constraint
Despite the challenges, the show always goes on. Engineers have adapted by developing meticulous coordination strategies that resemble air traffic control. Frequencies are planned weeks in advance, with backup sets pre-programmed and tested. Large events can involve dozens of engineers managing hundreds of transmitters and receivers, all synchronized to avoid collisions.

Sinclair recalled a recent broadcast where every spare frequency was spoken for. “We had to label each transmitter like it was a boarding pass," he said. "One mistake and someone’s mic would vanish mid-sentence.” Some productions have even started reverting to wired microphones for reliability, not as a nostalgic choice but as a practical one.

It’s a strange twist: The technology that once symbolized freedom now represents a kind of scarcity. Yet within those constraints, creativity thrives. It forces precision, collaboration, and a renewed respect for the craft of live sound.

If history is any guide, the demand for wireless bandwidth will only grow. Each new generation of mobile networks (5G, 6G, and beyond) will hunger for more spectrum. Without deliberate protection for professional audio, the remaining white spaces could vanish entirely.

Spectrum is a shared public resource. Every wireless signal, from a singer’s microphone to a teenager’s smartphone, travels through the same air. What’s at stake isn’t just bandwidth, it’s the ability to express and connect through live sound.

The professional audio community has always been inventive, finding ways to make art work under constraint. But the next chapter will depend on collaboration—engineers pushing technology forward, manufacturers sharing innovation, and policymakers ensuring that culture has a place in the spectrum. The future of wireless audio won’t be about finding empty space. It will be about learning how to share it wisely.

This op-ed originally appeared on our sister brand AV Networks/Systems Contractor News.

CLEVELAND—Telos Alliance today announced a software update for its Linear Acoustic AERO series television audio processors supporting the most current Nielsen watermark encoding library.

Version 3.32.47 addresses a known issue for the NAES VI (NW/N6) encoder, which will reset its timestamp on Jan. 1, 2027, causing it to report incorrect information to Nielsen.

This update applies to sold and currently supported Linear Acoustic AERO products with the Nielsen watermarking option, including AERO.100, AERO.200, AERO.1000, AERO.2000, AERO.2400 and AERO.8000. Legacy AERO processors with Nielsen encoding, including AERO.air and AERO.asi, cannot be updated to this version.

“Linear Acoustic has enjoyed a close partnership with Nielsen for nearly twenty years, and many of our customers opt to perform their Nielsen watermark encoding for audience measurement as an integral part of their television loudness processing and upmixing within our AERO products,” said Larry Schindel, Linear Acoustic product manager.

“We have been working closely with Nielsen to ensure our mutual customers have access to their latest encoding library in plenty of time to update their AERO units before the end of the year and will be providing a separate update for our Linear Acoustic LA-5300 processor this summer.”

The V3.32.47 update is available at a cost of $599 per unit. AERO.200, AERO.2400 and AERO.8000 units still under factory warranty or covered by a Telos Alliance Extended Warranty or TelosCare PLUS service agreement can be updated at no charge.

The company is also offering a trade-in credit offer. For a limited time, customers can receive a $1,000 credit toward the purchase of a new AERO.200, AERO.2400 or AERO.8000 when they trade their existing Linear Acoustic AERO.100, AERO.1000, AERO.2000, AERO.air, AEROMAX DTV, AEROMAX 5.1, AERO.one or AERO.asi.

Customers seeking the updated software should inquire with their Linear Acoustic dealer or via email.

Radiant Media Player has partnered with Cloud DRM to enable streaming platforms and media companies that use Radiant Media Player to deliver protected content securely across multiple end-user devices with a single, unified digital rights management workflow.

Radiant Media Player is a widely used HTML5 video and audio player for live, on-demand and DVR content. The media player, used in desktop, mobile and big-screen TV apps, offers a lightweight footprint and supports HLS and MPEG-DASH.

The addition of Cloud DRM to the company’s partner network will enable customers to secure premium content with widely adopted DRM technologies, such as Google Widevine, Apple FairPlay and Microsoft PlayReady, without the need to integrate independently with different DRM vendors, the company said.

Cloud DRM is a serverless architecture based on AWS Cloud. It ensures playback remains seamless, even during viewing peaks.

With a virtually unlimited number of licenses issued every second and a response time of less than 60 milliseconds, Cloud DRM keeps content secure while remaining invisible to Radiant Media Player viewers, the company said.

Detailed integration guidelines are available on the Radiant Media Player and Cloud DRM websites.

LONDON—Jasmine International Public Co. Ltd (JAS TV) has selected anti-piracy and video cybersecurity provider Friend MTS to safeguard its premium live sports content across Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

The collaboration brings together Friend MTS’s advanced anti-piracy solutions, including forensic watermarking and global monitoring services, to protect English Premier League (EPL) soccer matches.

JAS TV, operator of the MONOMAX streaming service, acquired EPL rights through 2031 for Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. At the start of the 2025-26 EPL season, JAS TV went live with Friend MTS to deliver an end-to-end anti-piracy strategy. The focus is to identify and take down restreaming users who feed Thai pirate sites, Fiend MTS said.

JAS TV chose Friend MTS for its technology solutions, global services and track record protecting premium live sports, including the EPL. The deployment combines Friend MTS’s 24/7 global monitoring with subscriber watermarking and distribution watermarking.

Subscriber watermarking embeds a unique identifier in each individual stream, enabling rapid identification and disconnection of pirate accounts. Distribution watermarking adds an invisible fingerprint at the channel or platform level to trace leaks anywhere in the video supply chain. Together, these layers enable real-time detection of illicit redistribution and swift removal of illegal feeds during live matches.

“Securing the Premier League rights was a major milestone for us and protecting that investment is critical to our strategy,” JAS TV President Sang Do Lee said. “With FMTS’s anti-piracy solutions, we can ensure fans enjoy the Premier League through official platforms like our MONOMAX streaming service, while safeguarding the value of our rights across Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. We take piracy very seriously and see the partnership with FMTS as a vital step to sustaining the future of premium sports content in our region.”

More information is available on the Friend MTS website.

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland and PHOENIX—Nagravision has struck a deal with the English Football League (EFL) to use Nagra Streaming Security help detect, disrupt and deter piracy of its match telecasts in the 2025-26 season.

The EFL will use the security solution’s dynamic monitoring to quantify the scale of piracy threats against its live sports content. The solution’s anti-piracy intelligence capability will also let the EFL, which operates the three tiers of English professional soccer just below the top-flight Premier League, measure the impact of takedown and enforcement activities and provide an overview of pirate activities targeting its content, Kudelski Group-owned Nagravision said.

“Nagravision’s dynamic, real-time monitoring is an effective and important part of our work to protect our content, clubs and their supporters,” Russell Byrne, EFL head of broadcast operations, said. “The level of information available to us means we can better monitor, identify and take down illegal streams as they appear across various platforms and ensure that we are providing the best possible experience to those that pay for legitimate services.”

The company’s streaming security solution is designed to provide a holistic view of pirate activity across content rightsholders’ portfolios through AI-enabled insights. Based on a 30-year history of global pirate activity, the solution provides clear information designed to directly address the business goals of rightsholders, including revenue protection, brand integrity and compliance management and licensing, the company said.

“Nagravision is a long-time advocate of the need to protect the integrity of the content ecosystem for sports rightsholders and works across the industry to achieve this,” Morten Solbakken, Nagravision executive vice president and chief operating officer, said. “Our advanced anti-piracy monitoring and enforcement solutions empower rightsholders, such as the English Football League, to combat illegal streaming and safeguard their revenues, ensuring true fans enjoy content securely and legally.”

Nagra Streaming Security delivers end-to-end protection against content theft and content restreaming. The solution safeguards revenues and combats illegal streaming by leveraging technologies like advanced multi-DRM, forensic watermarking and real-time anti-piracy monitoring and enforcement.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LAS VEGAS—On the eve of CES 2026 here, Jan. 6-9, the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) has announced two compliant NextGen TV home gateways that will enable viewers to distribute and watch encrypted content delivered via ATSC 3.0 on multiple home screens while protecting broadcast content from piracy.

BitRouter, owner of ZapperBox, will display its hardware-based gateway with support for A3SA verification at CES 2026, while Atlanta Direct to Home (ADTH) is developing software that enables gateway functionality with its existing ATSC 3.0 receivers. The company plans to release the software update at an unspecified future date.

A3SA broadcast content security is designed to protect content owners, broadcasters and consumers against viruses, hacking, and theft, the authority said. “Sports leagues and owners of premium content generally require their content to be delivered with content security which is why over-the-air broadcasting needs content protection to remain competitive with secure streaming options. We are very pleased that electronics manufacturers continue to work to extend the availability of ATSC 3.0 secure content throughout the home in the form of set top boxes, digital video recorders and now home gateways, so that one receiver can provide NextGen TV signals to a variety of screens in the home,” said Joe St. Jean, managing director of A3SA.

“Both BitRouter and ADTH are working on unique solutions aimed at different price points and consumers, and both approaches can deliver content in a secure way that is seamless to viewers and yet also assure content producers that their valuable programming will be protected in a network environment.”

First announced at the 2025 NAB NY Show, the ZapperBox gateway approach is to send content from a main multi-tuner receiver with a single household antenna to client miniature receivers connected to other screens. With the ZapperBox solution, content can be viewed, recorded and then played back securely on the main ZapperBox and other miniature devices. Content can also be streamed live to all ZapperBox devices in the home from the main multi-tuner ZapperBox.

ADTH is testing a secure, Android-based home gateway solution that enables over-the-air ATSC 3.0 content received by an ADTH receiver to be discovered and viewed across a wide range of devices throughout the home, with support delivered to existing ADTH receivers through a software update. Using a software-driven architecture, a single receiver and antenna can be installed where reception is optimal, while protected content is securely streamed over the home network to Android TV devices, tablets, and smartphones.

The ADTH platform is designed to support additional consumer operating systems, with planned expansion to Roku, Samsung Tizen and LG webOS environments. The ADTH products also will be displayed at CES 2026.

Both the ZapperBox and ADTH will be shown in the ATSC booth near Starbucks in the Central Hall lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

BRUSSELS—Mediagenix is reporting that it has achieved two milestones: the renewal of its ISO 27001 certification and the successful completion of its SOC 2 examination.

The company said that these achievements validate its holistic security posture, which goes beyond product safeguards and is woven into the company’s culture, operations and strategic direction.

“Security is woven into our engineering, our operations, and how we serve our customers,” said Mediagenix chief technology officer Quentin Pouplard. “Achieving ISO 27001 recertification and SOC 2 attestation is the outcome of doing things right, consistently. They reflect a security mindset that guides every layer of our software and SaaS delivery.”

Mediagenix has maintained ISO 27001 certification for seven consecutive years. Achieving SOC 2 attestation validates that these controls are consistently applied in practice and reinforces customer and partner confidence that their data is handled with integrity, reliability and operational excellence, it said.

The two achievements reflect that the company has a comprehensive and integrated security framework that safeguards information assets across technology operations, ensuring resilience and consistency across global deployments.

They also demonstrate Mediagenix maintains continuously monitored processes and controls that evolve alongside the business, and its efforts exceed compliance expectations, increasing client confidence and trust.

Mediagenix offers smart content solutions that connect the right content to the right audience.

More information is available on the company’s website.

With the Federal Communications Commission working on new rules for the deployment of NextGen TV, next year promises to be an important one for both the future of ATSC 3.0 in general and for the security protections that are a key component of the new broadcast standard.

“For us, content protection is table stakes in terms of broadcasters being able to compete in digital environments,” explained Ann Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, a consortium of major station groups backing the NextGen TV rollout. “To compete with streaming and other digital media, we need the same tool kit, the same content protection, they have.”

While ATSC 1.0 lacked encryption and robust content security, the content-security features embedded in ATSC 3.0 are particularly important, as NextGen TV is being deployed when such protections are ubiquitous in the digital and streaming world, added Robert (Rob) Folliard, Gray Media’s senior vice president, government relations and distribution.

“DRM [digital rights management] is critical for high-value content from the NFL, MLB, the NBA and all the other leagues, because they lose billions of dollars each year from piracy,” he explained. “That is a problem for us—live sports drives the broadcast model, and we are the only video provider who doesn’t have it. The NFL doesn’t have to worry about it when they do a deal with Amazon or YouTube. If we don’t have content protection, that is going to be a strike against us in the next round of negotiations.”

New Rules, Old Issues
Many of the ongoing arguments and controversies over content security in the digital world can be found in the FCC’s electronic filing system, where more than 7,000 comments have been tallied in response to the agency’s plans to develop new NextGen TV rules.

While Pearl TV and larger broadcasters have supported the enhanced security and content protection offered by the 3.0 standard, some LPTV stations and smaller station owners have raised concerns about the high costs of implementing security solutions.

These filings have been particularly critical of the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA), which was created by broadcast TV networks and station groups to manage the security framework for NextGen TV, including digital rights management and content-protection protocols.

The LPTV Broadcasters Association, for example, has argued that the expense of transitioning to 3.0 broadcasts would force stations out of business and that the costs of obtaining “signal-signing” certificates to verify the 3.0 broadcast signals are “excessive.”

Separately, thousands of filings from consumers and advocacy groups like Public Knowledge have also complained that encryption and signal-signing certificates undermine the public’s ability to access free broadcast signals.

“Introducing encryption and Digital Rights Management (DRM) undermines this foundation by transforming open access into conditional, license-controlled access,” Public Knowledge told the FCC. “DRM and the associated A3SA certification system would allow private entities to determine which manufacturers—and therefore which consumers—may access free over-the-air content, effectively privatizing what has always been a public medium,” as well as increasing the cost of devices, the group argued.

Schelle adamantly disputes those reactions, arguing that much of the opposition is either based on a fundamental misunderstanding of 3.0 security or that complaints come from groups simply opposed to ATSC 3.0.

The LPTV Broadcasters Association and “Weigel [Broadcasting] are not for NextGen TV, full stop,” she said. “‘SuperFrank’ [Copsidas, the founder of the LPTV Broadcasters Association] is in favor of 5G broadcasting. Weigel would prefer that we stay on 1.0…so, of course, they are going to…glom onto these issues and blow them up.”

Schelle and Joe St. Jean, managing director of A3SA, also stressed that opponents have misinterpreted his group’s workings and the role of security in the rollout of NextGen TV.

“When you hear about content protection, people often think that they are losing rights,” said St. Jean. “That is not the case here. We are not trying to box out consumers from viewing the content they could otherwise access…We want consumers to use DVR and home-networking functionality…This is a free environment and will continue to be free…Broadcasters are in the eyeball business, and we want consumers to view the content.”

More specifically, he said, it’s important to separate two security-related issues: the DRM solutions used to protect content and signal-signing certificates to authenticate broadcast signals.

“Content protection is described in the ATSC 3.0 spec, but it doesn’t describe implementation, which is what A3SA did,” St. Jean explained. “They created an implementation, and its use is optional. We are not looking to enforce content protection on folks or make money off it.”

For the A3SA implementation, they turned to Google’s Widevine DRM solution, which is used in tens of billions of devices for content protection, Schelle added. “It is enabled in all the TV manufacturers, it works in the unconnected mode,” she said. “It is already used to enable streaming on these TVs. It is not a big deal for device manufacturers.”

In the future, St. Jean added, they expect to begin offering multiple DRMs. “We are currently working with an affiliate group to figure out how to implement FairPlay for Apple devices,” he said.

St. Jean also said that there has been a lot of confusion around the issue of “signal-signing” certificates for 3.0 broadcasts. Signal signing is important, St. Jean and others explained, because it is designed to let viewers know that a signal is authentic and that hackers or pirates haven’t hijacked broadcast signals or emergency alerts. In many ways, the protection provided by signal-signing certificates is similar to the warning that consumers get online when they try to navigate to a suspicious website.

A3SA worked with Eonti and DigiCert to establish signal-signing certificates that will authenticate a broadcast signal. “We don’t make money from this,” he stressed. “All the revenue paid for the certificates goes to Eonti, who pays DigiCert. Our role is to work with broadcasters and device manufacturers to make sure they are able to accept signed signals and tell the difference between signed and unsigned signals.”

In response to complaints that those certificates were too expensive, Folliard said the industry has been working to provide more options and reduce costs. “Not everyone needs a full-service certificate for $950 [a year],” he said. “We’ve already cut that price down to $550, and we’re working to offer even additional lower-cost options.”

Folliard and others also explained that they hoped that more options would emerge as more companies begin offering 3.0-related security.

In November, for example, SiliconDust announced it is offering an Online Certificate Status Protocol solution, providing new security options and compliance to ensure TV stations meet all of the ATSC 3.0 standard’s signing-security requirements.

Schelle and Folliard praised the move. “We welcome all certificate providers,” Folliard said. “The more competition the better because that drives down prices.”

High Noon
Another major issue has been the so-called “high noon” for implementing signal signing. That deadline was originally scheduled for June 2025, but it has been indefinitely delayed.

“When I came on board at the A3SA, it was clear to me that the industry wasn’t ready to turn it on,” St. Jean said, because there wasn’t “consistent messaging on devices” and because “the consumer experience that you see out in the marketplace is a poor one.”

Currently, the timing for high noon is difficult to predict. Schelle and St. Jean said the initial decision to delay it was a collaborative process with the National Association of Broadcasters, the Consumer Technology Association, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), A3SA and other stakeholders. They also stressed that any future deadline would come out of a similar collaborative process. “We won’t implement it until we have the right consumer experience,” St. Jean said.

Whether these changes will assuage the fears of LPTV stations and other smaller broadcasters remains an open question.

Kristina Bruni, the chair of the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance, said that while the group is still polling its LPTV station members regarding ATSC 3.0, she felt there was some confusion in the market about signal signing.

“I do not think that an LPTV operation that is going to transition to 3.0 is going to find that the signal-signing certificate will break the bank,” she said. “I feel that is a nonargument. Nobody is forcing them to go to 3.0 and if they do, the signal-signing certificate is also optional. It’s like when you are on a website and it doesn’t have the proper certificate. As a consumer, you can still choose to continue or not.”

Device Security
Another major question is the potential impact of content security and DRM on the ATSC 3.0 device market.

That issue exploded in 2025 in FCC filings related to SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun 3.0 receivers, which reportedly had problems decoding encrypted 3.0 signals. That prompted SiliconDust and thousands of consumers who own devices to argue that the FCC should not allow 3.0 broadcasts to be encrypted.

In response, Pearl TV told the FCC the problem was not encryption but that the fact that the HDHomeRun device uses a chipset manufactured by HiSilicon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huawei Technologies, a company “which the Commission has found to be ‘a national security threat.’”

No other manufacturer has had that problem, Foillard said.

SiliconDust “made a business decision to go with a Huawei chip that can’t support Widevine,” he said. “All the others will tell you supporting Widevine is not a big deal.”

SiliconDust has hotly disputed those claims, stressing that its devices are “NextGen TV-certified” and blaming A3SA’s implementation of Widevine for the problem. (Detailed coverage of this controversy can be found here.)

Other device manufacturers downplay the broader impact of the issue. “I don’t think it [security and DRM] has had a large impact on the device market,” said Alex Day, vice president of business development at Tolka Telecommunications, which provides a software platform that is used by ADTH and other manufacturers of 3.0 receivers.

Day expects lower-cost device options to come to market in 2026. Higher-end devices, gateways and gear with fully integrated Android TV capabilities should also launch, he said.

Gopal Miglani, president and founder of BitRouter, which aims to be the “TiVo of NextGen TV” with products like the ZapperBox receiver, said his company recently released its Unbound Gateway v3.4 software.

The software is “a significant milestone in bringing all the capabilities of the ATSC 1.0 DVR ecosystem to the ATSC 3.0 transition,” Miglani said in a blog post, with a multiroom DRM beta for gateway-connected devices. Software releases v3.5 and beyond will allow multiroom devices to control one another as real gateways, and 2026 will also see the creation of the first streaming app for a non-ZapperBox device.

Other industry players stressed the importance of the FCC setting a cutoff date for NextGen TV transition.

“There has not been a transition globally that has ever taken off until a date has been set,” Schelle said. The whole device market “really changes when the FCC sets a date.”

However, proposals for a 1.0 sunset face powerful opposition from the CTA and TV-set manufacturers. While the FCC has said it wants to speed the transition, the agency has not made any public moves to set firm dates or impose device mandates.

Throughout its century-plus existence, the motion picture industry has had to fight battles on multiple fronts to protect its content from piracy. From protecting film reels from duplication by unscrupulous parties (often theater owners themselves), to the age of VCRs, DVDs, IP-based peer-to-peer networks and today’s streaming services, Hollywood has a long history of working to keep ahead of what has often been termed as a “whack-a-mole” strategy.

And as content has moved from the theater to broadcast and now to streaming, the threats are myriad and growing, with the estimated annual lost revenue to the U.S. economy due to global online content piracy at nearly $30 billion, according to Bryan Willett, vice president, content protection (Americas), Motion Picture Association (MPA).

One of the biggest misconceptions is that piracy is a victimless crime and that it’s harmless, Willett said.

“In reality, digital piracy harms the entire entertainment ecosystem, including
all the people who work hard to bring a movie or TV series to fruition,” he said. “We’re talking about set builders, makeup and wardrobe artists, caterers, cinematographers, sound mixers, production assistants—the list goes on.”

In today’s connected world, that’s not the only risk, he adds.

“Streaming or downloading pirated content puts consumers’ sensitive information at risk,” Willett added. “Recent studies have shown that accessing pirated movies or TV shows could compromise credit cards, banking information and even infect your computer with malware.

“Many consumers aren’t aware that digital piracy operations are often linked to global organized crime rings that engage in drug and human trafficking, fraud and other crimes,” he added. “We like to say that if a streaming deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Strength in Numbers
The importance of intra-industry cooperation to battle the threats posed by piracy prompted MPA to create the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) in 2017.

“MPA/ACE have nearly 50-plus members, comprising studios, broadcasters and sports organizations, and we work with them regularly, particularly with respect to our anti-piracy efforts,” Willett said. “We also have developed relationships with many intermediaries and work with these and many other partners to ensure we continue to detect, deter and dismantle piracy operations.

“Working with these partners is critical, given piracy operators are reliant on them to provide infrastructure, bandwidth and payment processing,” he added. “Additionally, a great part of our success is due to the partnerships we’ve formed with law-enforcement agencies such as the FBI, HSI, Interpol and Europol, as well as other foreign agencies.”

The studios have used a variety of methods to combat piracy over the years, through physical enforcement, litigation and legislation, but perhaps the most significant step to address the problem in the digital age was the creation of MovieLabs in 2006.

Motion Picture Laboratories Inc. (aka MovieLabs) is a nonprofit technology research laboratory that was founded by the then-major studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Film Corp., Universal City Studios, Walt Disney Pictures and Television and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

In essence, MovieLabs serves as a tech hub designed to research and fund the development of technologies that advance media distribution and creation, according to President and CEO Rich Berger, who noted the confluence of factors that has led to the challenges studios currently face.

“Throughout our history, our industry has faced a range of challenges, including changing consumer habits, rapidly evolving and disruptive technologies, more competition for time spent on media consumption and economic challenges,” he said. “Currently, we are seeing a combination of all these factors. The good news is that our industry continues to evolve and overcome these challenges.”

A key component of the organization’s current focus has been outlined in the “MovieLabs 2030 Vision,” which outlines its strategy in adapting to the rapidly evolving media distribution landscape.

“The MovieLabs 2030 Vision is a growing industry movement inspired by the MovieLabs Evolution of Media Creation white paper, which lays out a bold vision and roadmap for a more secure, efficient and interoperable media creation pipeline using cloud infrastructure, zero-trust security and software-defined workflows,” Berger said. “The ultimate goal is to empower storytellers to create the best stories imaginable without limits.”

Although battling piracy is among the core goals of MovieLabs, the organization is not an enforcer. Instead, it chooses to attack the problem by identifying and developing new technologies for content creation and distribution, which in turn, can result in the enhancement of copyright protection. Among its biggest current technical challenges is the inefficiency of moviemaking, according to Berger.

“One of the biggest challenges that MovieLabs and the 2030 Vision seeks to address is the current inefficiency and complexity of media creation,” Berger said. “While the industry has a number of challenges, including the general disruption that technology itself has created, the 2030 Vision can help meet today’s mandate for efficiency while maintaining the quality that audiences have come to expect from our studio members.”

Talking Together
Interoperability underpins just about every aspect of the 2030 Vision, according to Berger.

“One of the most important benefits of interoperability is the wider choice of vendors, tools, infrastructure and services it gives to creative teams,” he said. “And it has many others, including streamlining workflows to save time for higher-value creative tasks, enabling faster adoption of new, innovative technologies without breaking things, simplifying collaboration, and creating more secure and frictionless authentication and authorization experiences.

“For these reasons, it’s essential that our industry come together, as we are in the Industry forum, and make the new generation of workflows more interoperable,” he added.

To achieve this goal, MovieLabs has created a new group to promote such collaborations.

“We think the exchange of metadata that connects people, work and assets is ripe for improved interoperability, which led us to create the Ontology for Media Creation (OMC),” Berger said. “And we have an active program called “2030 Greenlight,” where we work with tool vendors to improve the interoperability of their products and to demonstrate their new capabilities, like the use of OMC, in real workflows.

“Ultimately, the 2030 Vision is about creative enablement,” Berger added. “2030 Greenlight is all about demonstrating the value for our creative partners.”

Trusted Partner Network
Another organization created in recent years to take on piracy is the Trusted Partner Network, a joint venture between MPA and the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) formed in 2018. Among its first goals was to use MPA content security best practices to assess security risks in the industry, TPN President Terri Davies said.

“At the end of the first year [2019], they had something like 300 assessments completed,” she said. “All of the studios were signed up, many of the service providers in the industry were signed up, and it was going really well.”

Then the pandemic exposed a weak point.

“The best practices and TPN were heavily focused on physical site security; they hadn’t yet moved to app and cloud—and of course, we know what happened,” Davies said. “COVID closed all of the buildings and the security assessments meant nothing.

“Everybody was very, very entrepreneurial at that time, and those who could move to the cloud did move to the cloud, and TPN didn’t keep up,” Davies added. “And the studios had no choice then but to go back to this very fragmented approach of doing their own security assessments of each of the service providers, because the real goal of TPN is to improve security preparedness in the industry but also to provide efficiency.”

In 2023, the organization was relaunched with a new membership model, application and cloud content security assessments, and the introduction of the “TPN+” platform.

The organization—which is now wholly owned by the MPA—used the updated MPA Content Security Best Practices v5.0 to expand its scope to include software application and cloud security in addition to site and work-from-home security assessments.

“With the launch of its enhanced program, TPN is taking a crucial step toward ensuring the security of all content produced by our members,” Karyn Temple, senior executive vice president and global general counsel of the MPA, said. “Content security is a top priority of the MPA, TPN and all of our member studios, whose ability to produce the films and TV shows audiences love depends on our ability to protect and secure that content.”

Davies explained the three main roles the TPN provides to the industry.

“We have three roles in TPN—one is what we call a content owner, which might be a Hollywood studio, Sky or BBC studios,” she said. “Those are the content owners who consume the security assessments from the vendors, who we call service providers, who do the security assessment in TPN. The service providers are everything from visual effects, localization, even pre-script.”

Davies estimates that 90% of TPN’s members work on pre-release content, “so we have a lot of application providers, like Adobe, frame.io, for example, as well as the traditional service providers—editing, localization, audio and post, all the way through to distribution.”

TPN’s third role is the aforementioned risk assessment, Davies added.

“We have our own accredited assessors who do the assessments, because we can’t just have anybody do our assessments,” she said. “We consider all three of those roles and anybody—whether they paid us or not—that’s in the platform, they are our stakeholders. We send out security alerts to them, for example, when we hear something going on through ACE, or through the studios or through the industry.”

Membership in TPN is voluntary but rapidly growing, Davies said. It includes all seven MPA studios, along with new members Apple Studios, BBC Studios, Sky and Canal Plus Group.

“We’ve got over 1,500 companies signed up in the TPN+ platform right now representing 60-plus countries,” Davies said, adding that “78% of our members have less than $5 million annual gross revenue.”

All of those members have a vested interest in industry-wide content protection and with the three organizations collaborating, they are making a difference, according to Willett.

“ACE takes down numerous piracy operations each year, he said. “In fact, a few months ago we shut down the world’s largest live sports-piracy network, Streameast. The site received over 1.5 billion visits in the past 12 months, representing major financial losses for our live-tier members.

“Each time a court sentences a piracy network operator for their illicit activities, we consider that a victory,” Willett added. “It sends a powerful deterrent message that piracy is a crime and the consequences are serious. We’ve seen judges issue fines and even prison sentences for piracy operations of all sizes.”

LYNDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems has introduced the DAS3-DC-PS, a new DC power supply option for its DASDEC-III emergency alert system. Designed to meet the growing demand for DC-powered infrastructure, the DAS3-DC-PS supports a -36V to -72V input range, making it ideal for standard -48VDC facilities, the company said.

The DAS3-DC-PS marks an industry first, making Digital Alert Systems the only modern EAS equipment manufacturer to offer both AC and DC-powered product versions, according to DAS. By eliminating the need for multiple AC-to-DC converters, the new option reduces heat generation, improves operational efficiency, and simplifies backup power integration using direct battery banks.

“The introduction of the DAS3-DC-PS reflects our commitment to evolving with our customers’ needs,” said Jon Rue, vice president of technology at Digital Alert Systems. “As more facilities transition to DC power architectures, we’re proud to offer a solution that not only simplifies integration but also enhances safety and reliability. This option opens the door for broader deployment of DASDEC-III systems in telecom and broadcast environments where efficiency and uptime are critical.”

Replacing the standard AC power supply, the DAS3-DC-PS connects via a two-lug terminal strip and offers a safer, more efficient alternative for facilities that have adopted DC powering schemes. Operating at 48V DC—below the 50V threshold recognized by safety regulations—the DAS3-DC-PS reduces the risk of electric shock and allows for the use of lower-voltage cabling, simplifying installation and maintenance.

DAS says the new DC option also brings significant facility-level benefits. The negative polarity of -48V DC helps prevent corrosion of copper cables and battery terminals, while its compatibility with telecom standards ensures seamless integration with other equipment. Facilities can use standard 12V lead-acid batteries wired in series to create a 48V backup power source, enabling uninterrupted operation during power failures without the need for inverters or AC-to-DC conversion.

Priced at $450, the DAS3-DC-PS can be factory-fitted into new DASDEC-III units or retrofitted by returning existing units to the factory.

More information about Digital Alert Systems is available at www.digitalalertsystems.com.

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company to make a voluntary payment of $1.5 million fine for vendor data breach that exposed the personal information of some 237,000 customers.

The decree resolves the Enforcement Bureau’s investigation into whether Comcast Cable Communications, LLC violated sections of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 in connection with a breach by a now-defunct debt-collection agency that compromised the personal information of Comcast cable subscribers.

Under the consent decree, Comcast agreed to pay a $1.5 million “voluntary contribution” and implement a compliance plan that includes, among other things, improved vendor oversight practices related to customer privacy and information protection.

In a statement sent to TV Tech, Comcast said:  "Comcast was not responsible for and has not conceded any wrongdoing in connection with this incident. The matter involved a former vendor, FBCS, which has not provided services to Comcast since 2022. No Comcast systems were compromised, and FBCS was required to comply with our comprehensive vendor security requirements. We remain committed to continually strengthening our cybersecurity policies and protections to safeguard customer data.”

The case involved a now-bankrupt company, Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS), which provided debt-collection services to Comcast between from 2010 to 2022. Those services gave FBCS access to some customer information.

Comcast notified FBCS in 2020 that it was terminating the parties’ agreement and stopped referring new accounts to FBCS for debt-collection services. FBCS ceased all work for Comcast in 2022, when the cable operator recalled the final accounts.

The consent decree notes that between Feb. 14 and Feb. 26, 2024, hackers illegally accessed the FBCS network without authorization, exposing the private information of 237,702 current and former Comcast customers. That information included first names or first initial and last names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, Comcast account numbers, internal Comcast ID numbers, and internal FBCS ID numbers.

FBCS first informed Comcast of the breach on July 15, 2024. FBCS filed for bankruptcy before notifying state authorities that the FBCS breach impacted the cable operator’s current and former customers. Comcast notified customers and state authorities of the problem.

As part of the consent decree, Comcast agreed to hire a compliance officer to implement a compliance plan and procedures to improve security.

More information and the complete Consent Decree is available here.

BRUSSELS—Mediagenix has announced that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program (ISV). This acceptance follows the successful completion of the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) across Mediagenix platforms that underpin the company’s Content Strategy and Budgeting, Content Value Management for title and rights metadata, and Content Scheduling solutions.

“Joining the AWS ISV Accelerate Program connects Mediagenix to the AWS sales organization, and enables frictionless procurement of our solutions through the AWS Marketplace,” said Emmanuel Müller, CPO, Mediagenix.“Successfully completing the AWS Foundational Technical Review is a powerful validation of our platforms and business. Together, these achievements reinforce our commitment to delivering secure, reliable, and innovative solutions while expanding opportunities to work more closely with AWS to serve customers worldwide.”

The AWS ISV Accelerate Program connects independent software vendors directly with AWS field teams, enabling streamlined engagement with customers worldwide. Mediagenix will be able to simplify procurement through AWS Marketplace, align more closely with AWS go-to-market initiatives, and accelerate the delivery of its solutions to enterprise customers, the company reported.

Passing the AWS FTR validates Mediagenix platforms for their adherence to AWS Well-Architected best practices in areas like security and reliability. The process requires proactive risk analysis and mitigation, ensuring Mediagenix solutions are designed to perform at scale in alignment with AWS standards, the company explained.

Building on the integration of Spideo personalization and recommendations technology and the introduction of the Self-Optimizing Content Monetization Flywheel, Mediagenix also reported that it continues to expand the intelligence across its solutions and bring value to its customers.

With recent high marks in security credentials, including SOC 2 Type II compliance and the recertification of ISO 27001, Mediagenix further demonstrates its dedication to safeguarding customer trust. Achieving AWS FTR and joining the AWS ISV Accelerate Program underscores Mediagenix’s commitment to technical excellence while enhancing opportunities to deepen customer engagement, the company said.

Mediagenix’s Humanized Semantic Search was recently awarded IBC2025 Best of Show by TV Tech, while its Scheduling Automation solution captured two IBC2025 Best of Show honors, one from TV Tech and one from TVBEurope.

SAN DIEGO—In a major development in the effort to combat the spread of fake-AI generated images and video, Sony Electronics has unveiled what it is calling “the industry's first camera authenticity solution compatible with video (C2PA standard-compliant).”

The launch is part of an ongoing effort by Sony to provide verification technology to address growing concerns about the impact of tampered and fake images.

Through initiatives and verification experiments, Sony reported that it has validated the authenticity of video content in collaboration with the Research & Development Department of the UK's public broadcaster BBC.

In addition, the company works closely with the C2PA (The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity), a standards organization that develops open standards and technical specifications for the provenance and authenticity of digital content, serving as a Steering Committee Member since March 2022.

Sony said that its camera authenticity solution verification site enables authenticity verification for both still images and videos, confirming that content was captured by a Sony camera rather than AI-generated, the company reported.

The system can also detect 3D depth information in video content, enabling highly accurate verification that videos were captured of actual, existing subjects. In addition, a trim function that allows extraction and verification of only necessary portions while maintaining signatures enables rapid authenticity verification even for large-capacity video files.

Sony cameras supporting recording of authenticity information for video include:

• Interchangeable-lens cameras: Alpha 1 II, Alpha 9 III
• Cinema line cameras: FX3, FX30
• The newly launched XDCAM Memory Camcorder: PXW-Z300iv

More information is available at https://authenticity.sony.net/camera/en-gb/

CINCINNATI—The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20.

In the new role, Parsons leads Scripps’ enterprise cybersecurity strategy, responsible for protecting the integrity, availability and confidentiality of digital content, newsroom systems, intellectual property and consumer data.

Prior to this role, Parsons served as vice president of cyber defense at NBCUniversal.

During his career he also held cybersecurity roles at U.S. Bank, General Electric and Walmart, where he specialized in threat research, detection and incident response. Parsons also has partnered with leading cybersecurity researchers to help develop industry-standard tools that organizations worldwide use to identify and defend against cyber threats.

“Daniel brings a track record of building an employee culture of shared cybersecurity responsibility and managing complex security operations across multiple brands,” said Laura Tomlin, Scripps’ chief transformation officer. “His leadership will be mission-critical in safeguarding consumer trust and company data, and in creating the secure foundation we need to innovate, expand our offerings and drive sustainable growth.”

Parsons serves on the Ohio Board of Directors for NPower, a national nonprofit organization that offers free technology training and job placement assistance to young adults and military veterans and their spouses.

NEW YORK—CleanTap, a startup that provides CTV ad security technology today released new research revealing critical vulnerabilities in the connected TV (CTV) advertising ecosystem.

The study, "Counterfeit Connected TV and the Digital Ad Industry’s Failure to Detect, Deter, and Disrupt Fraudulent Inventory," demonstrates how counterfeit devices can successfully generate premium ad impressions, passing through buy-side and sell-side platforms, exchanges, ad servers, and other upstream adtech systems, the company said.

Using inexpensive hardware such as Raspberry Pi microcomputers, Android emulators, and HDMI dummy plugs, CleanTap researchers created counterfeit devices that successfully requested and received premium CTV ads from major platforms and providers. Even though their metadata explicitly declared them as bots, the devices were treated as legitimate and served ad campaigns from 54 brands — including nine Fortune 100 companies — through transactions routed across five sell-side and four demand-side platforms.

Key findings include:

• 100% of counterfeit activity was accepted into live auctions, generating thousands of premium ad impressions.
• Ads from Fortune 100 brands were served on counterfeit devices, illustrating the risk to even the most sophisticated advertisers.

“As CTV ad spend continues to surge, the stakes for protecting premium inventory have never been higher,” said Shailin Dhar, co-founder, CleanTap. “Our research shows that today’s safeguards are not enough — counterfeit devices can still slip through undetected. It’s clear the industry needs upstream protections, hardware-based verification, and stronger collaboration across the supply chain.”

CleanTap says verification vendors did not participate in the study, but were independently tested to determine whether they measured the activity correctly downstream. In reviewing CleanTap’s data, DoubleVerify, for example, confirmed that the impressions were measured accurately, classifying them both as invalid traffic (IVT) and as non-CTV devices.

“CleanTap shared its report findings and data with DoubleVerify prior to publication, and we confirmed that the activity was correctly identified and reported by DoubleVerify as invalid traffic and flagged as non-CTV devices,” said Gilit Saporta, VP of Product, Fraud & Quality Analytics at DoubleVerify. “To stay safe from CTV falsification, we recommend that platforms and publishers adopt stronger upstream inventory quality controls, such as pre-bid blocking and filtering, to better safeguard advertisers.”

“DV caught the issue when it occurred and reported it to its clients — which is exactly what we want to see,” said Dhar. “Verification vendors are correctly flagging suspect traffic, but systems across the CTV ecosystem are not fully designed to act on these signals in real time. Platforms and publishers, who ultimately decide what gets transacted, need to consider those signals upstream and ensure cleaner media buying so advertisers don’t have to play whack-a-mole downstream. All platforms should be held to that standard.”

The report, which featured a peer review process inviting all companies cited for technical, collaborative, and constructive feedback regarding the findings and interpretations presented, calls for industry-wide reforms, including:

• Device-level verification at bid request entry.
• Pre-auction filtering for spoofed environments.
• Hardware authentication rather than sole reliance on metadata.
• Greater alignment on supply definitions between buyers and sellers.

The report, "CleanTap Screens for Screens" can be downloaded here.

HACKENSACK, N.J.—Actus Digital today unveiled a new integration with Pikolo’s ITracker platform, which streamlines broadcast operations by unifying real-time channel monitoring with centralized operational data management and providing users with deeper insights and more efficient workflows.

With this integration, Actus automatically sends monitoring alerts directly to Pikolo Systems’ ITracker. The ITracker system, in turn, connects with Actus via API to provide a smooth, in-platform experience for users. This bidirectional data exchange minimizes manual operator input and ensures channel status and technical alerts are instantly available within ITracker’s centralized environment.

“Our mission is to make our QA Compliance Logger and monitoring a source of strategic value,” Actus Digital CEO Sima Levy said. “By partnering with Pikolo, we’re giving broadcasters a more connected, efficient, and insightful way to manage both technical performance and overall operations.”

Actus-generated alerts are now stored alongside all other operational data, including linear and digital, within ITracker’s comprehensive data store. This single source of truth (SSOT) enables broadcasters to track performance trends, identify recurring issues and make faster, data-driven decisions.

By combining monitoring capabilities of Actus with ITracker’s analytics and profiling tools, broadcasters benefit from operational efficiency, improved visibility into health and compliance from the same dashboard and actionable insights, the company said.

“Pikolo serves customers across all broadcast verticals, from single stations to multi-national networks,” said Vernon Omegah, vice president of technology at Pikolo Systems. “Integrating Actus’ monitoring data gives our clients richer business insights to drive operational excellence.”

Actus Digital is a LiveU company.

More information is on the Actus Digital website.

AMSTERDAM—Irdeto and Ateme revealed the strategic integration of the former’s TraceMark forensic watermarking solution within the latter’s end-to-end video delivery ecosystem during recently concluded IBC2025 convention.

The integration enables content owners, broadcasters and streaming service providers to seamlessly activate content protection directly within their entire headend workflows, embedding unique and imperceptible watermarks in real time across the content lifecycle, the companies said.

The move enables operators to embed Irdeto’s TraceMark forensic watermarking directly into the content within their secure headend, moving beyond component-specific deployment, they said.

TraceMark’s blind detection capabilities eliminate the need for complex interfaces with Irdeto’s forensics system, ensuring straightforward and minimally impactful integration into any workflow. Embedding the technology into Ateme’s expanding portfolio covering transcoding, packaging and CDN, equips users with a streamlined path to adopting proven server-side watermarking.

This deterrent against content theft operates without disrupting existing workflows, guaranteeing that all distributed content—from source to screen—is invisibly watermarked, providing an essential and comprehensive layer of security, the said.

“Ateme’s end-to-end solutions are increasingly adopted across the industry for their quality and efficiency, and this integration makes it easier than ever for their customers to protect valuable content,” said Andrew Bunten, chief operating officer of Video Entertainment at Irdeto.

“By simplifying and expanding the watermarking process across the entire Ateme ecosystem, we’re creating new opportunities for content owners to secure their assets and for Ateme to deliver even greater value.”

The pre-integration of TraceMark into Ateme’s solutions offers a key differentiator where critical protection is already seamlessly available and deeply integrated, the companies said.

“At Ateme, we are committed to delivering solutions that not only meet but anticipate the evolving needs of our customers,” said Remi Beaudouin, chief of strategy of Ateme. “By integrating Irdeto’s TraceMark watermarking not just within our encoders, but across our broader end-to-end video delivery platform, we are giving our customers an effortless way to enhance their content security, without adding operational complexity.”

More information is available on the Irdeto and Ateme websites.

LOUISVILLE, Colo.—Faced with an increased number of attacks and a growing problem with vandalism of key telecommunications infrastructure in the U.S., the broadband industry has launched STRIKE (Strategic Threat Response & Infrastructure Knowledge Exchange), an urgent initiative that will confront what the industry calls an increasingly serious national security crisis.

In launching the effort, the industry cited data showing that there were 5,770 criminal acts of theft and vandalism were reported from June to December 2024—approximately 824 per month affecting over 1.5 million customers.

Co-led by industry leaders SCTE, a subsidiary of CableLabs, and NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, STRIKE represents a executive-level coalition that aims to address the alarming spike in criminal attacks on essential broadband infrastructure.

The group stressed that many of these incidents go beyond mere acts of vandalism, as they're deliberate assaults that disrupt key facilities including U.S. military bases, 911 services, fire and police departments, healthcare facilities, law enforcement, government services and agencies, and educational and financial institutions endangering public safety and interrupting economic activity.

"A threat to broadband infrastructure is a threat to our national security," emphasized Maria Popo, president and CEO of SCTE. "STRIKE ensures that executive-level visibility is directly connected to frontline realities. This coordinated approach is precisely what's needed to tackle this emerging threat decisively."

Rikin Thakker, chief technology officer and senior vice president of NCTA added that “This isn’t simply an industry issue; it’s a nationwide emergency. STRIKE will mobilize our collective strength, aligning policy advocacy with strategic operations to strengthen our efforts to protect America’s critical communications infrastructure."

The NCTA said it is is leading important efforts in addressing these criminal threats to broadband infrastructure through its expertise in public policy and advocating for federal legislation such as H.R. 2784-- Stopping the Theft and Destruction of Broadband Act of 2025-- that would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to ensure that attacks on public and private networks are treated equally and carry appropriate penalties.

NCTA has also taken the lead in encouraging agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to increase intelligence sharing, treat these infrastructure attacks as domestic terrorism when the facts warrant and allocate more resources to high incident regions.

The STRIKE Executive Forum draws senior executives from leading broadband operators including, but not limited to, Comcast, Charter, Altice USA, CableOne, Cox, GCI, Mediacom and Rogers. Comcast’s Elad Nafshi, serving as chair, and Charter Communications’ Tom Monaghan, as vice chair, highlight the industry's unified commitment to strategic coordination and rapid response.

The participants described STRIKE’s core mission as follows:

• Spotlight broadband damage and destruction as a top-tier national security threat.
• Facilitate intelligence sharing to quickly identify and mitigate emerging threats.
• Integrate policy advocacy, technical standards and operational protocols into a cohesive national defense strategy.
• Establish clear, unified communication with government stakeholders.

STRIKE said that it will leverage SCTE’s operational expertise to surface cross-operator insights that strengthen broadband resilience. For decades, SCTE has set essential industry standards that help providers assess business impacts, gain secure access to incident areas, coordinate effectively with federal agencies, evaluate location-specific risks and maintain continuity and rapid recovery during crises.

STRIKE reported that it will hold its first strategic meeting at TechExpo25, SCTE's industry event, providing a critical platform for participants to set the strategic vision and drive immediate impact.

Senior broadband executives are urged to join this pivotal effort. For more details or to participate, contact strike@scte.org.

Sage has released an update to its most recent firmware for its Digital ENDEC model 3644.

The issue only applies to its U.S. users.

In its Aug. 27 Rev96-1 firmware release, Sage found that character generators and LED signs may display alerts in the “severe” color, regardless of the type of alert.

The Sept. 3 Rev96-1-P1 firmware update corrects this error. It includes all of the updated benefits from the original release, which adds support to receive and relay Missing and Endangered Persons event codes.

Sage updated its download page to include the corrected version of the Rev96 release. It is safe for users who have already installed the first Rev96-1 version to install the update on top of it.

For users who downloaded the Rev96-1 release but have not installed it, Sage said to simply download and install the new, corrected version.

“All of the instructions and other information regarding Rev96-1 still apply,” Sage said.

Both the original update and the corrected version are free for users to install. The update itself is optional, but Sage recommends its installation.

Sage invites any questions from its users via email or call 914-872-4069 and press “1” for support.

[Related: “Sage Firmware Update Adds MEP Event Code”]

[Editors Note: This article originally appeared in our sister publication Radio World.]

LONDON—Pathé has selected Synamedia ContentArmor forensic watermaking to protect premium content on its Pathé Home D2C Transactional VOD (TVOD) streaming service in France by identifying the origin of leaks and taking disruptive countermeasures.

Pathé will safeguard its investment in thousands of movies, including 4K UHD content, across all devices while complying with content owner agreements.

“After evaluating the watermarking options available, we chose to partner with Synamedia because ContentArmor ensures we maintain the high levels of video quality that our users associate with our brand, as well as keeping a tight lid on encoding costs. Safeguarding the content of our partners is crucial for Pathé, and with ContentArmor, we are able to embed imperceptible watermarks in our content, identify the individual accounts of unauthorized users and malicious actors, and take action accordingly,” said Pathé head of platform and video Ivar van der Burg.

Synemedia said Pathé selected ContentArmor because it is well-regarded by Hollywood studios. It also offers the integration flexibility and cost effectiveness Pathé requires. Unlike other solutions that encode content multiple times to insert the watermark, ContentArmor only encodes content once, reducing both the complexity and cost of securing premium 4K UHD content, Synamedia said.

As a server-side solution, ContentArmor supports the highest security standards for session-based watermarking, ensuring robust protection for Pathé’s assets, the company said.

More information is available on the company’s website.

ATLANTA—As the growing popularity of artificial intelligence continues to roil the news industry, Gray Media’s award-winning national investigative team, InvestigateTV, and Gray stations have launched a new multiplatform investigative project to educate viewers about the unseen ways artificial intelligence is impacting various parts of their everyday lives.

The project, “Manipulated: A Disinformation Nation,” brings together InvestigateTV’s national unit and Gray’s local newsrooms to explore how AI is already shaping what people see online and how audiences can protect themselves. Stories will air across InvestigateTV’s free streaming apps, on investigatetv.com, and on Gray news platforms nationwide.

The first report in the series, debuting on August 26, exposes the rise of deceptive AI content, including scam campaigns that impersonate trusted sources to stir anger and “civic chaos”. The story also reveals how some popular online creators are using AI to help people spot a dangerous scheme before they are a victim.

“InvestigateTV and our newsrooms are trusted sources in giving viewers insight into how new technology affects their daily lives. By combining our national investigative team with local reporting across our markets, we will empower audiences to educate themselves and avoid being misled,” said Sandy Breland, Gray’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

In the weeks ahead, Gray reported that the national team will publish additional investigations on topics including AI-driven celebrity spoofs, designer knockoffs that undercut small businesses, and personal videos repackaged into fabricated fundraisers or ads. Each story will emphasize simple steps viewers can take to verify content and avoid scams. Gray stations will report locally on AI’s growing role in government, schools, healthcare, and more. The project will cover all sides of the AI phenomenon, including its innovative and potentially positive aspects.

“This in-depth series will arm our audience with critical information about the rising impact of AI and how to tell the difference between its helpful and harmful applications,” said Lee Zurik, Gray’s senior vice president of news strategy and innovation.

To support the coverage, InvestigateTV created an interactive page at investigatetv.com/manipulated featuring video explainers and a game that challenges users to distinguish real photos from AI-generated images. The page also provides consumer protection resources and will be updated with new content from across the Gray footprint.

LOS ANGELES—The Trusted Partner Network (TPN) has announced that it will launch its next-generation Shield tier system in early September 2025. The new system is designed to increase transparency, elevate security standards, and drive continuous improvement for content security across the media and entertainment supply chain.

TPN, which is the Motion Picture Association’s (MPA) global content security initiative, is owned and managed by the MPA. The MPA is backed by Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

The new Shield model introduces two new tiers, Silver and Gold Star, which build on the legacy of the Classic Gold Shield by recognizing a Service Provider’s completion and TPN’s review of security gaps identified during the TPN assessment process, it said.

“The new Shield structure gives Content Owners clearer visibility into the security readiness and remediation progress of vendors and partners—essential in today’s evolving threat landscape,” said Terri Davies, president of TPN. “This update is a pivotal step forward for content security and builds on the value TPN provides for its members.”

The newly unveiled next-gen tiers—Blue, Silver, Gold, and Gold Star—replace the legacy classic Blue and Gold Shield designations. This new system goes into effect with the TPN+ release of the v5.3.1 TPN questionnaires and assessments, in which each Shield tier is prominently displayed in the TPN+ Registry. All Classic TPN Gold Shields will remain valid until their expiration dates.

The four-tier system reflects a Service Provider’s current security status:

• Blue Shield – Self-assessment completed and published
• Silver Shield – Assessment completed, remediation plan submitted (formerly Classic Gold)
• Gold Shield – All Best Practice remediation items completed and reviewed by TPN
• Gold Star Shield – All Best Practice and Additional Recommendations completed and reviewed by TPN

The TPA describes the key benefits of the next-gen Shield tiers as follows:

• Increased transparency of remediation progress
• Faster, more informed decision-making for content owners
• Scalable recognition of security maturity
• Incentivized continuous improvement
• Better alignment with evolving global threats

More information about the new Shield tiers and updated TPN+ Platform is available at www.ttpn.org.

LYNDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems and broadcast streaming processing specialist D2D Technologies have launched DAS-Flex, a combination of both companies’ technologies that creates a unified, resilient broadcast solution.

The partnership has resulted in a true technology with D2D’s multiplexing capabilities being directly integrated into the Digital Alert Systems DASDEC platform. The resulting product is an all-in-one emergency alert encoder/decoder, signal switcher, media playout system and ASI-IP bridge, which reduces the hardware broadcasters require and simplifies workflows, the company said.

“We’re excited to bring our Flex-series technology into this powerful new platform,” said Steve Doll, president at D2D Technologies. “The DAS-Flex combo is a great example of how thoughtful integration can solve real-world challenges for broadcasters. Whether it’s ensuring signal continuity during a disaster or enabling localized alerts at translator sites, this solution offers a unified approach with enhanced performance and adaptability.”

DAS-Flex brings together Digital Alert Systems’ DASDEC-III emergency messaging platform and D2D Technologies’ Flex-series ATSC multiplexer and media keyer in a compact 2 rack-unit chassis. While purpose-built for U.S. broadcasters and cable operators subject to EAS/CAP mandates, the unit offers a modular design that makes it suitable for a wide range of program distribution environments, it said.

The platform supports full-power stations during normal operation with DASDEC providing alert information within the standard air chain but with the DAS-FLEX option also functioning as a tower backup switch with alerting capabilities automatically detecting loss of the studio transmitter link (STL) and switching to a secondary feed. It also can display a technical difficulties slate or play locally stored media.

Even during these fallback modes, DAS-Flex continues to monitor and display emergency alerts across all channels, ensuring uninterrupted public safety messaging.

For translator sites, DAS-Flex enables localized alert insertion, allowing geographically targeted emergency messages without disrupting the broader network. This is especially valuable for statewide networks, where over-alerting can lead to viewer fatigue, the company said.

For low-power television operators, it offers easy deployment with support for ASI and SRT feeds, it said.

CHESEAUX-SUR-LAUSANNE, Switzerland and PHOENIX—Nagravision announced today that it is extending its partnership with Broadpeak to deliver a next-generation streaming security solution for providers of live sports content. The joint solution “strategically detects, identifies, and disrupts pirate streams to degrade their quality and reliability, making them unwatchable, while preserving an uninterrupted service for paying customers, maximizing both revenue protection and viewer satisfaction,” according to the companies.

The collaboration combines Nagravision’s AI-powered security analytics and real-time pirate disruption technologies with Broadpeak’s Advanced CDN with real-time security control.

“Live sports content is both highly valuable and highly vulnerable,” said Stéphane Le Dreau, SVP Global Product Management & Sales Development at Nagravision. “The winning combination of our market-leading content security expertise together with Broadpeak’s own innovation in streaming security gives rights holders and broadcasters robust tools to protect their content and actively detect, identify, and disrupt the pirate viewing experience—while ensuring a seamless experience for legitimate viewers.”

The integrated solution delivers comprehensive end-to-end protection against evolving piracy threats including illegal re-streaming, credential sharing, unauthorized access, and CDN leeching. Its AI-powered analytics engine continuously monitors CDN traffic and DRM license requests to detect suspicious activity patterns, enabling immediate disruption of pirate streams without impacting legitimate viewers. Engineered for scale, the solution optimizes content delivery for high concurrency and low latency even during peak viewership periods of live events, while seamlessly integrating with OTT platforms and broadcast workflows to minimize deployment complexity, according to the companies.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Nagravision to address live sports piracy, one of the biggest threats facing our industry today,” said Damien Sterkers, VP of Products & Solutions Marketing, Broadpeak. “Our new solution approach offers a robust, scalable and secure streaming capability that ensures legitimate delivery and viewer satisfaction remain the core focus throughout the streaming workflow.”

NAGRA Streaming Security is designed to provide broadcasters and streaming providers with a 360-degree view of their streaming threat landscape. Based around core pillars of device security, platform security and anti-piracy intelligence, the solution provides insight and threat guidance thanks to comprehensive security monitoring and analytics capabilities ensuring revenues and valuable content rights are protected from piracy.

To learn more about Nagra Streaming Security and how it is used by leading streaming platforms, visit Nagravision in Stand 1.C81, and Broadpeak in Stand 1.F83 at the 2025 IBC Show, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam.

LYNDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems and video compression tech specialist Ateme today said they will collaborate on Emergency Alert System (EAS) integration, making it more efficient and cost-effective for broadcasters and cable operators.

The partnership adds Digital Alert Systems’ EAS-Net device networking protocol to Ateme’s TITAN line of SD, HD and UHD encoders. The integration allows Digital Alert Systems’ DASDEC flexible emergency-messaging platforms to connect directly to Ateme solutions via a simple network connection, eliminating the need for added hardware or software to provide full EAS text crawl and audio capabilities across all streams from the Ateme units.

“We are pleased to offer EAS-Net within the TITAN encoders to streamline airchains, reduce potential points of failure, increase redundancy and reduce costs,” ATEME Director of ATSC Sales Fred Ramsey said. “Digital Alert Systems and its EAS-Net interface are the gold standard for emergency alerting. We have the highest regard for the system and are eager to enable our customers to benefit from this advancement.”

Prior to the integration, linking DASDEC and the Ateme solutions required a combination of the legacy SCTE-18 protocol with an MPEG-2 transport stream for audio, resulting in a more rigid equipment configuration. The addition of EAS-Net introduces a new mode that supports hybrid virtualization at a significantly lower cost than previous methods. This makes it an attractive option for smaller broadcasters and those looking to implement more flexible, IP-based workflows, the companies said.

A key advantage of the integration is its ability to work across all streams in the Ateme encoding systems. Users no longer need one unit per stream or multiple DASDEC clients to support this comprehensive solution. This single-interface approach reduces equipment footprints and simplifies system design. The configuration process also has been greatly simplified, requiring only a network connection between the two systems. There are no restrictions on colocation, nor is there a need for additional hardware to provide fully compliant EAS text crawls and audio through the Ateme platform, they said.

“Teaming up with Ateme to bring this innovative solution to market is a real boon for our shared customers,” Bill Robertson, vice president of business development at Digital Alert Systems, said. “EAS-Net has become the de facto standard for linking equipment together for EAS information exchange, and the integration with Ateme shows how this protocol works around the facility and across multiple platforms for playout, automation and direct transcoder support. This level of flexibility allows broadcasters to select and implement newer, higher-performance equipment while maintaining seamless emergency alert capabilities. By integrating EAS-Net into Ateme’s encoder solution, broadcasters can ensure that critical emergency alerts reach viewers more efficiently and reliably.”

More information is available on the Ateme and Digital Alert Systems websites. 

LONDON—Numerous Canadian video service providers have selected Friend MTS and its Dynamic Delivery Server Blocking (DDSB) solution to prevent piracy, the company said this week.

Forming an industry-first collaboration, these organizations have secured a nationwide court order to dynamically block access to any servers hosting broadcasters’ pirated content, including content from major sports leagues, such as FIFA, NBA, NHL and UFC, it said.

The court order allows Internet Service Providers to block access dynamically to servers attempting to distribute pirated content without requiring a new court order for each sporting event. This approach will save money and time in protecting content and billions of dollars in associated content rights, it said.

Friend MTS developed DDSB in 2017. It delivers large scale blocking of content while meeting strict legal standards required for court orders blocking servers. The solution gives users the intelligence and evidence needed to persuade ISPs to restrict access to illicit services, thereby cutting the number of illegal streams, it said.

As a result, viewers are encouraged to watch content from legitimate commercial sites, maintaining the value of the content, it said.

“This collaboration shows the powerful impact that results from video service providers, ISPs and video security specialists coming together to fight piracy,” said Shane McCarthy, CEO, Friend MTS. “Canadian operators are leading the global industry by setting the bar for piracy prevention in new, dynamic ways. We’re thrilled to have helped them not only implement security solutions but to obtain the blocking order as well. Our unique blend of expertise and blocking technology innovation is aiding their security teams, legal counsels, and business leaders with the right analytics and evidence to effectively stop piracy, without impacting legitimate websites.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Public media stations in California, New York, Oregon and Texas will receive a total of up to $1.8 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to upgrade their equipment to provide enhanced emergency alerting.

The awards take the number grants awarded in the first round of funding for the Next Generation Warning System (NGWS) to 21. Funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the grant program is providing $34 million to public media stations to upgrade equipment and receive training to enhance emergency alerts, including the ability to TV stations to use ATSC 3.0 and radio stations to deploy comparable digitalk radio technologies, CPB said.

“Public media stations have long played a vital role in emergency alerting in communities across the country,” said Patricia Harrison, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. “The Next Generation Warning System grant program helps public media organizations, especially in rural areas, replace and upgrade their infrastructure so that they can continue to keep their communities safe.” 

In 2022, FEMA selected CPB to establish and administer the NGWS grant progra

In June, CPB launched a Request for Applications (RFA) portal on the CPB website for a second round of funding. The total amount of NGWS grant funds available in this round is $48 million, approved in Fiscal Year 2023.

“FEMA is committed to building resilience by rapidly disseminating emergency communications to the public through diverse integrated pathways,” said FEMA IPAWS director Manny Centeno. “FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) provides a suite of tools and resources for local authorities to effectively send emergency communications to the public. We continue developing the Next Generation Warning System concept as we improve continuity and leverage new technologies, such as ATSC 3.0, that can reach the public wherever they are.”

The most recent recipients include:

• Northern California Educational TV - KIXE-TV, Redding, Calif., up to $857,105 to upgrade the overall transmission signal, increasing emergency alert access. KIXE-TV covers rural Northern California.
• St. Lawrence Valley Educational Television Council - WPBS-TV, Watertown, N.Y., up to $276,444 to replace an aging transmitter, making the station fully ATSC 3.0 ready and providing a stronger signal and reaching more communities with emergency alerting in this rural area, from the Adirondack Mountains to the St. Lawrence River.
• Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs/KWSO-FM, Warm Springs Ore., up to $158,749 to install and upgrade emergency alert equipment at the radio station and towers and to establish an alternate transmitter site in case of emergency.
• Texas A&M University - KAMU TV/FM, College Station, Texas, up to $486,214 to improve the resiliency of broadcast signal origination and boost redundancy of the station’s transmission and related emergency alerting in the Brazos Valley.

Of the 21 stations to receive NGWS grants so far from the first round of funding, six are in Alaska, three in New York and three in Texas.

For more information visit www.cpb.org.

Sky News UK and Sky Sports News have been taken off air by what’s being described as the ‘biggest IT outage of all time’.

Sky News began to experience problems around 5am and switched to broadcasting documentaries at 7am. It then went completely off-air about an hour later.

The channel returned to air at 8.50am with a much-changed backdrop, and no graphics, autocue or packages. It then went back off air again after a short news update and before resuming at 9am.

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Sky News chairman David Rhodes said that the network had “not been able to broadcast live TV this morning. Much of our news report is still available online, and we are working hard to restore all services.”

In its own post on X, Microsoft 365 said: “We’re investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services”.

Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike later released a statement in which it said it is “actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.”

Australian broadcasters were also forced off air, with both Sky News Australia and ABC hit.

AWS, NOW, Virgin Media, and BT are also among the companies impacted, according to DownDetector.

This story first appeared in our sister publication TVBEurope

DENVER—NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) has joined the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP). 

The coalition is expanding the language content under its protection umbrella to include Japanese and has added a Japanese-speaking analyst to its anti-piracy lab to focus on protecting NHK content. The coalition already protects English, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Portuguese and French channels, among others, it said.

“We have been very impressed with the results achieved by IBCAP in controlling piracy for other members, and we are excited to join IBCAP and to bring our channels and VOD under IBCAP’s protection,” said Shigeki Sato, the head of NHK’s copyright and contracts division. “After visiting IBCAP’s state-of-the-art monitoring lab and meeting the legal and management teams, we were quickly convinced that joining this coalition was the right move for us to bolster the protection of NHK content not only in the U.S. but also worldwide.”

More information is available on the IBCAP website.

LONDON—U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV has selected Friend MTS anti-piracy services to help protect its content.

ITV will protect its main linear channels across broadcast and streaming platforms with Friend MTS’s 24×7 Global Monitoring service. These channels feature exclusive, premium content including Six Nations Rugby, the FA Cup, the England Women’s football team matches and the upcoming UEFA EURO 2024 tournament as well as entertainment like “The Masked Singer.”

“ITV’s aim is to contribute to making piracy unsustainable and through appointing Friend MTS we will be working together to enhance our anti-piracy activities in the U.K., said ITV director of distribution Sarah Tierney. “As a key part of our strategy to optimize broadcast and supercharge streaming, it’s important that we maximize ITV’s reach while protecting audiences from the material consumer harms of pirate sites and meeting our contractual obligations with rightsholders.”

Using the Friend MTS best-in-class global monitoring platform, which includes proprietary, fingerprinting technology and automated detection systems, backed by a highly experienced 24×7 operations team, ITV be able to identify illegal streams across the internet for immediate takedown. The platform also will facilitate removal of links from primary search engines, the company said.

“We are seeing a tide of key entertainment brands turning to us to help them fight piracy and keep their content secure,” said Chris Gibbs, Friend MTS senior vice president of sales. “Our unrivalled capabilities not only reduce exposure to piracy but ensure advertiser messaging is seen by the right people, which is paramount for an ad-funded businesses like ITV.”

 More information is available on the company’s website. 

Sony has announced that it’s Ci Media Cloud has launched a new Advanced Watermark Security package that is designed to protect high-value content. The offering is available as an add-on with enterprise subscription plans.

In addition to the Advanced Watermark Security add-on, Ci offers burn-in watermarks on the platform. Also built natively into MediaBox, users, and guests can download shared images and videos with burn-in watermarks, expediting the editorial process. 

With watermarking capabilities built natively into the Ci platform, studios, and content owners can reinforce the protection of their IP and streamline workflows by eliminating the need to manually move, copy, or process media, Sony reported. 

Key Features of the package include:

• Watermarked Workspaces: Content owners can configure visual watermarks on all media files uploaded and stored in their Ci Workspaces. Watermarked Workspaces allows enterprise customers to streamline operations by standardizing a visual watermark while saving the time and effort of end users manually watermarking content individually.
• Forensic Watermarking: Ci has collaborated with NAGRA to build an integration with NexGuard to offer forensic watermarking. Built natively into Ci’s sharing tool, MediaBox, content owners can have peace of mind knowing they can trace every piece of shared video using a unique watermark ID.

Pricing and more information is available here

Amid growing concerns about the potential for artificial intelligence technologies to disrupt the 2024 election with fake video, images and other misinformation, Fox Corporation has publicly released an open source beta version of Verify, an AI content protocol that allows users to verify the source of a content. 

The tool also can be used by Fox and other media companies to register content and negotiate rights with AI tech providers for access to their content. That would potentially open up lucrative opportunities for Fox and other media companies to license vast library of sports, news and other content to companies who might want to use the content to train and develop AI technologies. 

Verify was developed in-house by the Fox Technology team and is built on Polygon PoS. Researchers at Polygon Labs have been building core blockchain infrastructure that can transparently prove authenticity.

Fox Corp launched a closed beta of Verify on August 23, coinciding with the first Fox News GOP debate. To date, 89,000 pieces of content, spanning text and images, have been signed to Verify, from Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, and Fox TV affiliates.

Now, the protocol has been open sourced, allowing the public to contribute to and fork the source code, Polygon Labs reported in a blog post. Media companies can access the tool at Verify while consumers use the Verify Tool to confirm origination of digital content from participating Fox sources. 

Using the technology, users can determine if an article or image that purportedly comes from a publisher in fact originated at the source. 

Additionally, Verify establishes a technical bridge between media companies and AI platforms. With its Verified Access Point, Verify creates new commercial opportunities for content owners by utilizing smart contracts to set programmatic conditions for access to content, Polygon Labs reported. 

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast has been notifying its Xfinity customers that there was an unauthorized access to its internal systems in October that may have compromised data from 35.8 million user IDs. 

The data breach may have given hackers access to such data as passwords, the last four digits of social security numbers, contact details and other information. 

Comcast has about 32 million customers but noted that customers may have multiple user IDs. It is requiring users to change their passwords and is strongly recommending they implement two-factor authentication. 

The problem was created by a previously announced security problem with Citrix software. Citrix announced the problem in October and the data breach occurred between October 16 and 19, prior to Citrix issuing additional mitigation solutions on October 23, 2023.   

Comcast issued a statement saying, “We are providing notice to customers about a data security incident which exploited a vulnerability previously announced by Citrix, a software provider used by Xfinity and thousands of other companies worldwide. We promptly patched and mitigated the vulnerability.  We are not aware of any customer data being leaked anywhere, nor of any attacks on our customers.  In addition, we required our customers to reset their passwords and we strongly recommend that they enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication, as many Xfinity customers already do.  We take the responsibility to protect our customers very seriously and have our cybersecurity team monitoring 24x7.”

In a letter to customers the company said: “At the time Citrix made this announcement, it released a patch to fix the vulnerability. Citrix issued additional mitigation guidance on October 23, 2023. We promptly patched and mitigated our systems. However, we subsequently discovered that prior to mitigation, between October 16 and October 19, 2023, there was unauthorized access to some of our internal systems that we concluded was a result of this vulnerability. We notified federal law enforcement and conducted an investigation into the nature and scope of the incident. On November 16, 2023, it was determined that information was likely acquired.”

PARIS—Ukrainian pay-TV and cable broadband service provider Voila went live in May with a disaster recovery (DR) solution from Ateme for its packaging and CDN platform.

Voila is using Ateme’s NEA packaging and CDN solutions for its DR headend. The service provider is committed to continuing to offer robust connectivity to Ukrainian customers, even in the face of hostilities, it said.

The flexible Ateme DR solution is hardware-agnostic. It offers the flexibility Voila required because M&E businesses in Ukraine cannot readily secure exact hardware or equipment, it said. 

“We welcome Ateme as a long-standing partner of Volia Cable and are more than happy to renew our confidence in their service and the quality of the software,” said Voila CTO Andrii Val. “We specifically selected Ateme for disaster recovery because we needed a reliable and flexible solution that could be adapted to our needs in difficult circumstances. In addition, we didn’t just want a black-box integration but a true partner to work with us and meet our objectives.”

More information is available on the company’s website. 

The media and entertainment business is built on what it offers its viewers: programming, sports, news and other live events. While language purists may balk at the current use of the word “assets” instead of “programs,” it does convey the value of the material—both creative and commercial—shown on TV channels and streaming services. They are valuable commodities and have always needed to be protected. Unfortunately, the move to file-based production, with everything on computer servers and network or cloud access, has left assets—and their owners—extremely vulnerable.

This was starkly illustrated by the 2014 hack of files and data from Sony Pictures, which included staff details, emails, corporate information and copies of at-the-time unreleased films. Calls for heightened security in the aftermath of the breach ultimately led to the creation in 2018 of the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA), with the MPA taking full control of TPN in 2021.

Early Moves
The MPA issued its first best practice guidelines for content security in 2009, in collaboration with member companies and consultancy Deloitte. Updates and revisions followed between 2011 and 2018, with authorship moving exclusively to the MPA and its membership.

Deloitte published its own report on the subject in 2018, highlighting the digital transformation of content in all its forms. Among its recommendations for securing material were digital fingerprinting, encryption, blockchain (a digital ledger for recording transactions and events), watermarking and plugging the “analog hole,” where programs are copied from legacy sources.

John Footen, managing director of Deloitte Consulting, acknowledges that the situation continues to evolve but says new technologies are now being used with established practices to further tighten security.

“Automation can reduce the effort to maintain a consistent security posture in large-scale systems and to recover after an attack,” he explains. “We’re also seeing greater integration of media technology with enterprise security systems. More products can work with single sign-on in zero-trust environments, for example. At Deloitte, we’re applying AI for cyber defense, not only for well-established uses such as detecting anomalous behavior and interdicting threats but also for assessment and visualization.”

The changing nature of the threat— hackers developing new viruses and ways of infiltrating systems—calls for content owners to be ever vigilant. This is reflected in the MPA/TPN Best Practice Guidelines, which have been updated on an annual basis (sometimes twice in a year) since 2018. The most recent revision appeared in August this year, with new guidance on working from home and remote access to data centers, plus minor updates to cloud specific controls.

The recommendations from Crystal Pham, vice president of operations and product management for TPN are fairly universal no matter the process: Ensuring that content owners and facilities have secure connections— including not logging into applications from unsecured networks; keeping applications updated and patched; using strong passwords and authentication mechanisms; not sharing accounts or credentials; always installing applications from trusted sources; and adhering to MPA Best Practices, as well as completing an annual TPN assessment.

Pham characterizes the security issue in M&E as “always evolving” and can be influenced by new technologies, the shortening of  release windows and emerging threats. 

“Change is a constant,” she says. “I do think there’s more awareness about security, with better understanding of the constant change and the need to get ahead of it when possible. I believe it’s becoming more embedded in the process of creating, distributing and consuming content. It’s also becoming more ingrained in our culture.”

New Methods Needed
The ever-shifting landscape is summed up by Asaf Ashkenazi, chief executive of Verimatrix, who observes that as technology advances, so do the techniques used by pirates to illegally obtain, distribute and monetize content.

“DRM and other traditional security methods are no longer as effective against today’s savvy hackers,” he says. “New real-time detection and prevention systems that are layered on traditional protection methods are needed to combat modern piracy efforts—especially those that leverage AI/ML and cloud infrastructure to exploit at scale.”

To counter such threats, Verimatrix has developed Streamkeeper, which combines multi-DRM, forensic watermarking and “Counterspy,” which Ashkenazi describes as a “motion sensor” or “alarm” that detects piracy as it happens. “The goal, however, should not be to completely eliminate piracy but to disrupt the pirates’ business models,” he comments. “By increasing costs beyond potential profits, the motivation for piracy diminishes. Real-time detection, prevention and rapid response are key.”

Among the ways of disrupting the activities of pirates is to track down purloined programming to the sites where it is being offered illegally and shut them down. Another company providing such monitoring enforcement services is Friend MTS, which does this using both fingerprinting and watermarking technologies. 

“A customer will give us a clean reference feed of their playout and we fingerprint that,” explains Nik Forman, vice president of marketing for the U.K.-based company. “This allows us to uniquely identify that clip of video. If the monitoring systems— which are all automated and crawling the web—then find a suspicious web site is playing that content, we fingerprint it so we can compare them. 

“If they match, we know it is an illicit player and the client can send an enforcement notice or a takedown order,” Forman continues. “If they also take our watermarking services, the content is marked invisibly and basically sits like a QR code in the actual video. When we find the illicit content and we identify it, we match it with a fingerprint and can then say it is one of our watermarks and we extract that payload of subscriber information.”

‘Never Trust, Always Verify’
While the Sony hack made the M&E sector painfully aware of its vulnerabilities, the threats have only increased since then due to otherwise innocent technological developments. The threat landscape has evolved with emergent technologies such as the Internet of Things, 5G connectivity and advanced generative AI capabilities, according to Eric Elbaz, principal strategic engagement manager at Akamai.

“We’ve also seen state-sponsored attacks become more brazen,” he said. “Nation-state actors are believed to be behind some of the most sophisticated and persistent threats seen to date.”

This was the suspicion surrounding the attack on the supply chain of software company SolarWinds in 2020, while, as Elbaz points out, ransomware attacks have increased “dramatically.”

A recent example of this is the breach of MGM Resorts’ systems in Las Vegas, which reportedly cost the company approximately $100 million. But Elbaz does see progress in dealing with the threats: “On the defensive side, we’ve seen major strides being made across threat intelligence, a paradigm shift from ‘trust but verify’ to ‘never trust always verify’ architectures, which is zero-trust security. Deeper public-private sector collaboration and information sharing, as well as a catch up in privacy laws, regulations, and standards are also helping.”

The threat shows no signs of going away and future attacks are likely to be even more cunning and sophisticated. According to “Variety,” in 2022, hacking of popular entertainment content rose 18% YOY compared with 2021, with the U.S. having the largest share of film and TV demand (i.e., illicit streams, downloads and the like), with more than 13.5 billion visits to piracy sites.

But the tools to combat it are there and, when it comes down to it, the greatest weapons are probably vigilance and common sense. 

LEXINGTON, Mass.—Signiant has announced that it has joined the Trusted Partner Network (TPN) and successfully completed a TPN App and Cloud Gold Shield assessment. 

The TPN is part of a broader Motion Picture Association (MPA) initiative to raise security capabilities throughout the industry, while generating efficiencies for participants to counter ongoing security threats and keep content secure.

Signiant’s TPN Gold assessment was conducted by Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), a TPN-accredited assessor with a long track record as a respected independent third-party technology evaluator in the media industry. Third-party assessment by a certified assessor is differentiated via a gold shield vs. self-assessment represented by a blue shield. The resulting security report is now available to TPN Studio members.

“Signiant has long been the trusted broker of content exchange across complex media supply chains that include Hollywood studios, broadcasters, streaming services and more,” said Ian Hamilton, CTO for Signiant. “While prior to Feb 2023 the TPN only managed site assessments, we saw a great opportunity as a SaaS vendor to leverage the new TPN App and Cloud assessment. TPN Studio members can now view the results of our security assessment through the TPN+ platform in a standard format thereby creating efficiencies for us and our customers. Signiant has been working with ISE to conduct independent third-party security evaluations for over ten years. With ISE’s recent accreditation as a TPN App and Cloud assessor, we saw this as a logical point to add the TPN to the list of security initiatives we participate in.”

“We’re excited to have Signiant, a SaaS innovator in our industry, join the TPN membership. Secure content exchange is mission-critical to the media supply chain and we applaud Signiant’s efforts to ensure their products are as secure as possible and meet or exceed the high standards outlined by the MPA,” said Terri Davies, president of the TPN. “Through the TPN and participating companies like Signiant, content creators have a centralized and recognized source of security measures included in any listed product. This saves precious time and resources for producers who conduct independent security audits because it's centralized and coordinated through the TPN.”

LOS ANGELES—The Trusted Partner Network (TPN), has released Version 5.2 of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) Content Security Best Practices. 

The TPA is an industry-wide content security initiative that is owned and managed by the MPA.

The group said that the update will help companies of all sizes across the entire media chain further manage their security vulnerabilities. 

The updates in the Best Practices include a crucial requirement for Software Application Providers to provide hardening guidelines, which comprise the security measures and best practices on applications to prevent cyber-attacks. 

The TPN+ platform will now serve as the centralized repository for these important documents at a version level for TPN members to update and/or source in line with TPN’s mission to raise industry security standards, the group said. 

“The update demonstrates TPN’s commitment to progress and to creating an environment that facilitates gathering and responding to feedback from our members,” said Crystal Pham, vice president, operations and product management at TPN. “This ongoing collaboration provides us with the opportunity to continually evolve the Best Practices, improve the assessment process, and enhance the user experience. Part of our initiative includes the regular release of Best Practice revisions.”

In addition, the new version introduces a more in-depth approach to the Best Practices that address remote content handling, work-from-home, physical assets, and data centers, which enables enhanced scoping for the TPN assessment. 

TPN+ and the accompanying TPN assessment questionnaire have also been updated to make it easier for Service / Software Provider members to manage their profiles and assessments and communicate their security preparedness status to Content Owners. 

TPN continues to provide clear minimum security preparedness requirements via the Best Practices and Additional Recommendations (previously referred to as Implementation Guidance) in a framework that supports varying levels of acceptable risk. This gives members a holistic picture of security status by topic, which also helps Service Providers create a thorough Security Remediation Plan, if necessary.

Maintained by TPN, the MPA Best Practices provides an important framework and recommendations for securely managing and protecting content in the cloud and on-site, including work-from-home and software applications. TPN also leverages the MPA Best Practices to develop the TPN assessment questionnaire.

With a growing membership of more than 650 Content Owners, Service Providers, and Software Application companies across 52 countries, TPN is focused on improving security by making the security assessment process more straightforward, and implementing clear, concise, and comprehensive best practices for the media and entertainment industry while raising the bar for industry security standards. 

By constantly gathering feedback and insights from member companies, industry partners, and adapting to emerging trends, the updated MPA Best Practices serve as a security benchmark managed to keep pace with industry transformation and technology evolution, the TPA said. 

More information is available here.  

SummitGO is a new line offered by Summit Technology Group to help TV and radio broadcasters in maintaining legal compliance with the ever-evolving EAS requirements.

The product is available as a subscription, and the hardware gateway allows Summit personnel to remotely monitor all aspects of a station’s EAS equipment.

Technicians maintain weekly logs, conduct quarterly inspections and provide proactive support by contacting the client in the event of a discrepancy. Required ETRS forms 1, 2 and 3 are filed on behalf of the station and firmware updates are installed per the manufacturer specifications.

Customers can manage their logs and access all required documents via SummitGO’s secure online portal. SummitGO starts at $119 per month for the first station and $45 per month for additional stations in a cluster.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Radio World. 

NEW YORK—DoubleVerify (DV) has announced that it is expanding access to DV’s quality solutions on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram Reels. The move will allow brands to use DV’s technology on Meta Reels to ensure that their video ads are viewable by a human being and are safe from fraudulent and invalid traffic, the companies said. 

“As a participant in Meta’s measurement partnership program, we are thrilled to announce that we can measure viewability and fraud on Reels, providing global brands with greater clarity and confidence in their investments on both Facebook and Instagram,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO, DoubleVerify. “The explosion in short-form, user-generated content is offering advertisers a high-engagement environment to connect with passionate online communities. We can now provide media authentication, and help maximize campaign impact and performance for our mutual advertisers.”

The agreement means that mutual clients of DV and Meta will be able to access measurement data and insights through DV Pinnacle, the company’s unified service and analytics reporting platform, to monitor and optimize the quality of their Reels ads campaigns. Reporting will cover Viewability and Fraud across Reels’ video ad format also known as “Post-loop ads”.

The expanded availability of DV solutions builds on previous partnerships between the two companies that began in 2017 when DV became a participant in Meta’s measurement partnership program offering fraud and viewability measurement on Facebook and Instagram. 

In 2019, DV launched brand safety and suitability on Facebook’s in-stream video inventory, Instant Articles and Audience Network. In 2020, DV received the Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for third-party viewability measurement and reporting for display and video ads on Facebook and Instagram. In 2021, DV announced an expanded brand safety and suitability integration with Facebook, extending verification to In-Stream Reserve, while providing new tools to boost control and efficiency.

LYNDONVILLE, N.Y.—Digital Alert Systems today unveiled Version 5.1 for its DASDEC and One-Net platforms, bringing a new UI and upgraded operating system to units in the field.

Marking the first time Version 5 software has been available for older DASDEC-II and One-Net SE units, the latest version improves the experience of users and increases security of the overall architecture, the company said.

Version 5.1 builds on the new, fresher user interface introduced in Version 5 and showcased in the DASDEC-III device. Offering greater visual clarity, the new release highlights the security of the company’s download server and is a steppingstone to Version 5.2, which will include FCC-mandated changes, it said.

"With the updated user interface that our DASDEC-III customers have enjoyed now available for older DASDEC and One-Net units, Version 5.1 is a big step up for many broadcasters," said Bill Robertson, vice president of business development at Digital Alert Systems. "There's also a more powerful, more stable and updated operating system for even greater security. We're laying the groundwork to accommodate all the latest FCC mandates — new capabilities that will be available for free to all Version 5-series customers with our Version 5.2 release coming soon."

Available in mid-May, Version 5.1 is free to all customers who are either actively enrolled in the company’s Software Assurance Plan, have purchased a new DASDEC or recently took advantage of its UP-TRADE program. Costs for other users depend on hardware compatibility and the age of their current system, it said.

Version 5.1 requires a DASDEC or One-Net unit with a 64-bit processor to install and operate the latest code. All units shipped since 2016 have a 32-/64-bit processor, so owners of those devices can simply install Version 5.1 using Digital Alert Systems' secure field upgrade server. Once on Version 5.1, all in-version upgrades will be available at no charge, it said.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

LOS ANGELES—As part of its campaign to stop the illicit hosting of digital piracy content, the MPA's Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), has shut down Streamzz, an illegal file hosting service with global reach.

Operated out of Ahlen, Germany, Streamzz logged more than 7 million monthly visits prior to its closure. One-third of that traffic originated in Germany, followed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Hungary, the group reported. 

Operating since 2019, Streamzz hosted and streamed more than 75,000 movies and 15,000 TV series episodes, affecting all ACE members.

The service was used by more than 60 websites offering pirated content.

“The shutdown of Streamzz is fresh proof that no one in the content piracy ecosystem – whether they’re a streaming service, video streaming host or anything in between – is above the law,” said Jan van Voorn, executive vice president and global content protection chief of the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE. “We will target piracy services of various kinds in order to protect the global creative economy.”

ACE worked with Constantin Film, a member of the coalition, on this action.

“Piracy continues to undermine the legal market and the investment into new and exciting content," explained Philipp Wohlfrom, executive vice president of international licensing and head of anti-piracy at Constantin Film. "This action is a massive success for rightsholders in Germany and across the world and we are proud to work with ACE to support their ongoing efforts to protect copyright and fight piracy."