GeoGuard, the geo-piracy prevention experts, and Friend MTS, the leading provider of platform protection technologies, today announce that Friend MTS is licensing and integrating the GeoGuard Shield studio-approved and third-party tested geo-piracy prevention toolkit with the Friend MTS ASiD system.
Through the licensing of GeoGuard technology solutions for the detection of VPNs and DNS Proxies, the Friend MTS product suite now satisfies the needs of rights holders internationally who are facing unprecedented piracy threats in the OTT space.
“Increasingly, we are seeing OTT platform operators demand a comprehensive set of platform protection technologies to bolster the capabilities of traditional content encryption and DRM systems. These are not just important to demonstrate licence compliance for obtaining access to the high-quality content that will make their service successful and appealing to viewers, but to protect and grow their own in-market revenue” said Jonathan Friend, CEO, Friend MTS. “By partnering with GeoGuard, the recognised leaders in geo-piracy protection, and integrating Shield into our market-leading ASiD watermarking and session control SDKs, we are enabling operators to deploy a combination of these two powerful technologies in a simple yet highly secure manner.  The new combined SDKs, which are available for all major devices and, of course, HTML5 for web, enable drop-in readiness to mitigate a plethora of real-world business threats, whether you’re carrying live linear or VOD content.”
GeoGuard provides geo-data verification solutions and services that enable content owners and OTT providers to prevent the illicit access to content through geo-piracy. The company offers a suite of geo-filtering solutions combined with human intelligence to detect internet users that are spoofing their location through VPNs and DNS proxies, as well as more advanced attacks. To do this, GeoGuard has a team of dedicated engineers and fraud specialists who analyze data collected from the 250 million devices that GeoGuard’s software is installed on, as well as information collected from third-party sources.
GeoGuard’s products and solutions cover IPv6 as well as IPv4 addresses and also apply Wi-Fi triangulation, enabling it to accurately detect location fraud from all device types.
“I’m delighted that GeoGuard now enables Friend MTS to add geo-piracy prevention to its industry leading protection for platforms, channels and content,” said David Briggs, Chairman and Co-Founder of GeoGuard. “Increasingly content pirates are using multiple illicit viewing techniques in parallel, so it’s critical for the industry to protect against all piracy threats simultaneously, which we are helping Friend MTS to do by integrating our geo-piracy prevention with its content watermarking solutions.”
GeoGuard’s software solution is based on technologies used and proven for the geo-protection of the heavily regulated banking and digital gaming industries, and its technology is also third-party tested and studio-approved. The meticulous process it uses and its proven track record, mean that GeoGuard is capable of protecting the TV and media industry from the growing threat of geo-piracy.