IPL piracy: Broadcasters to urge Trai for smarter STBs

Media firms seek Trai's help to mandate forensic watermarking in set-top boxes to curb fraud

- Jatin Grover

The Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament has delivered high entertainment value, but rampant piracy has posed significant challenges for broadcasters like Star India, causing them losses.

In response to the growing menace of pirated content, broadcasters are expected to approach the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), urging them to mandate advanced content protection technologies such as forensic watermarking in direct-to-home (DTH) set-top boxes, two broadcasting industry executives aware of the matter said, requesting anonymity.

The reason for broadcasters to demand smarter set-top boxes is that these devices are the main source of content piracy, leading to revenue losses for broadcasters. "Currently, if content piracy occurs using either hardware or virtual set-top boxes (used in streaming television over broadband), there is no way to detect and block the source," said the first executive.