Stegawave launches real-time anti-piracy tech

Stegawave has launched an anti-piracy platform for live sport streaming.

It uses a proprietary watermarking algorithm to embed invisible patterns into live streams, which allows organisations to identify piracy sources in real time and then shut them down. This can integrate with existing streaming workflows and distribution systems, requiring no changes to a content owner’s existing infrastructure. Stegawave customers also have the option to push alternative content or messaging to the illegal stream destination. 

The platform is designed for use by broadcasters, particularly smaller operators, with CEO Sean Fahey telling Broadcast Sport that, “Federations can’t do as much to combat the issue, as they don’t control distribution.”

He also believes it can be a cheaper option that DRM tools to combat “dodgy boxes”, also known as IPTV services, which he expects to continue to be a growing problem as younger sport fans continue to use them even when they move into demographics which are currently TV subscribers and AI tools lower the bar to entry for pirates. 

Stegawave has already worked with Clubber, an Irish streaming platform that used it across live broadcasts, detecting pirated streams and identifying the specific subscriber accounts responsible. Stegawave achieved a 100% detection rate across all streams, and because many illegal IPTV services share the same source account, blocking a single compromised account simultaneously disabled multiple pirate streams, amplifying the impact of each enforcement action.

“Piracy is a massive threat to the sustainability of sports broadcasting at all levels, including grassroots coverage. This technology is potentially game-changing for us to ensure, following significant rights fee investments, that fans are only watching Clubber games on our platform,”  said Jimmy Doyle, CEO, Clubber.