Piracy, live content and the cost of cyber

At IBC 2025, we gathered a group of senior content executives from across the broadcasting and streaming industry for a candid discussion on what’s really keeping them up at night. Previously, conversations would have centred around new technologies, distribution models, or audience behaviour.  

This year, however, the dominant theme on the boat (yes, it was a boat… we hosted the event on the Amsterdam canals) was cybersecurity. For a sector that has traditionally focused on physical security – guards, gates, and locked-down studios – it was striking how quickly the focus shifted once ‘cyber’ entered the discussion.  

The message was clear: in 2025, cyber risk has become a top priority for media and streaming companies.

Why cyber matters to the content and media industry 

There are three big reasons why cyber risk has suddenly climbed the agenda for content producers and broadcasters: 

Live broadcasting remains under siege 

Pre-recorded content has always carried a risk of piracy, but what executives at IBC 2025 highlighted as their deepest concern is live events. A sports match, a concert, a premiere — you only get one chance to broadcast it live, and that fleeting moment is worth billions globally. Yet the scale of piracy is staggering. Around 30% of live broadcast value is lost to illegal streaming. To put that in perspective, in most industries a 5% loss would be enough to trigger panic. But that tolerance is reaching its limit. 

Supply chains are wide open 

The production process in media and broadcasting stretches across a wide network of partners – from pre-production to post-production to distribution – and every link in that chain is a potential weak spot. As the recent Marks & Spencer breach demonstrated, it’s not always the core brand that fails. It’s often a supplier with weaker defences that opens the door. For attackers, one vulnerable back door is all it takes to compromise an entire ecosystem. 

Criminals move faster than the industry 

Once attackers gain access, their objectives extend far beyond stealing films or shows. They can disrupt live broadcasts, lock down editing and production systems, or leak subscriber and talent data. For global streaming and media companies, the challenge is that cybercriminals operate without borders, while rights management, contracts and laws are tied to specific regions. That mismatch leaves the industry uniquely exposed and struggling to keep pace. 

The recurring challenges in media and broadcasting 

During the discussions, three recurring challenges stood out: 

• Siloed thinking – Cyber is often seen as ‘an IT problem,’ not a business risk that affects revenue, reputation and customer trust. 

• Lack of cross-industry learning – Banking and healthcare have mature cyber cultures; broadcasting is still catching up. 

• Economic and cultural factors – Piracy isn’t uniform worldwide. In some regions, it’s normalised or simply seen as the cheaper choice, while in others it’s less common. These differences mean the industry can’t rely on a one-size-fits-all approach — defences and tactics need to adapt to local behaviours and economic realities. 

And generational habits are adding pressure. Younger audiences don’t care if the content is in 4K or pirated, as long as it’s watchable and free. That makes enforcement even harder. 

Resilience advice for media and streaming leaders 

If you’re producing or distributing content today, here are three steps to strengthen your resilience: 

• Treat cyber like a pandemic – Assume you will be attacked. The question is how quickly you detect, contain, and recover. Build processes that minimise damage, not just walls that try to prevent it. 
• Expand your ‘circle of trust’ – Bring cyber discussions into your executive agenda. Partner with suppliers and peers who share knowledge, not just solutions. 
• Close the silos – Cyber isn’t an IT line item. It touches production, legal, finance, marketing and the brand itself. Break down the walls between departments. 

From fragmented defences to integrated assurance 

The threats facing media and streaming companies aren’t isolated. They cut across content, platforms, supply chains and devices. Tackling them means thinking holistically: 

• Embedding security from the start – building protections into design, devices, and streaming platforms so vulnerabilities are caught early rather than patched reactively. 

• Testing for conformance and interoperability – ensuring delivery systems, apps, devices, and receiving hardware work seamlessly and securely, because one weak link compromises the whole chain. 

• Applying rigorous content-QC – making sure what reaches the consumer not only looks right, but is delivered securely and compliantly. 

• Scaling assurance with data, automation- and AI – adapting defences to local device limitations and piracy patterns across multiple markets and regulatory regimes. 

At Resillion, we bring all of this together through our Total Quality approach – a unified framework that combines Media Content QC, Quality Engineering, Cyber Security, and Conformance & Interoperability. It’s how we help the industry move from fragmented defences to integrated resilience. 

Our membership of CDSA and what it brings 

We’re also proud to be a member of the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA), the international association for those involved in any and every facet of the media supply chain – creators, distributors, technology partners, and those who handle or protect content.  

Being part of CDSA helps us understand the challenges around content protection, piracy and live event security. It gives us access to shared knowledge, threat intelligence, best practices and collaborative workstreams that allow us to support our customers more effectively.

The bigger picture 

The industry has accepted 30% loss as “the cost of doing business” for too long. As attacks become more organised and AI-driven, that number will only climb unless executives change their approach. 

The good news? Conversations like the one at IBC show that awareness is shifting. Memberships like CDSA, and approaches like Total Quality, show that the path forward is through trust and relentless quality. The opportunity is here to make cybersecurity part of the industry’s DNA.