MUMBAI: In an effort to deter piracy, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) has announced that it will deploy NexGuard forensic watermarking system at its Mumbai facilities. The technology will enable the forensic watermarking of its valuable video content with a unique identifier in post-production, making its worldwide distribution traceable and secure.

This level of protection is particularly important for content owners looking at preserving the value of their content before it is aired.

“Online piracy in India and worldwide is indeed a major threat for the overall media and entertainment industry. With Peer-2-Peer platforms and illegal re-streaming services flourishing in the subcontinent, we sensed a strong need to deploy solutions to protect our most important asset our content,” said ZEEL chief business officer Sunil Buch. “Using NexGuard forensic watermarking, we can now trace the source of illegal copies of each video asset at any point of the content lifecycle. This enhances our content security by many folds, and above all, it acts as a powerful deterrent against piracy.”

ZEEL has chosen to deploy the NexGuard system in the form of software plug-ins for their transcoder farms, thereby ensuring a seamless fit in its existing content post-production and distribution workflow.

“ZEEL’s content and channels are among the most popular in India and worldwide,” said NexGuard managing director Harrie Tholen. “With a global audience and very valuable assets at play, it was crucial for ZEEL to deter piracy and act quickly if it does take place. We are proud to be involved in helping ZEEL safeguard revenues through deterring piracy.”

According to the Motion Picture Distributors Associations (India), India with over 1,000 original productions every year is the world’s most prolific movie producer. However, the South Asian power also ranks fourth among English-speaking countries for piracy, leading to significant potential revenue loss for content producers and distributors.

NexGuard provides watermarking plug-ins for most commercially available transcoders as well as solutions for other file, tape and disc workflows. It has solutions for 4K/UHD and HDR support is under testing by the Hollywood studios.

ZEEL is a global content company with a presence across 171 countries. With a rich bouquet of 33 domestic and 38 international channels, ZEEL reaches over 1 bn viewers across the world.