Advertising Support for Online

Piracy of Broadcast Content

A Challenge for the Video Content and

Advertising Industries

John Medeiros

Chief Policy Officer, CASBAA

21st ABU Copyright Committee

New Delhi, March 26, 2015

Elements for Discussion

• The Problem: Advertising revenues make piracy

of broadcast content a lucrative racket.

• Evolution of Global Research into Online

Advertising Practices

• Following the Money: the Situation in Asian

markets

• Developing Approaches to Deal With the

Problem

• Takeaways for Asia

Member Companies

Membership by Sector

*Includes agencies, consultancies, law firms, and research companies.

37%

20%

14%

15%

14%

Channels/Content Providers

Satellite Operators &Service Providers

Platforms

Technology/Hardware/Software

Other *

Global Internet Ad Market

More than USD$ 133 Billion in 2014

Source: PwC

No. America 36%

Asia-Pacific 28%

W. Europe 21%

Latin America 7%

E. Europe 4.5%

MEA - 3.8%

2014 Global Internet Advertising Revenues

“Global video Internet advertising revenue will rise at a 23.8% CAGR to 2018, ahead of mobile’s 21.5% CAGR.” -- PwC

Studies: Advertising is the Primary

Funding Source for Piracy Sites

Example Research Studies Analyzed:

1. Business Models of Piracy

2. Ad Networks Role in Placing Ads on Piracy Sites

3. Types of Ads (High Risk vs. Mainstream) on Piracy sites

An Extremely Profitable Business

• An economic study of the US market alone estimated pirate website ad revenue at $227 million annually.

• The 30 largest sites were earning an average of $4.4 million per year in 2013.

• Even small sites can easily earn $100,000. Barriers to entry are low. Attracting a user base requires little effort or investment.

“Because their business model relies entirely on illicitly distributing millions of stolen copies of highly valuable works that cost others billions to create, their profit margins range from 80% to 94%, underscoring that crime can pay when you steal other people’s content.” – Digital Citizens Alliance

An Increasingly Automated Process

• In 2013, 53% of US online advertising was sold via automated “programmatic” systems.

• By 2017 that number is expected to be over 80%.

• These practices are rapidly being replicated in Asia.

“Absent action by stakeholders, ad-supported content theft is likely to continue, supported by three key trends: increased programmatic digital advertising; growth of the global Internet population; and a swelling demand for video content by users who are willing to steal it rather than pay for it.” – Digital Citizens Alliance

What This Looks Like, in Asia

Ads Served

by Yahoo!

Explicit Porn

Ad

那些年，我們一起追的女孩

You Are the

Apple of my Eye

Mainstream

Ad

Mainstream

Ads

Served by

Google

What This Looks Like - 2

Children’s

Program

Pornographic

Ads

Thai Website

What This Looks Like - 3

Asian Broadcast Content:

Ad-Supported Piracy

• Downloadfilmbaru.com is the #677 most popular website in Indonesia • 53% of its traffic comes from search engines

Indonesian

Broadcasters’ Content

Gambling Ads

Japanese Broadcaster’s Content (TV Asahi)

Malware

Bank Ad

Google

Indonesia Ad

Indonesian

Broadcaster’s Content

Hard Goods Ads

Malware Yahoo Ads

Online Game

Taiwan

Broadcaster

Content

Korean

Broadcaster

Content

Google Play

Ad

Hotel Ad

List of channels available on this website (desi-teshan.com):

Here is some of Doordarshan’s content: Pavitra Bandhan

Expedia Ad

Indian Content

A Closer Look into What’s

Going on in Asia

Investigation

• Building on MPAA Research, CASBAA made

a grant to a NZ University Institute. Others

have done parallel studies.

• Took a series of 2-week “snapshots” of pirate

websites.

• Now have data on Australia, Singapore,

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia,

Vietnam, and Thailand.

A Typical Market Study

• Survey of egregious pirating websites popular in the market.

• Two weeks of data collection • Identified advertisers through a combination of

analysis of ad objects and manual observation. • Wherever possible, also identified ad networks

responsible for placing the ads.

Methodology

Types of Advertisements Appearing

on Piracy Websites

6%

94%

Thailand 1%

99%

Australia

4%

96%

Hong Kong (English Sites)

10%

90%

Singapore

High Risk Advertising Mainstream Advertising

Types of Advertisements Appearing

on Piracy Websites

61%

39%

Hong Kong (Chinese Sites)

61%

39%

Taiwan

84%

16%

Indonesia

High Risk Advertising Mainstream Advertising

92%

8%

Malaysia

61%

39%

Vietnam

For India For Hong Kong

For Indonesia

For Malaysia

For Vietnam

For Thailand

(Based in New York) (Based in

San Francisco) (Based in New York)

(Based in Jakarta)

(Based in Malaysia) (Based in Vietnam)

(Based in Barcelona)

(Based in Vietnam)

Who’s Supporting Piracy in Asia?

Study on Pirated Media Content by Tracking Advertisements, Ad-networks and Advertisers on Rogue

Sites – India July 26th, 2013

Executive Summary Study timeframe: July 10th to July 19th, 2013

Significant amount of digital advertisements of legitimate companies are being published in the websites that carry pirated media content.

Most of these companies were from the ecommerce space, followed by banking and financial services

During the period of study the leading advertisers were Whotrades.com and Junglee.com

From the tech industry Dell has significantly higher presence (~10% of overall ad’s)

For a few of the advertisers, an “ad network” was not seen. The major ones were: Tmbattle.com, Shaadi.com and Citibank.co.in

Top Advertisers

779

73

601

296

whotrades.com

junglee.com

dell.com

102

iqmango.com

A few platforms and ad networks were responsible for a large part of the ads of legitimate companies on sites that carry pirated content

Mgid.com, adnxs.com are the top two platforms/ad networks, carrying 48% and 16%

of the ads tracked during the study period. Google, is placed at the 3rd position with 6%.

All the consumer product ad’s such as Ariel, Olay, Whisper, etc., were published from Serving-sys.com, an ad-network(domain)used by Ilissos/Eyeblaster advertising agency.

In most of Ad’s published, multiple level of ad’s networks were involved for an Ad.

Top Ad-networks

mgid.com

adnxs.com

doubleclick.net\ googleadservices.com

179 serving-sys.com

stomex.net

1462

493

193

162

Ariel

International Response:

A Bit of Sunlight Makes the

Cockroaches Run

“Ad Nets Adopt Best Practices

To Stop Online Piracy:

Move Follows White House

Push For Voluntary Industry

Action”

Government/Industry Responses USA: Pushed by White House, Ad

Industry adopts Code of Practice

Government/Industry Responses France: Coordinated Action Plan;

government pushes Ad industry to sign

“Charter” due this month

(Other codes in

place in

Denmark,

Germany, etc.)

ICC Statement: Ad “Misplacement”

• All actors in the online advertising eco-system should

work together to take affirmative steps to reduce the

likelihood of ads being placed on sites dedicated to

either engaging in or facilitating illegal activity…Ad

revenue should not help support illegal activity

• ICC recommends the entire online advertising eco-

system work to develop self-regulation to address the

misplacement of advertisements:

1. Using commercially reasonable efforts and

measures to reduce the risk of ads being placed

on sites dedicated to either engaging in or

facilitating illegal activity; and

2. Developing commercially reasonable policies

and processes for removing or excluding sites

dedicated to either engaging in or facilitating

illegal activity from their marketing campaigns

and/or services, and the development of an

industry-wide standard for expeditiously

terminating such noncompliant ad placements.

Findings

UK “Principles” are now the

Gold Standard for Ad Guidelines

• Under government pressure, an integrated

(industry/police approach with real “teeth”

The UK Good Practice Principles have been drafted by a cross-

industry group called the Digital Trading Standards Group

(DTSG)…The work of the DTSG also reflects a common goal: that

digital display advertising should not support inappropriate or illegal

content or services.

“Safety Guidelines Drawn Up

To Prevent Ad Misplacement”

“Digital Display Ad Market

Unites To Stamp Out Ad

Misplacement”

DTSG Signatories

Anti Piracy – Op CREATIVE

• Collaboration with:

• Tactics include:

I. Restorative Justice II. Domain suspension III. Restricting advertising revenue IV. Payment service removal V. Enforcement

NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED

Op Creative

These approaches need to be brought to Asia

We Need Some Sunlight

• More work needed to analyze the Asian ad

ecosystems.

• An initial observation: it seems the “best

practices” being adopted by global brands and

ad networks in the US and Europe are having

an effect only on the English-language web.

• Mainstream advertisers and global ad

networks continue to place ads on piracy sites

in Asian languages.

We Need Some Sunlight

• Advertising Codes of Practice should be

developed for Asian markets.

• The Asian ad industry does not seem inclined to

move on its own. Pressure will be required.

• Government role seems essential – as Europe.

– A key catalyst for action (Denmark, France, UK, US)

– Active and effective enforcement (UK, maybe France)

• Coalitions involving public and private

broadcasters, pay-TV retailers and responsible

brand owners.

And for “High Risk” Ads?

• Where the perps of these practices are onshore,

there is no excuse for failing to enforce.

Government action is essential.

• The big problem is offshore sites. Maybe new

creative approaches can be developed/refined/

implemented. (e.g. PIPCU ad blocking)

• For now, the best approach seems to be to block

the largest offshore sites – as is being done in

more and more places – e.g. for The Pirate Bay.

Thank you