ZEEL secures B2B workflow with NexGuard forensic watermarking

Zee Media Bureau

Mumbai: NexGuard, the leading provider of forensic watermarking technology and solutions, on Wednesday announced that Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) is deploying its NexGuard forensic watermarking system at its Mumbai facilities.

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 billion viewers across the world.

“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 Sunil Buch, Chief Business Officer, ZEEL.

“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,” he added.

“ZEEL’s content and channels are among the most popular in India and worldwide,” said Harrie Tholen, Managing Director of NexGuard.

“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,”  Tholen added.

With over 1,000 original productions every year, India is the world’s most prolific movie producer.

However, the South Asian power also ranks fourth among English-speaking countries for piracy according to the Motion Picture Distributors Associations (India), leading to significant potential revenue loss for content producers and distributors.

In an effort to deter piracy, ZEEL has deployed NexGuard watermarking technology, which enables 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.

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

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.