Anti-piracy and ISP blocking As A Way Of Safeguarding Africa’s Creative Economy

Africa’s creative economy is entering an important period of growth. Across the continent, audiences are consuming more African stories, local productions and live sport than ever before. Streaming has expanded access, smartphones have put entertainment in the hands of millions, and African creators are increasingly reaching audiences far beyond their home markets.

But the same digital infrastructure creating these opportunities has also created new opportunities for piracy. Illegal streaming services, illicit IPTV platforms, pirate websites and unauthorised content distribution have evolved into a sophisticated digital ecosystem. Content can be copied, repackaged and redistributed almost instantly, often across multiple platforms and jurisdictions.

The consequences extend well beyond lost subscription revenue. Piracy affects producers, writers, actors, technicians and the many other professionals whose livelihoods depend on a sustainable content industry. This is why tackling piracy is increasingly about protecting the future of Africa’s creative economy.

Piracy is no longer simply illegal downloading

The piracy industry has changed. Consumers can now encounter illegal streaming services that look and operate much like legitimate platforms. Some offer subscriptions, customer support and access to premium films, series and live sport. Pirate IPTV services can package thousands of channels and programmes into a single unauthorised service, while operators can move quickly between websites, domains and servers when enforcement action is taken.

This makes piracy harder to tackle through content removal alone. Removing an illegal stream addresses the immediate infringement, but it does not necessarily stop the infrastructure behind it. The same operators can move their service elsewhere and continue.

That is why modern anti-piracy efforts increasingly combine technology, intelligence, enforcement and disruption.

MultiChoice’s technology business, Irdeto, has developed a multi-layered approach that includes online piracy detection, forensic watermarking, site blocking, payment disruption and investigations. MultiChoice says it has deployed forensic watermarking and payment disruption in Africa, increased protection of live events and undertaken research into pirate activity across six African markets.

So, what is ISP blocking?

To understand why ISP blocking matters, it helps to start with the basics. An Internet Service Provider, or ISP, is the company that connects consumers to the internet. When someone enters a website address or accesses an online service, the ISP helps establish that connection.

ISP blocking refers to measures that restrict access to specific websites, domains or IP addresses associated with illegal activity.

In the context of content piracy, this can mean preventing users from reaching identified pirate websites or streaming services.

The distinction is important: ISP blocking does not remove the pirated content itself. It restricts the route through which users access it.

Think of it as closing an access point rather than simply removing what is being distributed through it.

Irdeto’s site-blocking technology is designed to identify and verify pirate infrastructure before providing information to ISPs for blocking. It supports domain, IP and DNS-level blocking, including dynamic and real-time blocking, while using validation measures intended to minimise the risk of legitimate services being caught in the process. These validation measures are critical because pirate operators increasingly bundle their platforms on shared domains and IP addresses that also host legal services, intentionally attempting to inhibit blocking efforts. To counter this, we are driving Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with hosting providers in parallel, ensuring we can collaboratively and surgically isolate illicit infrastructure without impacting lawful internet use.

Why is ISP blocking important?

Piracy operates at scale and, particularly during live sporting events, speed matters.

An illegal stream can attract a large audience within minutes. By the time a conventional takedown process is completed, the event may already be over and the stream may have generated significant traffic and advertising or subscription revenue for the pirate operator.

ISP blocking provides another mechanism to disrupt that access.

Irdeto’s technology is designed to continuously monitor pirate websites, IPTV services, apps and streaming platforms, identify infringing infrastructure and update blocks as pirate operators change domains or IP addresses. Its site-blocking system also supports live blocking, allowing newly identified pirate infrastructure to be addressed during live events.

This is particularly relevant because pirate operators do not stand still. When one domain is blocked or taken down, another can appear. Effective blocking therefore needs to be dynamic rather than a once-off exercise.

ISP blocking is only one part of the technological response. One of the most important tools is forensic watermarking.

A forensic watermark is an invisible identifier embedded into video content. If that content later appears on an illegal service, the watermark can help identify where the content came from and, in some applications, the individual stream or account involved.

Irdeto’s TraceMark technology is designed to maintain this traceability even when content has been re-encoded, resized, captured or otherwise manipulated – important considerations in real-world piracy environments.