The company has revealed that its OTT business more than doubled in both customers and revenues in 2020, as rights holders and streaming broadcasters stepped up their fight against geo-piracy.

It pointed out that as the pandemic continues to keep people away from theatres and sports arenas, many consumers have been turning to VPNs and DNS proxies to circumvent the territorial restrictions on content that studios, sports leagues and other content producers impose to maximize their revenue. It added that this had driven increased demand for VPN and proxy detection products, as rights holders and OTT broadcasters seek to protect their content from geo-piracy.

Building on a customer base that includes Amazon Prime, BBC and ITV, GeoComply noted that further strong growth was expected in 2021 amid growing traction particularly from other national broadcasters. James Clark was appointed as director of global sales to help tap this potential and exploit experience gained as director of the global security business development at Synamedia.

“Content piracy via VPNs and proxies has very real consequences for the entire video streaming ecosystem, including significant job losses and slashed production budgets,” said Clark. “With studios, sports leagues, broadcasters and other rights holders under serious financial pressure because of the pandemic, combating piracy has fast become a top priority.”