With GeoGuard integrated on its streaming platform, MultiChoice is now blocking tens of thousands of pirate viewers each month, while nearly eliminating creation of suspicious user accounts, according to GeoComply. This dramatic reduction in piracy has freed up infrastructure capacity and cut CDN costs.

GeoGuard is protecting MultiChoice’s DStv App, which streams live and catch-up content in countries across sub-Saharan Africa. MultiChoice went live with GeoGuard in February 2021 through the Amazon Marketplace, using the ‘turn on and go’ capability provided through GeoGuard’s integration with Amazon CloudFront.

“As for all OTT broadcasters, geo-piracy is a major concern, and it was a real coup when we deployed GeoGuard and quickly achieved a great return on investment,” said Greg van Wyngaard, Senior Engineer at MultiChoice’s Connected Video division. GeoGuard works seamlessly in the background to safeguard content for legitimate users, ensures territorial exclusivity and helps comply with content distribution obligations with rights owners, van Wyngaard added. “From an OTT broadcaster perspective, the cost savings and efficiency it’s providing in our streaming infrastructure is a huge bonus.”

MultiChoice chose GeoGuard for its ability to protect its revenues and business models without impacting legitimate users. Other factors in its decision were GeoGuard’s regular database updates, to reduce both false negatives and false positives, and its support for SmartDNS, a technology designed to circumvent geo-restricted services.

GeoGuard is rated by Kingsmead Security as 99.6% effective in detecting VPNs and DNS proxies and GeoComply claims it is updated more often than any other such package on the market to ensure low false positives and high accuracy rates. GeoGuard protects over 10 billion streaming requests and over 300 million unique streaming users per month as the Hollywood Studio-approved gold standard. It is also integrated into the platforms of major CDN providers, such as Akamai and Amazon CloudFront.

As Africa’s leading entertainment company, Multichoice offers Direct to Home (DTH), Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and online video entertainment services, reaching 20.9 million subscribers.