It will cover both club and national team competitions
UEFA has appointed Friend MTS to provide content protection services for its club and national team competitions.
The anti-piracy firm will provide monitoring and enforcement to combat the issue in all forms except on social media platforms - which will be tackled separately. Friend MTS supplies similar services to the likes of The FA, Premier League, and Serie A.
In November last year, Synamedia found that just under half of all sports fans globally who watch illegal streams first did so with a football match.
Jonathan Friend, chief product officer at Friend MTS, said: “It’s an exciting time for Friend MTS with UEFA joining our portfolio of high-profile sports customers who are experiencing firsthand the value of protecting their content.
“From our extensive experience, gained from over two decades in content security, we know that world football serves as a driver for large-scale piracy and it’s imperative for sports rightsholders to go beyond traditional content protection measures to disrupt piracy and to safeguard the value of the rights and content that they work so hard to develop.”
This comes shortly after LaLiga Tech signed a similar deal to cover sports rights agency 1190 Sports in Latin America.
Top image: Shutterstock
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