VUBIQUITY Relies on Digital Element’s Accurate IP Geolocation Data for Worldwide Video Digital Rights Management
Scenario
Consumers around the world are increasingly augmenting, and in some cases replacing, traditional linear TV viewing with video streamed to computers and other IP-connected devices. Consumers want to use their own devices, and they expect access to live and on-demand content, both in the home and on the go. As a result, a brand new content licensing, preparation, management, and delivery paradigm has emerged to meet marketplace demands.
VUBIQUITY, the leading global provider of premium content services, connects content owners and video providers to deliver entertainment to viewers on any screen. Working with nearly 650 leading film studios, television networks, independent producers and multi-channel networks (MCNs), VUBIQUITY brings premium content to more than 1,000 global video distributors, spanning 109 million households, across 121 territories and working with 80 languages.
Due to the global need for live and on-demand content to be accessible on the go, as well as at home, studios mandate that providers have IP geolocation technology incorporated into their content distribution platforms in order to adhere to licensing rights across regions.
“Any company distributing video content from studios, networks or independent producers has to comply,” said Allan Dembry, VUBIQUITY’s CIO, head of global engineering. “While the studios do offer a list of approved IP geolocation technology providers, the list is small and many of the companies tend to operate only in very specific regions of the world.”
In particular, VUBIQUITY needed to find an IP geolocation provider that would offer accurate and reliable data for African and Latin American regions. Mobile video is particularly prominent in Middle East/African regions, where 72 percent of online consumers report watching video on mobile phones at least once a month, and almost 37 percent say they do so at least once a day. Similarly, in Latin America, research found that video consumption via devices such as smartphones and tablets is now more prolific by residents across the region than desktop computers, and is quickly catching up to television.
The Solution
Operating a cost-effective business, VUBIQUITY offers a full scope of managed services from licensing to delivery, including digital and over-the-top (OTT) content distribution to major media and video providers. While finding a provider that could offer reliable IP geolocation in the African and Latin American regions was a key objective, VUBIQUITY was also looking to improve the accuracy of its IP data sets worldwide.
With that in mind, the company selected Digital Element’s IP Intelligence and geolocation solution, NetAcuity©, to gain access to high-quality, all-encompassing datasets that were continually updated. NetAcuity is the gold standard in the industry and uncovers actionable information about online users such as geographic location, proxies and virtual private networks (VPNs)―all while respecting the user’s right to privacy.
“Digital Element was certainly on the studios’ lists of approved providers so there was some level of comfort when we started our due diligence,” said Dembry. “Additionally, we received extremely positive feedback from other users in the space which further validated our decision.”
VUBIQUITY incorporates this technology into its Content as a Service (CaaS) platform which consists of a cloud-based centralized repository of pre-licensed, pre-configured content that is stored, hosted and distributed across a global delivery network. The technology is similarly offered through VUBIQUITY’s Digital Storefront, an end-to-end white-label service for today’s video distributors or content providers.
Success
The use of Digital Element’s geographic, proxy and VPN datasets within the CaaS platform assists VUBIQUITY in processing incoming requests and delivering content to any point on the network on demand while managing entitlements and access to video assets based on the authentication of user rights and integration into the order process.
“Digital Element is the Rolls-Royce when it comes to IP data,” said Dembry. “The unmatched worldwide coverage, data quality, support and diligence in updating the datasets, especially the proxy information, has made it a very worthwhile decision.”
VUBIQUITY takes comfort in knowing that it is using reliable, quality data to meet the studios’ licensing requirements―protecting not only the studios but also the company and its operators.
According to Dembry, “The risks are significant without this type of digital protection.”