Advanced Television

Movie screeners service to combat piracy

January 25, 2019

By Colin Mann

Cloud-based end-to-end theatrical planning, booking, and settlement system CinemaCloudWorks has launched its ‘SmartScreeners’ secure movie screeners service, powered by iScreeningRoom.

A Digital TV Research report showed that in 2016 approximately $31.8 billion dollars in revenue was lost as a result of piracy – a number that will reach $52 billion by 2022 in the US alone.

“The scariest part of the problem is that most studios don’t even realize they’re putting their assets at risk when using today’s most popular online screener services. The studios have fallen victim to sleight-of-hand. They see a personally identifiable watermark and think they’re safe. What they don’t know, is that most of those watermarks are easily and quickly removable. We aim to change that,” said CinemaCloudWorks CTO, Scott DeSapio.

With burned-in unremovable watermarks that display the viewer’s email address and phone number, CinemaCloudWorks’ SmartScreeners offers filmmakers real piracy protection without sacrificing ease-of-use or affordability when sharing their film with festivals, distributors, exhibitors, and more.

“Industry professionals are afraid to make a change, and they should be as their livelihoods are on the line. However, continuing to do something because everyone else is doing it, is not a smart strategy. What they don’t realise is that if their film gets pirated, ‘This is how everyone does it’ is not going to cut it in the boardroom. They’re going to lose their jobs. We can help,” asserted Harmon Kaslow, President of CinemaCloudWorks.

“With only an Internet connection required, CinemaCloudWorks’ secure SmartScreeners can be sent and viewed easily from anywhere in the world using virtually any connected mobile phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, or smart TV,” advised DeSapio.

“Physical DVD screeners, which can run as high as $25 when supplied by a typical fulfilment house, use mostly generic watermarks which are easily obfuscated. Not to mention, they take forever to actually arrive in the recipient’s hand. CinemaCloudWorks’ SmartScreeners addresses both of the issues head on with superior security and instantaneous delivery for only $5 per screener,” said Kaslow.

Categories: Articles, CA/DRM, Content, Piracy, Work flow