Movie Streaming Problem:
Enforcing a “one ticket, one movie” policy is the cornerstone of how theaters do business. By catching potential movie jumpers – people who attend movies they didn’t pay for – theaters can account for who should and should not be viewing their content.
So when Cinépolis, a Mexican-based movie theater and the fourth largest movie theater circuit the world, began a video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service, they – and the motion picture studios – needed a way to implement a digital version of the “one ticket, one movie” policy by ensuring that their content was only being streamed within the borders of Mexico.
“Studios and customers are our lifelines,” said Marcial Rivas, IT manager of the VOD platform. “The studios that we work with began to require that we integrate security features into our streaming service and mandated that we use a reliable geo-fencing service with VPN detection since we’re only licensed to stream the content within Mexico.”
For Rivas and Cinépolis, the stakes were high if they didn’t comply with the studio’s geo-fencing requirement.
“We could lose the license rights if we weren’t able to locate where our customers were streaming our videos, so it’s critical for us to block access from those who are not in the region,” Rivas said. “It was important to be compliant because the studio content and our licensing agreements are so important to our success.”
Geofencing Solution:
“We were actively looking for a provider that could do VPN and proxy detection when we came across Neustar,” Rivas recalled. “We knew that Neustar could deliver what we needed and when we needed it,” he added.
Neustar IP GeoPoint provides granular IP decisioning and internet connectivity data that allows media providers to “geo-authenticate” viewers and securely deliver movies and entertainment to their customers. Data from IP GeoPoint can also be used for “geo-fencing” purposes, blocking unauthorized viewers who are trying to connect from outside of an approved area or attempting to connect via a risky anonymous proxy.
The Results
Cinépolis is thrilled with their ability to serve VOD content exclusively within the Mexican borders.
“IP GeoPoint has been easy to implement and effective at determining which IP addresses should be allowed to view our movies, and which ones are outside of Mexico and shouldn’t be allowed to view our movies,” said Rivas. “When we told the studio that we had a solution that met their compliance criteria, they were beyond satisfied and it saved us a lot of additional work on the back-end for us!” Rivas exclaimed.
The success of VOD in Mexico has Cinépolis broadening their horizons with plans to take the service to other markets, “We already have a presence in 13 countries around the world, and now that we have the ability to enforce geo-authentication and compliance mandates, we’re looking to roll out our VOD service in Latin America and other countries in the near future,” Rivas concluded.