Background

K+, a brand of VSTV (Vietnam Satellite Digital Television), is one of Vietnam’s largest and most influential pay-TV operators. It offers diverse digital television services, including satellite TV, OTT (Over-the-Top) streaming, and digital content distribution.

Currently, K+ has a substantial subscriber base and is continuously broadening its reach by providing premium channels that feature special sports and entertainment content. As the frontrunner in the Vietnamese pay-TV market, K+ is dedicated to ongoing innovation and delivering exceptional viewing experiences to its audience.

Challenges and Pain Points

In Need of a Stronger Approach to Tackle Piracy

K+ is one of the main broadcasters of the English Premier League (EPL) in Vietnam and has exclusive rights to its broadcasts. However, the company faced significant challenges with pirated streams of EPL games that were widely available online. To protect the rights of its paying subscribers, K+ aimed to implement a more sophisticated solution to defend its exclusive content against illegal streaming.

Limited Flexibility in Inserting Targeted Ads

Ad insertion is essential to increasing OTT income for K+, especially by delivering personalized ads that lead to better user experience. However, targeted ads were being incorporated into only a limited fraction of the content. This restricted the company’s ability to maximize ad revenue and enhance user engagement.

Ensuring a Smooth Transition Without Affecting Service Continuity

While the new solution may help strengthen piracy defense and increase ad insertion opportunities, it must be implemented in a way that doesn’t interfere with ongoing business operations or the viewer’s experience. The goal is to ensure a smooth transition, adding these enhancements without impacting content quality or service continuity.

Solutions

Edge Application: A Solution That Ticks All the Boxes

CDNetworks’ Edge Application platform is an innovative solution that leverages edge computing to enhance application performance. It features two key components:

• Edge Function: Enables serverless deployment and rapid scaling without the need for infrastructure management.
• Edge KV Storage: Provides lightweight, globally synchronized data storage at the edge.

Edge Applications are highly customizable to fit clients’ specific needs and can be utilized across various use cases. For K+, it checks all the boxes and has emerged as a key enabler in helping them address the previously mentioned challenges.

An Optimized Workflow for Forensic Watermarking

Forensic watermarking is a technique for safeguarding content by embedding unique, invisible identifiers directly into the video. These watermarks are completely invisible to viewers. Most importantly, they are traceable, meaning content owners can quickly identify the source of illegal streams and block them.

Through SDK, CDNetworks connects to the third-party watermarking system K+ currently uses and integrates watermarking into the content delivery process.

• Embed a Unique Watermark Sequence

  In this process, each user is assigned an exclusive token, which acts as the unique identifier per content stream. Once the token is passed from the watermarking system to CDNetworks’ Edge Function, a unique watermark sequence will be generated and embedded into the content stream as it is delivered to the user. For example, “ABAAB” for User #1, “ABBAA” for User #2, “BAABA” for User #3, and so on. Because each sequence is unique, it allows the source of any illegal stream to be easily traced back to the original user.

• Block Unauthorized Streams

  Edge KV Storage helps store unauthorized tokens, i.e., the blacklist. When the watermarking system detects unauthorized streams, it triggers a request to Edge Function, which then checks whether the User ID is on the blacklist. If a match is found, the pirated streams are immediately blocked.

K+ has streamlined the forensic watermarking process with CDNetworks’ Edge Application. The solution’s customizable nature allows for quick implementation and smooth integration into existing workflows. As a result, K+ strengthens its anti-piracy efforts while ensuring subscribers enjoy a high-quality viewing experience.

Insert Personalized Ads from the Server Side

Server-side Ad Insertion (SSAI) is an ideal solution for K+ to insert personalized ads in a wider variety of its content without compromising the viewing experience. During this process, Edge Function plays a critical role in routing traffic between the content stream and the ad stream, depending on the user’s subscription status (paid or unpaid). The integrated content is then delivered to viewers via the CDN edge servers.

Comprehensive Technical Support and Service

Thanks to the dedication of our expert team, the project was successfully launched in under a month. From day one, K+ has benefited from timely, expert technical support, such as help with code development for customization. This dedication is essential to ensuring that their business activities continue without hiccups.

“CDNetworks’ agility in handling our customized needs has been impressive. The rapid deployment of their Edge Applications solution allowed us to quickly adapt to market demands and scale our operations effectively, ensuring that we consistently deliver top-tier service to our audience.”

Key Impacts/Benefits

Real-time Blocking of Pirated Streams

K+ has significantly enhanced its ability to crack down on piracy thanks to CDNetworks’ Edge Application. Unauthorized streams are now blocked in real time, and their source can be traced back easily.

Viewing Experience Remains Unaffected

Viewing experience has always been a top priority for K+. CDNetworks helps K+ add new technologies to their watermarking workflow without compromising the viewer experience.

Global Scalability

CDNetworks’ Edge Application can quickly scale and be deployed in any of CDNetworks’ globally distributed Points of Presence (PoPs). This robust infrastructure empowers viewers to enjoy buffer-free streaming with K+, even during peak times such as popular shows and major sporting events when traffic spikes.

OTT Monetization

K+ can now insert personalized ads into a broader range of content. This enhancement ensures a higher engagement rate from paid subscribers, ultimately driving higher revenue through OTT monetization.

“Partnering with CDNetworks has been a game-changer for K+. Their deep understanding of our business and the challenges we face has allowed us to create a truly customized solution. Together, we’ve not only protected our valuable content but also enhanced our viewers’ experience. CDNetworks has been more than just a technology provider; they’ve been a strategic partner.”