It’s been another jam-packed year for the team at Friend MTS. From welcoming a host of new customers to being recognised for industry leadership in innovation, a lot has happened in the last twelve months. Read on to catch up on our year-end highlights, showcasing our commitment to continuous innovation in the fight against content theft.
Welcoming new customers to the fold
2025 saw significant expansion of our partnerships across the globe, as media companies looked to fortify their premium content against evolving threats.
In May, beIN’s TOD partnered with Friend MTS to integrate robust watermarking and anti-piracy services to protect its high-value premium content, including major live sports like the Premier League and the US Open.
In June, Saran Media Group began utilising Friend MTS's Global Monitoring to protect its S Sport Plus OTT service, which broadcasts top-tier live sports such as the NFL, La Liga, and NBA in Turkey. Our continuous monitoring ensures their content is safeguarded across the entire digital landscape.
A few weeks later, MNC Media & Entertainment in Indonesia partnered with Friend MTS to implement cutting-edge watermarking and monitoring solutions to combat content piracy, particularly for high-value assets like live sports and original content. This move demonstrates the critical need for comprehensive protection in high-growth streaming markets.
In September, VOYO, ProTV's dynamic streaming platform in Romania, partnered with Friend MTS to utilise its watermarking and global monitoring solutions to combat piracy and protect its investments in premium live sports, such as the English Premier League, and other essential local content.
Industry recognition
This year, we achieved key, externally recognised milestones, reflecting our efforts in technology innovation and our corporate responsibility initiatives.
In January, we announced that we had achieved carbon neutrality well ahead of government targets and received our first certificate of credit retirement from Carbon Neutral Britain, following sustained efforts to measure our 2022 carbon footprint and implement strategies to reduce emissions across our operations and supply chain. You can read more about our journey to net zero on our blog.
Friend MTS was also honoured with Frost & Sullivan's 2025 Best Practices Technology Innovation Leadership Recognition in the global digital content security and anti-piracy industry. This accolade was awarded for our proprietary and comprehensive portfolio, which includes cutting-edge fingerprinting, dynamic server blocking, and watermarking technologies.
Piracy in the news
This year, piracy continued to dominate the headlines, as multiple outlets reported on the severity and scale of the problem; this increased awareness of the issues that foster, generate and encourage piracy is critical in devising industry-wide strategies to combat it.
In December, we assisted The Athletic in an investigation into illegal pirate services, which formed the basis of their latest podcast. The resulting piece delves into the complex and normalised culture of illicit sports streaming—a trend driven by the high cost and fragmented access to premium content like Premier League matches. The investigation reveals that this widespread piracy poses an existential financial threat to the sports industry while simultaneously exposing millions of consumers to cybersecurity risks and organised crime. Listen and find out more over on The Athletic.
At the Friend MTS roundtable at IBC, Mark Lichtenhein and other industry experts discussed the role that video piracy plays in organised crime, and how it has become the third-largest revenue source for criminals globally. This crime is executed by a small number of sophisticated operations, often hosted in jurisdictions with weak legal systems, making proactive content protection and timely enforcement a critical challenge for broadcasters. You can read more about the discussion here.
IBC 2025
Another year and another IBC show under our belt. At IBC 2025 in Amsterdam, we showcased the next evolution of our anti-piracy services.
Our 2025 IBC highlights included the unveiling of our new intelligence-driven investigation service. This service closes the loop by enabling highly effective enforcement and provides customers with an end-to-end solution that combines identification, threat intelligence, and advanced analysis. By mapping illicit streaming networks and the people behind them, the FMTS investigations team create detailed pictures of those engaged in video piracy, which subsequently supports enforcement, including judicial or civil proceedings.
All in all, it’s been a busy year for the team! We have continued to help organisations of all kinds generate real value from their anti-piracy strategies, moving towards a future where everyone can create and share content safely and without fear of theft or illegal reproduction. Stay tuned to find out what 2026 has in store as we continue our mission to protect valuable content globally.
