ONE Championship, the regional Asian mixed martial arts promotion, has named video content security firm Friend MTS as its global social media anti-piracy partner.
Through the agreement, Friend MTS will provide live and post-event monitoring and enforcement across social platforms to protect the promotion's global broadcast partnerships and direct-to-consumer (D2C) streaming business.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
This will include 24/7 monitoring of major social media platforms during ONE's live events, enabling the identification and takedown of unauthorized streams.
This is paired with open web monitoring and post-event enforcement to identify illegal sources and disrupt long-tail piracy. The service will be specifically tuned for ONE's highest-traffic regions.
The partnership launched on April 29 for the ONE Samurai 1 event, which is claimed to be the largest in the organization's history.
Across the live broadcast window and subsequent days, Friend MTS said it “identified and removed unauthorized streams and videos at scale across social media and the open web, with the overwhelming majority originating on social platforms, amassing millions of views.”
Shane McCarthy, CEO of Friend MTS, said: “ONE Championship is one of the most ambitious sports brands in the world, and we are delighted to support their international growth. For APAC live sports rights holders building global audiences, social media is one of the key piracy vectors where the audience watches – and where the pirates watch them.
“You cannot scale a premium live sports business without making anti-piracy a core part of your strategy – ONE understands that better than most. Live combat sports demand the fastest possible enforcement on social media and the open web, together with the ability to scale up for a single headline event without missing a beat. That is exactly what our team and our technology are built to do.”
Friend MTS provides anti-piracy services for several sports organizations, including European soccer's governing body UEFA, the English top-tier Premier League, the Italian Serie A, and pay-TV broadcaster TNT Sports Chile, among others.
