ITV EXTENDS FRIEND MTS ANTI-PIRACY DEAL WITH WIDER ITV4 COVERAGE
Source: ITV

ITV EXTENDS FRIEND MTS ANTI-PIRACY DEAL WITH WIDER ITV4 COVERAGE

5. November 2026

What you will find in the article
  • ITV renewed its Friend MTS anti-piracy partnership for two years.
  • Monitoring expands to additional major events broadcast on ITV4.
  • The service detects illegal streams and supports takedowns across platforms.
  • The deal also protects advertising value and content rights holders.
British broadcaster ITV has renewed its partnership with Friend MTS for another two years, strengthening its efforts to combat digital piracy and protect premium television content. The extended agreement expands anti-piracy monitoring to additional major events broadcast on ITV4.

Under the renewed partnership, ITV will continue using Friend MTS' Global Monitoring service, providing round-the-clock protection for its main linear television channels across traditional broadcasting and streaming platforms.

The technology enables the identification and takedown of unauthorised streams while supporting the removal of links to pirated content from major search engines. The solution combines content fingerprinting, AI-powered automated detection and a dedicated 24-hour operations team to identify and respond to illegal distribution.

The agreement builds on a partnership first announced in 2024. Neither company has disclosed the financial terms of the renewed contract or figures relating to the number of illegal streams removed during the initial agreement.

"Our partnership with Friend MTS has played an important role in our ongoing work to make piracy unsustainable and protect the value of our content for viewers, advertisers and rights holders," said Akhila Khanna, Distribution Director at ITV.

Khanna added that the expanded partnership supports ITV's broader strategy to optimise its broadcasting operations and accelerate streaming growth.

Shane McCarthy, CEO of Friend MTS, highlighted the companies' joint efforts to protect premium content across both linear broadcasting and digital distribution. A key element of this strategy is also protecting advertising impressions, whose value can be undermined by the unauthorised redistribution of television content.

The extended agreement will also help ITV meet its contractual obligations to content rights holders while strengthening the protection of the broadcaster's own programming portfolio.

Notably, ITV4 operates as a free-to-air television channel. Nevertheless, protecting its content remains essential, particularly to prevent unauthorised redistribution in international markets where the same events are available exclusively through pay-TV services.

This highlights the growing importance of anti-piracy technologies not only for subscription-based streaming platforms but also for traditional commercial broadcasters, whose business models depend on advertising revenues, distribution agreements and the commercial value of licensed content.

Source: broadbandtvnews.com