iWorld
PallyCon partners with Akamai to offer forensic watermarking protection to OTT Content
MUMBAI: PallyCon, a global leader in digital rights management and forensic watermarking services, has teamed up with Akamai, the intelligent edge platform, to secure streaming video content against piracy and illegal distribution.
A large number of OTT distributors, studios, and sports rights holders use Akamai for delivering streaming services. To help protect their customers against attempts by pirates to steal their content and minimize their means of distribution, Akamai has developed a comprehensive security ecosystem of anti-piracy providers through its Technology Partner Program. By combining its own capabilities with those of key partners it’s able to address many of the common practices used by pirates such as credential theft, system hacking, rebroadcasting of stolen streams, and VPN abuse.
PallyCon’s forensic-watermarking service ensures that a content creator can trace the source of piracy of streaming content. Working in tandem with a DRM service – PallyCon offers it as SaaS – forensic watermarking helps creators identify leakages right to the last user who leaks or consumes the content illegally.
INKA Entworks global business head Govindraj Basatwar says, “We consider it a privilege to partner with Akamai. It has created an innovative integration of forensic-watermarking vendors in its ecosystem, which will boost the fight against piracy. PallyCon has started offering a scalable forensic-watermarking solution to customers using the Akamai edge.”
Using PallyCon’s forensic watermark service, Akamai users can identify illegal video streams at the relevant leakage points. Once a client has identified illegal distribution, it can proceed to take further action against the violators as per its legal policies.
Commenting on the integration of forensic-watermarking vendors in the Akamai ecosystem, Amit Kasturia, senior manager of media product management at Akamai, says, “Akamai clients spend millions of dollars creating and acquiring content. They bank on us to protect their revenue streams against piracy. By integrating PallyCon’s forensic watermarking solution into our network, we have bolstered our security ecosystem further. PallyCon’s solution is winning the trust of content creators by helping them identify illegal users of their offerings.”
To help clients across different sectors and sizes – from studios to regional distributors – PallyCon offers a range of subscription models. The forensic watermarking service comes clubbed with its DRM service, which a client can try for free for a month. PallyCon’s forensic watermarking suite can be applied to video streams of all resolutions.
iWorld
Arafta Season 2 greenlit as YouTube hit crosses 850 million views
GoQuest, Rains double down on global Turkish drama success story
MUMBAI: GoQuest Media and Rains Pictures have greenlit Season 2 of Arafta, riding on the runaway success of its debut season that has clocked over 850 million views on YouTube and secured licensing deals across 19 territories.
The upcoming season, already in production, will span 100 episodes and continue with a YouTube-first release strategy, a model that has proved to be a quiet disruptor in global content distribution. Season 1, which premiered in November 2025, built a strong digital following before translating that traction into international deals.
The series is currently licensed to platforms including Amazon MX Player in India, Kanal 7 in Turkey, and Vidio, along with several markets across Europe such as Romania, Hungary and Latvia. Across five language channels, the show has amassed more than 2.5 million subscribers, signalling growing global appetite for Turkish storytelling.
Notably, many of these licensing deals were struck after the show had already aired on YouTube, flipping the traditional distribution model on its head. Instead of competing with broadcasters, the digital-first strategy appears to be doing the heavy lifting in building awareness and audience demand.
GoQuest Media managing director Vivek Lath said, “Arafta is proving out what we believed about the make-to-sell model. A YouTube-first release does not compete with licensing. It builds the asset that licensees are buying.”
Season 1 wrapped on April 17 with a globally streamed finale that drew over 102,000 concurrent viewers, setting the stage for the next chapter. Lead actors İlsu Demirci and Emin Günenç will return, with the narrative continuing to explore themes of love, vengeance, sacrifice and fate.
Rains Pictures executive Sevda Kaygısız said the decision to move quickly into Season 2 was driven not just by success, but by the depth of the story still to be told. “Arafta is not just a successful project for us; it reflects our belief in powerful storytelling and building a genuine emotional connection with audiences,” she noted.
As Turkish dramas continue to travel beyond borders, Arafta’s success underscores a larger shift in how global hits are made and sold. In this case, the small screen found its big moment online first, and the world followed.
