Saran Media Group, a leading media company specializing in sports broadcasting in Turkey, the Turkic republics, and Eastern Europe, has tapped Friend MTS and its anti-piracy services to help protect a variety of live sports, including the NFL, La Liga, NBA, Serie A, EuroLeague, UFC and Wimbledon, all streaming on the broadcaster’s S Sport Plus OTT service.
The Friend MTS anti-piracy service went live in April for Saran Media’s S Sport Plus, a subscription-based OTT platform that offers customers live streaming and on-demand replays of worldwide sports leagues and events.
Saran Media, which recently secured streaming rights to Bundesliga through the 2028-2029 season, allows users to watch up to seven live matches simultaneously. The platform also offers access to nearly 60 live TV channels.
Friend MTS’ Global Monitoring solution gives Saran Media the industry’s fastest speed at detecting sources of piracy, a critical need for live sports and event streaming.
“Live sports piracy in Turkey costs the sports sector and rights holders millions of Turkish liras each year,” said Friend MTS CEO Shane McCarthy. “Not only does piracy undermine the broadcasting sector, but impacts the value of media rights. When a leading media organization like Saran invests in rights, it’s critical they protect them with the best anti-piracy solutions on the market.
FMTS was able to quickly and easily demonstrate to the Saran team that our world-class anti-piracy services offer an immediate ROI. We look forward to a long and successful partnership with Saran Media.”
Özgür Oğuz, CMO for S Sport Plus, added: “We are rapidly expanding the top-tier content we offer to S Sport Plus audiences and take our responsibilities to protect our investments from piracy very seriously. With its long-standing reputation for developing new innovations to fight piracy, Friend MTS impressed us with its detailed understanding of the nuances of the piracy landscape and how it is evolving. We are already seeing the benefits of using FMTS piracy monitoring services and look forward to evolving the partnership in the future.”