What strategies are used to combat piracy and unauthorized distribution of sports broadcasts?

• A. Encryption, watermarking, anti-piracy enforcement, legal action, and partnerships with service providers to block illegal streams.
• B. Providing open access to streams to reduce piracy incentives.
• C. Paying pirates to reduce illegal streams.
• D. Publishing pirate links to monitor activity.

Answer: (A)

The idea being tested is how broadcasters protect sports content from piracy through a layered defense that makes unauthorized access harder, traceable, and less profitable for infringers. Encryption is used to scramble streams so only paying customers with the right keys can view them, reducing easy capture by pirates. Watermarking adds invisible markers to the content that can identify where a leak originated, helping authorities trace pirated copies back to the source. Anti-piracy enforcement involves monitoring, takedowns, and actions against sites or individuals distributing streams without permission, creating real consequences for infringement. Legal action provides formal remedies and penalties that deter illegal distribution and support ongoing protection efforts. Partnerships with service providers to block illegal streams involve working with ISPs, platforms, and delivery networks to shut down or filter unauthorized feeds before they reach viewers.

Other options don’t fit because opening streams to everyone undermines the financial model and does not deter piracy; paying pirates creates perverse incentives and is unethical and ineffective; and publishing pirate links simply aids wrongdoing and undermines enforcement.