GeoComply’s GM of Media & Entertainment, James Clark, took the stage at NAB Show with Troy Busot, Chief Technology Officer of BZZR, and Mei Lam, Head of Security Assurance at Cartesian.
Bringing together three unique industry vantage points, they discussed how streaming platforms are turning advanced content protection and distribution technologies into a revenue engine.
BZZR turns precise location into a revenue driver
“I would say we’ve probably added 15% to our revenue projections based on products that we’re building with [advanced geolocation services].
– Troy Busot, Chief Technology Officer, BZZR
BZZR initially reached out to GeoComply to solve the fundamental challenge of enforcing regional rights. However, they quickly realized that multi-layered location data was more than a “checkbox” for legal—it was an essential tool for personalization.
By leveraging precise geolocation, BZZR moved well beyond the bare minimum compliance use case and began using location to build a more trusted, tailored user experience that directly impacted their bottom line.
“It has completely changed our product roadmap, having this level of accuracy and telemetry data around location for our users.
– Troy Busot, Chief Technology Officer, BZZR
Cartesian dives into the pitfalls of relying only on IP
Cartesian brought the point home, showcasing real world data on why standard VPN detection is no longer a sufficient defense—even against the everyday tech savvy user.
They dived into the technical evidence, revealing that basic IP lookups often fail to catch sophisticated bypass methods like residential proxies. Their independent analysis made it clear: in a landscape where IP accuracy is easily manipulated, platforms need granular, multi-layered geolocation to truly secure their rights agreements and unlock revenue.
“We talk about the fact that geolocation and VPN detection are important […] I think it’s twofold. If you can also increase revenue streams, along with being compliant, then that’s kind of the full cycle you would want.
– Mei Lam, Head of Security Assurance, Cartesian
Watch the full video
Learn how precise geolocation secures content and unlocks revenue for streaming businesses:
- The state of spoofing and geolocation in the media industry: Learn from real-world test results on why basic IP lookups are no longer enough to protect high-value rights in an era of technologically evolved consumers.
- Precise location as a competitive advantage: Discover how precise location increased revenue projections by 15% for BZZR by unlocking hyper-personalized experiences, building user trust and expanding their product roadmap.
- The inevitable future of precise location in media: See why the industry is moving beyond basic VPN detection toward a future where precise location is the foundation for satisfying rights owners, securing content, and engaging the modern, tech-savvy viewer.
Want to learn more? Connect directly with one of our experts today!
About NAB Show
NAB Show is the world’s largest show for media, entertainment and technology, held annually by the National Association of Broadcasters since 1991. Boasting attendees from 160 countries and over a thousand exhibitors around the world, NAB show is where professionals gather to connect and learn about new technologies and trends.
James Clark | GM Media & Entertainment
Leading GeoComply’s Media and Entertainment division, James helps organizations use location to secure their services, reduce fraud, and protect their users. He has been involved with the ever-evolving challenge of secure media delivery throughout his career in the digital entertainment sector. James combines a technical understanding of security technologies with extensive experience working closely with businesses to fight piracy and fraud.
FAQs
Streaming operators depend on accurate geolocation to meet the requirements of content licensing agreements. Particularly for live sports, which often carry strict regional restrictions. Compliance with local government regulations, such as the EU’s Content Portability Regulation, adds another legal layer.
Beyond contractual and regulatory obligations, geolocation powers day-to-day operations: it enables localization of services for each market, helps manage the customer experience, and supports the detection of malicious or fraudulent activity.
Failing to enforce geo-restrictions puts future content availability at risk and can seriously complicate renewal negotiations with rights holders. On the regulatory side, non-compliance with local laws can result in significant fines and long-term reputational harm to the platform.
As Cartesian’s analysis at NAB Show 2026 demonstrated, even everyday tech-savvy consumers are increasingly capable of bypassing basic geolocation guardrails. This makes the risk of non-compliance higher than many operators assume.
IP-based geolocation remains the industry standard: it is widely available, easy to deploy, cost-effective, and unintrusive to users. However, its limitations are significant. Fine-grained accuracy is often poor, and performance degrades further on cellular and satellite networks.
More critically, IP-based geolocation can be circumvented using VPNs, residential proxies, and consumer privacy tools. All of which are now in mainstream use. As highlighted by Cartesian at NAB Show 2026, basic IP lookups increasingly fail to detect sophisticated bypass techniques, leaving platforms exposed to rights violations they may not even know are occurring.
Modern consumer devices include built-in location services that streaming platforms can leverage to verify a user’s precise location. These services draw on multiple data sources—GPS, Wi-Fi, cell tower triangulation, and Bluetooth—to deliver substantially higher accuracy than IP alone.
When combined with additional device signals, multi-layered geolocation can pinpoint a user’s location with a level of confidence sufficient to meet even the most demanding licensing requirements. GeoComply’s approach, as discussed at NAB Show 2026, combines these signals to detect and counter spoofing attempts that evade simpler methods.
Precise geolocation opens the door to licensing deals that were previously impractical, including agreements tied to specific regions or even individual cities. It also enables hyper-localized advertising and content recommendations, which command significantly higher CPMs and engagement rates than generic targeting.
BZZR, a platform that integrated GeoComply’s geolocation technology, reported a 15% increase in revenue projections as a direct result. BZZR’s CTO, Troy Busot, stated that it completely transformed their product roadmap. On a practical level, operators with trusted location data can also relax overly restrictive signup requirements, such as mandatory local payment methods or phone numbers, reducing friction for legitimate users in underserved markets.
Deployment requires ensuring the geolocation solution works consistently across all device types and form factors, including web, mobile, smart TV, and set-top box environments. The solution must also be robust against tampering, since determined users may attempt to manipulate device-level location signals.
Privacy is the other key consideration. Collecting more granular location data requires transparent user communication and adherence to applicable data protection regulations. Operators that handle this well build the user trust that, as BZZR’s experience shows, can itself become a competitive advantage.
Yes—several streaming services have already moved beyond basic IP-based geolocation and deployed multi-layered solutions. Adoption is accelerating, particularly in sports streaming, where regional content licensing deals create both the strongest business case and the highest compliance stakes.
Rights owners increasingly demanding verifiable, tamper-resistant location enforcement as a condition of licensing agreements.
