Motion Picture Association’s Content-Security Org Launches New Membership Model, Pricing (EXCLUSIVE)

David S. Cohen
·3 min read

As part of its ongoing efforts to confront piracy and content-security issues, the Motion Picture Association’s Trusted Partner Network is revising its membership structure and introducing a new platform that will centralize information on its member companies’ security practices.

The new membership model and platform are to launch in February 2023. In the meantime, late this month, the MPA will announce revised best practices for site, cloud and software application security.

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TPN assessments gauge compliance with MPA best practices, but have been focused physical security measures, cameras, locks and other hard infrastructure. Such assessments are no longer sufficient with the wide adoption of cloud tools for everything from story development to post-production. So, TPN will begin to assess cloud software applications against its new best practices.

Terri Davies, president of TPN, told Variety that a new platform is needed because there are upward of 3,000 service providers who might need to be included. “That’s a lot of service providers, right? And let’s say 50% of those are going to have multiple sites and multiple applications,” she said. Right now, each is tracked manually.

For their part, service providers are inundated with security compliance reviews from their many customers. Davies has experienced that first-hand, having worked on the service-provider side and at Sony Pictures. So, when she started her role at TPN in February 2022, she “needed a new technology solution to manage this on that scale.”

The new platform will provide TPN members with consistent assessments, including vendors’ various services and locations, even extending to the cloud software they use. Service providers will be able to “self-attest” any third-party security certifications they may have, so customers can more fully gauge their compliance.

TPN will also introduce tiered pricing, aimed at encouraging companies to join the network and to follow MPA best practices.

Service providers will be sorted into seven levels based on their gross revenue. Self-employed individuals who work from home may pay as little as $250 a year for membership. The top tier, for companies earning more than $200M a year, would pay $85,000 annually.

Content owners will have two membership options. A $40,000/year standard membership gets access to TPN’s platform and security assessments. A $120,000/year “gold” membership adds bi-monthly meetings with TPN to provide feedback, unlimited users, participation in TPN platform beta testing, the ability to download watermarked assessment reports and more.

TPN addresses security and anti-piracy measures for the entire supply chain, from ideation to distribution. However, not even Davies is sure of the extent of the security issues the industry faces, as there are no comprehensive statistics on the number of leaks or breaches, or on their financial impact on the industry.

“I have been trying since February to quantify that,” says Davies, noting that while companies aren’t necessarily covering up content leaks, they don’t have an interest in publicizing them, either. “It’s a very, very sensitive situation.” And, in some cases, content owners and vendors may be unaware at first that content has been stolen, making it especially hard to determine how many leaks have occurred.

TPN was originally a joint venture with the Content Delivery and Security Association, but it is now wholly owned and operated by the MPA.

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