It appears quite often when we’re watching TV, but not many of us have thought to question it. But those seemingly random set of numbers that appears on our TV screens actually had a reason behind it!

Those numbers are a part of the anti-piracy measures taken by channels. If individuals are recording TV shows to post online illegally, this could be a way of singling out who is doing it.

Let me tell you how it works:

(1) This number you see on your television is generated for every region, using some hashing algorithm by the channel.

(2) This number is interspersed in the video stream at random places so that it can’t be taken down by using video processing algorithms.

So if someone tries to take a video of this stream/show either with a camera or a screen recording device, this ‘random’ number will also go into the recorded video. Hence, by using this number, the media company (the owner) can track down the place of recording, and hopefully catch the people responsible for the pirated content.