Today, streaming content on pirated sites takes little to no effort. The sites have a sophisticated look and feel – meaning that viewers may not even be aware they are on an illegitimate website. They are organized into many categories, hosting content from major OTT providers such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max. The amount of content that is available on pirated sites tends to be huge, as the owners of the site may upload items from several OTT providers combined. For example, iStreamItAll, which was a well-known streaming site, provided roughly 118,000 TV shows alone. Additionally, these websites are quick to upload fan favorites. A recent example was when Game of Thrones prequel, ‘House of the Dragon’ which was set to air on the 21st of August 2022 on HBO Max, was ready to watch several hours early through pirated domains.
There are usually two main categories of digital pirates: hardcore and casual. The former is those who involve themselves by researching and executing methods to circumvent cybersecurity protection. The casual users are less extreme and are only interested in consuming pirated content. Over the years, TV shows and movies have become the most popular pirated materials. Apart from accessing them on an OTT platform, pirates deploy other efforts such as ripping DVDs or Blu-ray discs, Camcorders in theatres, accessing Screeners (early releases) or utilizing Webrip to get the content. While casual pirates might see only the benefits of consuming free content, they overlook the risks that these websites accompany. Streaming their content not only can expose the consumer to malware, viruses, and fraud but also can contribute to bigger organized crimes.
In short, illegal streaming sites affect you in significant ways, mostly concerning your valuable assets. As pirated content is watched at a staggering 230 billion times a year, here are a few significant points of impact:
While calculating the true economic impact of piracy is complicated, it is good to understand the effect it has on your business and the concerns it has over OTT service providers’ content security.
Pirates profit from streaming content quite dramatically. They are estimated to make almost $1.3 billion by distributing content, often on multiple websites, across the internet, in addition to their ad revenue. They also encourage viewers to buy ‘premium’ viewership and in extreme cases may also earn from stealing sensitive information on their networks and user credentials.
There is some good news. The industry has already shut down some major pirated sites throughout the years. In 2019, Openload and Streamango, which were two highly watched streaming domains, were brought down by a leading content protection coalition called Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). A well-known German streaming site met the same fate in 2020 which was then followed by the shutdown of seven more in 2022. Additionally, individuals engaged in big piracy schemes have also been caught, such as the YouTube star ‘Omi in a Hellcat’ who was found to have had a multi-million-dollar illegal TV streaming empire. In order to bring such cases down, rigorous coordination is needed between law enforcement agencies and external cybersecurity firms. What can you, as an OTT provider, do about pirated streams? It starts with taking the necessary steps to protect your licensed content and securing it with an end-to-end anti-piracy solution.
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