Football and other premium TV being pirated at ‘industrial scale’

According to a new report, “industrial scale theft” of premium video services, especially live sports, is being made possible by big tech companies.

Enders Analysis’ research accuses Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon of “ambivalence and inertia” over a problem that it claims costs broadcasters money and puts users at higher risk of cyber-crime.

The research was co-authored by Gareth Sutcliffe and Ollie Meir, who claimed the Amazon Fire Stick is “a piracy enabler” and that it is used by many to access illegal streams.

Fans at home are paying more for their favorite sports because of the rising cost of rights deals, especially if they choose to pay for multiple services to watch their team play.

Some people turn to big-time events’ illegal streams to get around this.

According to Enders, there are frequently multiple streams of individual events, such as high-profile football games, that can have tens of thousands of viewers for each.

Previous warnings have been made by executives from Sky and DAZN, two of the biggest rights holders, citing financial crisis in the broadcast sector.

Users also run a risk.

The researchers concentrated on Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon while looking at the European market.

The owner of Facebook, Meta, was criticized for producing illegal stream advertisements, but the other three’s technology was to blame for the rise in piracy.

According to the report, the problem is primarily caused by the Amazon Fire Stick.

The device connects to TVs, giving the viewer thousands of options for watching programs from trusted services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer.

Additionally, they are being used to access illegal streams, particularly live sports.

A Liverpool man who sold Fire Sticks that he had modified to make it illegal to stream Premier League football games was jailed in November of last year.

He promoted the unauthorised services on Facebook after they were uploaded to the Amazon product.

After modifying fire sticks and selling them on Facebook and WhatsApp, another Liverpool man received a two-year suspended sentence last year.

According to data collected for the first quarter of this year, 59% of UK residents who claimed to have watched pirated content on a physical device last year claimed to have used an Amazon Fire product.

The researchers also made mention of the “continued depreciation” of DRM systems, particularly those from Google and Microsoft.

This technology enables devices to stream premium content in high definition. PlayReady from Microsoft and Widevine from Google are two of the big players.

The authors claim that PlayReady and Widevine are now compromised across various security levels because the DRM’s architecture has largely remained unchanged.

According to Mr. Sutcliffe and Mr. Meir, this has “a seismic impact across the industry, and ultimately given piracy the upper hand by allowing the theft of the highest quality content.”

The DRM solutions offered by Google and Microsoft are in decline, according to them, after twenty years.