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

A new report says that the lack of work by major technology companies enables “stealing the industrial scale” for excellent video services, especially live sports.

the Search by analyzing enders Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft accuse “contradiction and self -deficiency” about a problem, as it costs broadcaster revenues and puts users at an increased risk of electronic crime.

Gareth Sotklev and Olay Mir, who composed the research, described the Amazon Fire stick – which they argue with the device that many people use to reach illegal currents – as “empowering piracy”.

BBC News contacted Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft to comment.

Sports broadcast is a big job, with The total value of media rights Throughout the world, the mark of $ 60 billion (44 billion pounds) last year pass.

The cost of increasing rights deals leads to the high prices of fans at home, especially if they choose to pay the price of multiple services to watch their team.

To get this, some resort to illegal currents of major events.

Enders says often there are multiple currents of individual events – such as prominent football games – each of them can have tens of thousands of people who watch them.

The leaders of major rights holders, Sky and Dazn, have already warned that piracy is causing The financial crisis in the broadcast industry.

There is a risk for users as well.

The Anders report says that fans who watch football matches, for example, through illegal flows usually provide information such as credit card details and email addresses, making them vulnerable to harmful programs and deception.

The researchers looked at the European market and focused on Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft.

While Meta, the owner of Facebook, was criticized as a source of advertisements for illegal currents, the other three technology was blamed for an increase in piracy.

Amazon Fire Stick is a major reason for the problem, according to the report.

The device connects TV devices and gives the viewer thousands of options to watch software from legitimate services, including BBC iPlayer and Netflix.

It is also used to reach illegal currents, especially live sports.

In November of last year, a Liverpool man sold a reinstallized fire stick to allow people to roam illegally in the Premier League. Football matches were imprisoned.

After downloading unauthorized services on the Amazon product, announced on Facebook.

I was given another man from Liverpool A two -year prison sentence last year After adjusting and selling fire sticks on Facebook and WhatsApp.

According to the first -quarter data of this year, it was provided to Enders by Sky, 59 % of people in the UK said they saw pirate materials last year while using a physical device that they used a product from Amazon Fire.

Enders report says that the firefighting stick provides “billions of dollars in piracy” in general.

The researchers also pointed to the role played by the “continued consumption” of digital rights management systems (DRM), especially those in Google and Microsoft.

This technology provides a high -quality flow to the outstanding content of the devices. Two of the big players are PlayReady from Microsoft and Widevine from Google.

The authors argue that the DRM structure has not changed significantly, and because of the lack of maintenance by major technology companies, PlayRadi and Widevine are now penetrated by various levels of safety.

Mr. Sutcliffe and Mr. Meir said that he had “a seismic effect throughout the industry, and he eventually gave piracy the upper hand by enabling the theft of the highest quality.”

They added: “For more than twenty years of launch, the DRM solutions provided by Google and Microsoft is a sharp decrease.

“There is a need for a complete reform of the technological architecture, licensing, and support form. The lack of participation with content owners indicates a low priority.”