Qatari pay-TV giant beIN Sports and global sports streaming service DAZN have teamed up to join a new group tasked with combatting illegal sports streaming.
As two of the biggest names in sports broadcasting, especially in terms of football, beIN and DAZN are invested in reducing the impact which illegal live streams of major events have on their respective businesses.
A study by Parks Associates, a US-based market research company, recently predicted that illegal live streaming and piracy will cost streaming services some $113bn by 2027, something which DAZN and beIN wish to avoid.
This new movement to fight piracy is being led by the US-based Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an anti-piracy group with experience in fighting against illegal sports streaming operations in particular.
ACE are happy to have DAZN joining their fight.
ACE Executive Vice-President, Jan van Voorn, said about the broadcaster joining the group:
“The addition of DAZN and the creation of the ACE sports piracy task force marks a turning point for ACE and confirms yet again that we are the essential partner to anyone who recognizes the threat of piracy to their business.”
The Financial Times has reported that the mission of this organisation will be to find and target sports piracy setups, before passing them on to international law enforcement organisations like Interpol and Europol, who will take the next steps.
ACE, the leaders of this new movement, have experience carrying out such operations before, including working alongside beIN Sports, with whom they successfully managed to shut down a Morocco sports piracy ring using beIN's streams during the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Illegal live streaming continues to plague broadcasters for various reasons. Depending on the country and provider in question, the price can often be simply too high for fans to use legitimate means to watch. There is also the desire to move towards an online-only model, and in the case where legal live streaming isn't available, fans will seek out an alternative. Some fans have even been known to pay for illegal live streams, such is their desire to watch on the internet and not on linear television.
How successful this new ACE-fronted task force will be, only time will tell, but the problem of illegal live streaming certainly doesn't seem to be going anywhere just yet.
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