Following the news that nearly five million illegal streamers were detected during Champions League knockout stages, Irdeto is now able to reveal data on piracy activity around the UEFA Champions League final.
Irdeto detected 427 Unique illegal streams redistributing games over the internet during this year’s Champions League Final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Of this total, 133 were web-based streams, while 199 streams were detected across social media channels including Periscope, Facebook and Twitch. The social media streams are estimated to have reached 217,000 viewers.
As with previous Champions League matches, pirates also took advantage of illicit streaming plugins for Kodi, the popular media player, with 95 streams identified on this platform. As with last week’s announcement, these figures suggest that more needs to be done to stop the illegal distribution of high profile live European football matches.
“Criminals have targeted premium sports content such as the European Champions League and are earning a fortune from stealing the rights,” said Rory O’Connor, Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto.
“This makes it crucial for content owners, rights holders and platform owners to work together and enlist technology and proactive services to take down streams in real-time. The criminals who profit from these illegal streams have little regard for their viewers and are exposing them to cybercrime, inappropriate content and malware infection. Also, viewers of illegal content can face criminal penalties if they decide to share content with friends on social media.”
