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Piracy continues to be a significant problem for media and entertainment (M&E) companies, as well as consumers, around the world, according to an Irdeto Global Consumer Piracy Threat Report.

“Hundreds of stolen login details for popular” over-the-top (OTT) services are available each month “on the dark web for an average of only $8.81, potentially putting consumers at risk and impacting OTT revenues,” Irdeto said Aug. 13, while announcing the findings of the report.

“With increasing broadband availability and internet speed globally, the pirates have adapted,” according to the report. “As a result, OTT piracy, or content redistribution, is the most rapidly growing threat facing pay TV operators and content rights holders,” it said, adding: “Illegal supply of premium content, especially live events such as soccer, is driving this increase. However, we shouldn’t dismiss other forms of piracy.”

Through dark web marketplaces, many products, accounts and services can be purchased all too easily, including account credentials for various pay TV and VOD OTT services, Irdeto said in a news release. That means “legitimate subscribers could have had their accounts compromised and used illegally for a small one-off fee,” it said, warning that consumers should, therefore, “be vigilant of any unusual or unfamiliar activity on their account” and change their passwords often.
 
The report looked at pay TV credential availability on the dark web, global piracy hotspots and the market in illicit streaming devices (ISDs).

In just one month —April 2018 — Irdeto found 854 listings of OTT credentials from 69 unique sellers across more than 15 dark web marketplaces, it said, noting those credentials were from 42 different OTT services, including DirecTV, HBO, Hulu and Netflix.

Live streaming piracy is also a global problem, Irdeto said, noting its web analytics partner found an average of 74 million global visits per month to the top 10 live streaming sites in the first quarter of 2018. Most traffic came via the U.S. (2.9 million average monthly visits), the U.K. (1.7 million average monthly visits) and Germany (1.5 million average monthly visits).

Ads for “fully-loaded” boxes, meanwhile, “continue to spring up,” Irdeto said, adding: “Pirates are using popular ecommerce sites to advertise ISDs, which are often advertised around major sporting events.” So far in 2018, Irdeto has worked to take down nearly 7,000 ads for ISDs across 60 domains, it pointed out.

“Content theft by pirates has become a full-fledged criminal enterprise, with some providing illegal subscriptions in an attempt to compete with established pay TV operators,” Mark Mulready, Irdeto VP of cybersecurity services, said in the announcement.

He added: “Content owners, rights holders, technology and security partners and law enforcement agencies are working hard to combat the threat of piracy. However, consumers must also be vigilant to avoid the risks they may be subject to from illegal content. Consumers must think about where they access their content from and ensure that any streaming or downloading is done from legitimate sources.

“They must also remember that if they use the same password for their OTT services as they do for a number of other online accounts, they could also be opening themselves up to a wider array of exploitative threats.”