ONE of the world’s biggest illegal streaming networks showing live sports on the cheap has been shut down.
The major piracy ring was visited 1.6billion times in the past year across 80 different websites, authorities say.
The network’s 80 sites were popular in the UK and US[/caption]
Streameast was especially popular for watching the Premier League, as well as other European competitions such as Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, Germany’s Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1 and Portugal’s Primeira Liga.
The piracy network also provided illicit access to UEFA club competitions – including Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League games – international qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro and UEFA Nations League and CONMEBOL Copa America.
US Major League Soccer (MLS) and domestic cup competitions were among the matches that were streamed illicitly too.
The operation was brought down by authorities in Egypt in collaboration with the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE).
“Today, ACE scored a resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy: by taking down the largest illegal live sports platform anywhere,” said Charles Rivkin, Chairman of ACE.
“With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide—and our global alliance will stay on the field as long as it takes to identify and target the biggest piracy rings across the globe.”
The organisation says most visitors to Streameast’s platforms came from the UK, US, Canada, Philippines and Germany.
As well as football, the network of sites provided access to much-loved American sports including the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB, in addition to pay-per-view boxing, Formula One and Moto GP.
“Dismantling Streameast is a major victory for everyone who invests in and relies on the live sports ecosystem,” said Ed McCarthy, COO of DAZN Group.
“This criminal operation was siphoning value from sports at every level and putting fans across the world at risk.
“We commend the Egyptian authorities and ACE for their action in bringing down the world’s largest illegal sports streaming operation.”
The move comes amid a huge crackdown on illegal streaming which telly bosses say is costing the industry “hundreds of millions of dollars”.
“If you speak to friends and colleagues, [or] you watch football, people will know that you can get jail-broken Fire Sticks, and you can access pirated services on Fire Sticks,” said Nick Herm, chief operating officer at Sky, earlier this year.
There have been a number of raids, arrests and jail-time for operators in recent years.
A Brit who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle running three illegal streaming sites was jailed for more than three years in July.
Stephen Woodward, 36, splashed out on designer clothes and jewellery, expensive holidays and a Jaguar F-Type V8 coupe worth £91,000 from his ill-gotten gains.
The three sites he ran included IPTV Hosting, Helix Hosting and Black and White TV, which have all since been closed down.
Warning over ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks
Illegal streaming can be delivered by a number of devices by one of the most common are ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks, which means a third-party media server software has been installed on to it.
The software most commonly used is called Kodi.
It can grant users unrestricted access to new features and apps the normal version of the device wouldn’t allow – but it is not legal to use in the UK.
But it becomes illegal when a box is used to stream subscription channels for free.
It is also illegal to buy or sell these modified devices which have become known as “fully-loaded” – a term that describes how the software has been altered to allow access to subscription-only channels.
“These devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free to air, content,” the government said at the time.
“They become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content, for example TV programmes, films and subscription sports channels without paying the appropriate subscriptions.”
