Social media, Kodi upfront for Champions League piracy

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Ending the season with dark arts as shady as anything practised by Sergio Ramos, pirates took full advantage of the huge global demand to watch the Champions League final says research firm Irdeto.

The security firm says that it detected 427 unique illegal streams redistributing the Liverpool and Real Madrid game over the internet and of this total, 133 were web-based streams, while 199 streams were detected across social media channels including Periscope, Facebook and Twitch. It calculated that social media streams are estimated to have reached 217,000 viewers.

As with previous Champions League football matches — notably the Roma vs Liverpool semi-final clash — pirates also took advantage of illicit streaming plugins for Kodi, the popular media player, with 95 streams identified on this platform.

Irdeto concluded that as with its research into the semi-final piracy, these latest figures suggest that more needs to be done to stop the illegal distribution of high profile live European football matches.

Remarked Rory O’Connor, senior vice president of cybersecurity services, Irdeto: “The levels of illegal streams available for the European Champions League final show the continuation of the trend of criminals stealing rights and using piracy to turn a profit from, often unsuspecting, consumers. We have seen the recent focus on high profile boxing matches as well as Champions League football and the industry continues to battle this piracy threat, which will extend on into next season. However, consumers must understand that they also have a responsibility to ensure they are watching content legally, for their own safety online and to avoid the penalties that are associated with sharing content illegally.”