The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy has announced key 2022 achievements in protecting its members’ content and removing pirate services from the U.S. market and worldwide.
Through the continued development of its industry-leading, proprietary software that enables automated scanning of set-top boxes and automated sending of takedown notices, the IBCAP lab more than doubled the number of pirate streams detected and removed year-over-year. The impact of this increase was felt worldwide, as content delivery networks and hosting providers responding to IBCAP’s pressure removed illegal streams not only in the U.S. but globally.
Additional 2022 highlights included:
IBCAP lawsuits, legal injunctions and judgments totaled more than $50 million.
Shut down major set-top box pirate services, including ExpatVision, TotalCableBD, Maxx IPTV, MyIndianTV, and Sasta TV.
Forced large volume retailers/distributors, such as Atlas Electronics in Detroit, Texas Communications in Houston, and Polexport in Chicago, to cease selling pirate services.
Disabled hundreds of major illegal websites and coordinating domain name shutdowns, including Myindian.tv, istar-hd.com, superarabiptv.com, and iptvarab.com.
Increased sports-related event takedowns by 80 percent year-over-year.
Working with Nagra, IBCAP delivered automation for both set-top box scanning and the associated takedown process, with a lab that monitors more than 250 STB services. IBCAP's lab also increased the breadth of its coverage from not only STBs and pirate websites but also apps, Kodi, online retailers such as Amazon, and leading social media outlets, such as Facebook and Telegram.
Complementing the expansion of IBCAP’s team of expert analysts in 2022, the coalition’s continued investment in automation has increased the speed and volume of piracy detected, streamlined data collection and analysis, and optimized the takedown notice process. This automation is a significant benefit to IBCAP members and has decreased the time to complete many monitoring and takedown operations by a factor of ten.
“Since joining IBCAP early in 2022, we have seen popular pirate services carrying BBC Studios content removed not only from the U.S. market but also globally, which was an unexpected benefit of membership,” said Diane Hamer, head of business and legal affairs, content, and brand protection at BBC Studios. “In addition, we now have the IBCAP lab as a technical resource to provide BBC Studios with the necessary evidence when we commence a legal action or make a referral to the police or other authorities. This is a useful tool that we do not otherwise have inhouse and we have been very pleased with IBCAP’s responsiveness to our specific technical requests.”
“We are very pleased with our 2022 results and look forward to continuing our momentum and effectiveness in 2023,” said Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. “With our success in shutting down STB pirate-delivered content, we are seeing operators of pirate services transition to online distribution channels, such as websites, apps, and social media, and thus we are also very focused in those areas. By continuing to enhance automation within our processes, IBCAP can scale cost-effectively and efficiently, enabling our team to have the greatest impact for our members.”
International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy https://www.ibcap.org/membership