The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy is reporting the completion of a highly successful anti-piracy campaign to protect live cricket broadcasts of the Indian Premier League. The announcement is good news for rightsholders while standing in sharp contrast to comments from other stakeholders, who repeatedly argue that tougher legislation is required.


In recent years, rightsholders of major sports events have complained that current legislative frameworks fail to provide efficient tools to tackle live streaming piracy.

This problem was highlighted repeatedly last year as the European Commission drafted its plans to tackle ‘live piracy’ going forward.

End the Live Piracy Plague

A group of more than a hundred stakeholders, including several of the largest sports organizations, called on the Commission to propose new legislation to effectively deal with the problem. Their motto: “End Live Piracy Now“.

“We call on the European Commission to deliver a legislative instrument to tackle live content piracy as a firm commitment from the European Executive branch to address this issue with adequate measures.

“Notably, guaranteeing that notified illegal content is taken down immediately and blocked before the live event terminates,” the organizations added.

The plan eventually unveiled by the EU was mostly seen as a disappointment to rightsholders as it lacked support from new legislation. A subsequent ‘battle plan’ published by the Commission failed to propose concrete changes to the law and hammered on voluntary cooperation instead.


Amidst these legislative lobbying efforts, sports events continued, and so did live piracy. Recent surveys and studies have shown that the problem is growing globally. This increases the frustrations of rightsholders, who feel that more advanced tools and enforcement methods are required to properly deal with the problem.

IBCAP Books ‘Live’ Anti-Piracy Success

In this standoff, there are also positive signs, however. This week, the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) reports that its enforcement efforts in Europe and elsewhere are proving highly successful.

A few weeks ago, the coalition expanded its anti-piracy coverage to include Europe and the Middle East, adding Times Internet, India’s largest digital network, to its list of clients. This was timed well, as the network owns Cricbuzz, which was about to broadcast the Indian Premier League which attracts millions of viewers.

Cricbuzz has the broadcasting rights to the popular cricket event and IBCAP was tasked with protecting its live streams. At a time when other rightsholders mostly complain about the efficacy of existing anti-piracy measures, IBCAP has a more positive story.

100%

According to IBCAP, its worldwide efforts resulted in a “significant piracy takedown success” causing a “major disruption” of Indian Premier League piracy. This includes an impeccable “100%” takedown rate on social media and mobile applications.

“The team was able to disrupt nearly 9,000 streams over the course of the tournament, with more than 3.6 million views being disrupted on Facebook Live streams. The IBCAP team achieved an impressive 100% takedown rate for social media and mobile applications, constituting a significant portion of the infringing content,” the coalition reports.

While we can’t independently verify that all IBCAP takedowns were successful, it’s not hard to find evidence of IPL clips being taken down from Twitter and other services. Apparently, this was possible without any additional legislation.


From Pirates to Paying Subscribers?

In addition to its work for Cricbuzz, IBCAP also monitored piracy for the TV channel Willow. These efforts combined not only reduced piracy but presumably convinced some pirates to go legal.

“The impact of early and frequent takedowns throughout the IPL 2023 tournament undoubtedly led to frustration for pirates, increased legal viewership of the matches by consumers, and resulted in the acquisition of new paying customers for IBCAP members.

“The data once again shows that early action and consistent takedowns, particularly for cricket tournaments and other live sports coverage, result in a poor experience for users of pirate services and cause many of those users to switch to legal providers,” IBCAP adds.

Again, the information made available lacks hard data to verify these statements, but they are an interesting contrast to the complaints we have seen from sports organizations and rightsholders over the years.

Apparently, it’s also possible to effectively act against live-streaming piracy without additional legislation. According to Chintan Udani, Product and Business Lead for Cricbuzz, this can lead to impressive results.

“We are highly impressed by IBCAP’s monitoring capabilities in Europe and the Middle East. Their methods and tools are effective,” Udani concludes.