IBCAP disrupts IPL piracy
July 19, 2023
By Colin Mann
Trade body the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) has achieved what it describes as “significant” piracy takedown success for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 tournament.
IBCAP’s monitoring and protection efforts played an instrumental role in mitigating the piracy of live cricket matches not only in IBCAP member markets, such as the United States, Canada, Europe, and MENA, but also worldwide.
IBCAP’s monitoring and takedown programme was in full force for the duration of the tournament, with staffing in India and the US enabling real-time disruption of live matches. Takedowns were sent on behalf of IBCAP members Willow and Cricbuzz, and efforts focused on set-top boxes and IPTV services, web linear, 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 per cent takedown rate for social media and mobile applications, constituting a significant portion of the infringing content.
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.
“Willow TV has been a member of IBCAP for over eight years, and we are very pleased with the coalition’s impact in mitigating piracy of major cricket tournaments such as the IPL,” said Todd Myers, COO of Willow TV. “We appreciate that IBCAP puts together a customized strategy for each tournament, and their results, which include this season’s IPL tournament, are a testament to their commitment to containing cricket piracy. Their automated monitoring and takedown tools are highly efficient and effective.”
“We are highly impressed by IBCAP’s monitoring capabilities in Europe and the Middle East. Their methods and tools are effective, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them in the fight against piracy,” added Chintan Udani, Product and Business Lead for Cricbuzz.
“Our ability to provide the resources and expertise needed to handle a tournament with a global reach as large as the IPL is further proof of our focus on automated monitoring and takedown tools, combined with the expertise of our IBCAP lab and legal teams,” stated Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. “The results announced today significantly benefit our members as it encouraged consumers to turn to legitimate sources to view their favourite sports matches and games. Paying for and viewing illegal streaming services is just not worth the risk.”