Italian Authorities Shut Down $3.2 Billion-a-Year Pirate TV, Streaming Ring

A piracy ring that gave 22 million subscribers in Europe cheap access to content stolen from international streaming services has been shut down by Italian authorities after a two-year investigation. From a report: The criminal enterprise used a complex international IT system to "capture and resell" live programming and other on-demand content from companies including sports broadcaster DAZN, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount, Sky and Disney+, prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday.

Authorities estimate the operation generated revenues of roughly $264.3 million a month [non-paywalled link], or $3.2 billion a year, and caused combined damages of more than $10.6 billion to the affected broadcast companies. "The rate of profit you get from these illegal activities with lower risk is equivalent to that of cocaine trafficking," Francesco Curcio, the criminal prosecutor who led the investigation, told reporters.

That’s literally

[hdyoung]

6 billion dollars of revenue the streaming industry lost because they refused to lower their prices down to a level that the local market would bear. It’s not like their costs increase all that much if they stream the same netflix show 4.1 billion times instead of 4 billion times. Eyeroll.

This is money the streaming services just left sitting on the table for someone else to come and pick up. What a business fail.

Re:

[smooth wombat]

False. It's because people believe they are entitled to whatever they want. If you don't like the price, don't buy it/watch it/whatever.

Re:That’s literally

[mysidia]

Actually true it's an access issue. The real question is Why the authorities are wasting taxpayer money pursuing these criminals and Not the criminals at the Studios/Streaming companies who have created an Anti-consumer distribution monopoly where Particular videos are tied to a particular streaming service and other streaming services can't offer them.

Re:

[waspleg]

I don't know about Italy. In the US the answer is legal bribes in the form of 'lobbyists'.

Re:That’s literally

[GrahamJ]

It’s not false, you’re both right. Because a lot of people have no problem with pirating the services need to temper their pricing accordingly. If it’s too high people will pirate, that’s just the way it is regardless of what you think of it.

In that sense piracy is a good thing as it helps keep prices in check.

Re:

[MeNeXT]

Or people got tired of being fooled into buying something that was no longer available at the whim of the company.

Re:

[geekmux]

False. It's because people believe they are entitled to whatever they want. If you don't like the price, don't buy it/watch it/whatever.

22 thousand people, can be called arrogant thieves who feel they are entitled to whatever they want.

22 million? That’s called a customer base. One any legitimate company would be jealous to have. Parent is right.

22 million subscribers, $3.2 billion a year

[taustin]

Means they've been paying $150/year each for access. Which is on a par with most streaming services.

Why do I doubt these numbers?

Re:

[Targon]

If most services cost $8-13 per month EACH, paying $150/year for EVERYTHING isn't a bad deal. You may be correct that the numbers feel off, or the subscription cost for the service is different based on what you "sign up for".

Sounds like the damages are inflated

[lamer01]

No way pirates would pay that much when they could have just subscribed to all these services.

Re:

[bilibao]

In Italy the "Serie A" (soccer championship, aka the only sport people here would pay for) is only provided by DAZN, and they raised their prices in the past couple of years effectively more than doubling them. It now costs 45 EUR/month so yes 150$/year is much lower than that. So the issue IS the nonsense price. I personally cancelled by subscription and gave up on watching Serie A, others decided to go for piracy even if that meant paying ~10 EUR/month, that is what a reasonable streaming service is exp

Re:

[taustin]

I seriously doubt 22 million people subscribed to a pirate service just to get "Serie A". Or that anywhere near a majority of 22 million people could even tell you what it is.

Your personal experience does not define a universal truth, and the plural of anecdote isn't data.

There's the real crime!

[NewtonsLaw]

Did you watch the multi-million dollar Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson boxing match on Netflix?

That's the real crime -- all hype, no delivery.

If streaming services want our money they need to lift their game.

Re:

[narcc]

No. Why would anyone? Tyson retired almost 20 years ago. Paul is a punk playing pretend pugilist. Who's he going to "fight" next? The ghost of Joe Frazier? What a joke.

all hype, no delivery.

What did you expect? Paul is just an attention whore pretending to be a boxer. You'll find a better fight in any random schoolyard. Stop paying attention to him and he'll go away.

Re:

[Senshi]

Mike Tyson fight sounds like a perfect distraction for Catholics whining about Pope's hysterectomy in Conclave, lol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

Sports Fans

[Jason Earl]

One of the things that the television industry has learned in the last few years is that live sports programming really moves the needle when it comes to subscriptions. Apple has spent over $20 billion since 2019 creating Hollywood style programming. Most critics and fans agree that they even have some really good stuff. However, they don't have anywhere near the impact viewership wise as Amazon's $1 billion a year investment in Thursday Night Football. It's not even close. Thursday Night Football is t