Illegal Live Sports Streaming Site Closed Down!
Illegal Live Sports Streaming Site Closed Down!
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
The world's biggest site for illegal streaming of live sports events has been closed down.
The Anti-Piracy Group, Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), comprising more than fifty major global entertainment companies and film studios, and acting in collaboration with the Egyptian Police, has closed down Streameast, which, reportedly, has been visited more than 1.6 billion times during the past year.
Streameast has allowed millions to access pirated streams of major sports events, including English Premier League football matches, Formula One races and Major League Baseball games.
Charles Rivkin, the chairman of ACE, remarked:
“It is a resounding victory in its fight to detect, deter, and dismantle criminal perpetrators of digital piracy".
And added:
"With this landmark action, we have put more points on the board for sports leagues, entertainment companies, and fans worldwide."
Sports broadcasting is big business, with the total value of media rights around the world having exceeded U$60 billion (around €51.53 billion) last year.
With the rising costs of sports broadcasting rights deals being passed onto to sports fans, together with the need to take out subscriptions to multiple platforms showing different matches, some fans, who are primarily from the UK, US, Canada, Germany and the Philippines, have resorted to illegal streaming sites, such as Streameast.
From now on, fans trying to access that site are being redirected to an ACE web page that indicates channels that they can watch legally.
Ben Woods, of Midia Research, stated:
“Cracking down on pirates directly is just one part of the solution."
And added:
"Only by exploring ways to make live sport more accessible will this issue become less of a problem for major sports leagues."
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
