More barriers, more piracy: users watch illegal sites due to so much streaming

“The platforms have stopped being quality and user-friendly in terms of price. Now I only have Amazon Prime but the advertising insertion has been annoying and invasive. For me it is starting to be more comfortable to download content through other means to watch it without interruptions,” said Eduardo Gómez, a user who belongs to the group of consumers who have found in torrents an economical alternative to access series and movies.

It is increasingly common to hear consumers enjoying streaming programming through IPTV systems that allow access to a vast range of content through an encoder. But also through applications such as Cuevana, which host an audiovisual catalog illegally, and social networks themselves with broadcasts that have been positioned as new consumption windows for sports events and movies.

This situation has led Mexico to become one of the largest consumers of illegal streaming At the Latin American level, of the 984 million visits that the country generates on 100 illegal sites, 82% are to watch content from streaming platforms, according to the report “Dimension and impact of online piracy of audiovisual content in Latin America ”, carried out by the Center for Telecommunications Studies of Latin America.

The study estimates that streaming piracy consumption in the country represents an economic loss of 1.6 billion dollars annually.

The phenomenon of piracy has been one of the great challenges that the industry, as well as content producers, has gone through, and streaming platforms will not be immune to this situation, especially at a time when users have started to cut corners to cope with a more volatile economy.

“We are facing a scenario where it becomes more complex to access the platforms due to the locks that the subscriptions have, such as avoiding sharing accounts, and to this is added the cost of contracting the internet, which is why users have resorted to the piracy and it is likely that this phenomenon could increase if streaming companies make access to their catalog more restrictive,” said Radamés Camargo, an analyst at the consulting firm The Ciu.

Four out of ten consumers consider that paying for internet “gives them the right to access content (music, movies, video games) for free, according to the national survey on piracy consumption habits and research on protection and promotion. of industrial property rights, 2024 of the IMPI.

However, for streaming platforms the vision is different and instead they enable mechanisms to protect their audiovisual assets through permanent monitoring to detect and download pirated transmissions on social networks or on sites that distribute programming illegally.

For example, Fox Sports maintains an alliance with social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to download content that does not have transmission rights.

“The big audiovisual content players must work hand in hand with manufacturers of Roku-type set box devices to prevent content from being violated in this way, but also with authorities to avoid more piracy,” says the specialist.

Platforms and users, who loses more?

For Radamés Camargo, the advance of piracy in the world of streaming ends up affecting both users and players in the industry, while apocryphal sites win.

Entering an illegal content platform brings risks for consumers from ‘catching’ malware, malicious software designed to damage or exploit any device, phishing, to accessing personal and financial information.

ClearSale, a fraud prevention company, has detected that phishing has focused on sports broadcasts. The dynamic consists of placing certain links with keywords such as ‘Watch Champions Free’, ‘Watch Copa América Free’ and ‘Watch Euro Cup Free’, whose links only give access to data, particularly people’s credit cards. For these types of cases, the firm estimates that users lose an average of 130 dollars, equivalent to 2,451 pesos.

The increase in pirated streaming consumption is a clear impact for platforms because users are implicitly saying that they are not willing to accept restrictive rules and high prices for access to content.

“For now we see that the strategy of avoiding sharing passwords has worked for platforms like Netflix, but this effect will not be long-term, which is why streaming companies in the medium term will need to reduce the barriers to their programming otherwise they will lose participation.” market and piracy will continue to increase,” said Camargo.