Synamedia: Cost-of-living crisis driving piracy
November 16, 2022
Colin Mann @ Media & Entertainment Leaders Summit
Simon Brydon, Senior Director, Sports Rights Anti-Piracy at Synamedia, has suggested that the cost-of-living crisis is causing many consumers to resort to illegal methods to access their preferred sporting content.
Participating in a panel on ‘The Future of Sports: Broadcasting vs. Streaming Strategies, and Pay vs Free’ at the Media & Entertainment Leaders Summit in London, Brydon noted the sums involved in viewing different, for instance in the UK, with Sky, BT Sport, Netflix and the TV licence, suggesting that you are looking at £150 (€171) per month, with the average household income in the UK under £29,000. “That’s unsustainable that people can actually watch legally and economically. It doesn’t make sense.”
He advised that Synamedia research had highlighted that there was a “vast amount of legal spend,” with 84 per cent of pirate consumers buying something legally and then choosing somewhere to go to top up their viewership. “So that means they are under pressure economically. They are paying for what they most want. They are paying for whoever is doing best on their security, on their ant-piracy. And then they are looking to top up their viewership for a multitude of reasons. There are a whole host of factors. Of course, access as well. It’s very difficult to find what you want when you want.”
He noted the emergence of well-run, pirate IPTV aggregator services that could “churn out hundreds of events simultaneously”, stealing feeds and serve it to the consumer at the expense of the legal operator. He concluded that the situation would only get worse as we face economic headwinds.