As Europe’s top football leagues launch their 2022/23 season campaigns, pressure to balance the books at the continent’s most prestigious clubs remains a top priority.

In the summer transfer window alone, LaLiga club Barcelona spent €153m euros, but that’s peanuts compared to the paychecks it hands to its top players. The club has a weekly payroll of €5.3m , of which more than 10% goes to Dutch player Frenkie de Jong. His weekly pay of €560,962 means that by the time his contract expires in 2026, Barcelona will have paid him €116,680,000.

For this reason, and a couple of dozen more just like it, Barcelona needs cash flooding in from fans buying tickets and premium TV subscriptions. According to LaLiga, the survival of the game is dependent on these revenues. When fans turn to pirate IPTV subscriptions to save money, they not only upset club accountants but also fund criminals providing ‘unreliable’ bootleg services.

Movistar and DAZN Deal Heralds New Era

Telefónica-owned Movistar Plus+ and DAZN were awarded LaLiga rights late last year in a five-year deal worth €4.95bn, with Movistar Plus+ later agreeing to pay DAZN €1.4bn to iron out broadcasting clashes. So, to help protect their investment, this month Movistar Plus+ and LaLiga obtained a court order to quickly block pirate IPTV services.

With fans’ ears ringing with LaLiga piracy warnings but soothed by the benefits of going legal, the stage was set last weekend for Barcelona vs. Rayo Vallecano and the launch of the Movistar/DAZN partnership.

From multiple angles, things went badly. Movistar Plus+ subscribers were told that they could not access DAZN content through their existing app and were told to download an additional app from DAZN.

“You will see the DAZN [matches] in their app: if you have DAZN included in your offer, you only have to create your account,” Movistar Plus+ tweeted on Saturday. “It’s very easy.”

It should’ve been easy – easier than buying a pirate IPTV service for sure – but it wasn’t.

Having already signed up for one service, Movistar Plus+ subscribers found that in order to download the DAZN app, they had to sign up for an account at DAZN as well. However, DAZN’s servers couldn’t cope with the volume of Movistar Plus+ subscribers, which meant that they couldn’t issue accounts or activate access to the services paid for.

By the time the problems were solved, Barcelona and Rayo fans had missed half of the first match on the opening weekend of the season, despite paying for a legal subscription. Movistar Plus+ pointed the finger at DAZN, which later admitted to having suffered technical problems.

The pair say that measures have been taken to ensure there are no further problems but, if unreliability was a reason for fans to move away from pirate IPTV services, that might be a tough sell in future. For new Movistar Plus+ pirate converts, missing half the match probably ran counter to what they were promised.

Sadly, the trials and tribulations of financially supporting the beautiful game didn’t stop there.

Italian Football Fans Experience Worse

Just like LaLiga, Italy’s Serie A finds itself in a perpetual war against pirate IPTV services and set-top boxes locally known as ‘pezzotto’. Serie A is also a fan of ISP blocking, which is regularly backed up by stern messages from its CEO that pirates are killing the sport. This weekend, fingers of blame were being pointed in other directions.

Due to ‘technical problems’ suffered by DAZN, Serie A fans couldn’t watch the football matches they’d paid for. Large numbers of subscribers couldn’t log into their accounts and for those that could, being randomly kicked out became a feature of the season’s opening weekend.

With fans on Twitter declaring that Serie A and DAZN are those responsible for “killing football”, swathes of pirates with uninterrupted access to the matches gloated as legitimate buyers fumed in frustration.

When Pirates Receive a Better Product, It’s Already Over

From both PR and anti-piracy perspectives, the weekend was a disaster. Serie A recently relaunched its ‘Piracy Kills Football’ campaign which is being promoted in all football stadiums via graphics and a big screen video spot during the first two rounds in the new season.

If the only aim was to reach the eyes of pirates, the campaign was a complete success because only pirates had continuous access to the matches. If the goal was to encourage behavioral change among pirates, the damage might last for years. But just when things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they did just that.

Here Comes The Government

Six-time Olympic gold medalist and 16-time world champion fencer Valentina Vezzali now spends her time dueling in politics as Italy’s cabinet undersecretary for sports. After seeing the football debacle at the weekend, she’s demanding a meeting between Serie A and the government to find out what went wrong.

Italian telecoms regulator AGCOM, which is also responsible for blocking piracy sites, is also invited. Quite what AGCOM can do isn’t clear but a presentation of how blocked piracy sites can deliver a better quality service than multi-billion euro companies could be a potential PPV event in its own right.

According to a local report , at some point over the weekend DAZN was forced to create a separate link to a low-resolution broadcast. Viewers reportedly abandoned their TVs for smaller devices since the image quality was so poor. Again, highly amusing to pirates;

“Breaking news: #DAZN buys the #pezzotto’s servers to bring their service up to standards. As a gift to all customers, as compensation, also documentaries and hot channels,” one user wrote in response.

When approached for an explanation on the chaos, Serie A said it wouldn’t be commenting. Considering that even the “criminals” behind pirate IPTV services tend to offer explanations to upset customers (while also offering an apparently superior content delivery experience), one has to wonder who is in the wrong business and what it will take to put things right.

In the meantime, DAZN will be broadcasting the rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in the United States and other markets this coming Saturday. That’s what’s been announced, at least.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

It’s been 16 years since music industry group IFPI pressured Danish ISPs to block Russian music site AllofMP3. In 2022, most major audiovisual rightsholders are involved in the practice.

Pioneered by the Premier League and its anti-piracy partners, pirate IPTV injunctions now provide authority for sophisticated flexible blocking, edging ever closer to the Holy Grail of real-time stream disruption.

Top-tier football leagues LaLiga and Serie A share this goal but to compel ISPs to block pirate services in any way, an initial court process is a requirement in EU countries. This includes Malta where the leagues (in one case through a local rightsholder) asked the court to authorize stream disruption.

Application filed by LaLiga

A 2017 report from Malta’s Broadcasting Authority revealed that one in five households were using pirate IPTV services to access illegal streams. Three years later, Malta became entangled in ‘ Operation Perfect Storm ‘, a pan-European IPTV anti-piracy operation coordinated by Eurojust.

After blocking injunctions arrived in Malta courtesy of sports organizations, this February an agent for LaLiga filed a new application citing the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (Regulation) Act ( pdf ) .

Under Article 8, rightholders can ask a court to order measures to “prevent any imminent infringement.” These measures include injunctions against intermediaries whose services are used by third parties to infringe intellectual property rights. LaLiga named three local ISPs – Epic Communications Limited, Melita Limited, GO Plc – as respondents with the power to prevent further infringement.

While absent from public records, LaLiga presented a January 2022 report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers which identified IP addresses streaming LaLiga content to Maltese internet users, without the appropriate rights. LaLiga informed the First Hall of the Civil Court that while the residential ISPs themselves aren’t acting illegally, their provision of internet access allows subscribers to gain access to infringing streams.

As a result, LaLiga sought an order that would compel the ISPs to render the illegal streams inaccessible to subscribers, while rendering the ISPs liable for costs.

Application filed by Infront Sports & Media AG

A second application was filed at the First Hall of the Civil Court in April. Presented by Infront Sports & Media AG, a Switzerland-based company that holds rights to Serie A matches, the application followed a similar format to LaLiga’s and also cited a PriceWaterhouseCoopers infringement report.

Infront asked the court to issue an injunction compelling the same ISPs to block the pirate services under Article 8 of the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (Regulation) Act, noting that the ISPs should be required to pay costs to cover the legal proceedings.

Football Leagues Win Dynamic Injunctions

Decisions handed down late June by Judge Ian Spiteri Bailey indicate that negotiations took place between the rightsholders and ISPs after the applications were filed earlier this year. Since then, some type of agreement had been reached.

In a joint submission both parties acknowledged that the court would have to publish its decisions but specifically requested that the agreements (and in particular their ‘operating methodology’) should remain confidential.

Such secrecy is commonly found around piracy blocking cases so it comes as no surprise to see the same here. However, in both the LaLiga and Serie A cases the Judge decided that the private agreements reached between the parties should be considered parts of the relevant judgment, leaving a lot of gaps to speculate over.

In broad terms, the Judge agreed that all of the undisclosed IP addresses in the undisclosed documents should be blocked under the terms of the undisclosed agreements, to protect LaLiga and Serie A matches in the 2022/23 season.

The ISPs must also block access to undisclosed IP addresses that fall under Clause 5 of the undisclosed agreement, any time before the 2022/23 season, as long as they are notified of them not less than 96 hours before a match. There are other terms too but none that make much sense without seeing all of the undisclosed documentation.

In summary, however, the injunctions appear to be dynamic, meaning that they can be modified to include new IP addresses in the event that pirate IPTV services take countermeasures.

Original (translated/pdf) applications here ( 1 , 2 ) judgments here ( 1 , 2 )

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

For the past several years, authorities in Italy have regularly announced operations that aimed to disrupt the supply and use of pirate IPTV services.

After a series of similar actions, in 2021 it was claimed that ‘ Operation Black Out ‘ had shut down a network responsible for around 80% of the illegal supply in the country. This January, another operation led to the claimed dismantling of a network servicing 500,000 customers.

These reported successes may have disrupted supply but rightsholders are still unhappy. Last week, CEO of football league Serie A blamed IPTV pirates for a 300 million euro black hole in revenues, something that may have played a role in Italian authorities conducting a new crackdown with an unusual component.

New Guardia di Finanza Operation

The special technology fraud unit of the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), a law enforcement agency under the authority of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is reported to have carried out a new operation as football fans prepared for the end of the Serie A football championship.

In addition to either blocking or seizing sites and servers relating to the sale and distribution of pirate IPTV services, police also took the opportunity to give thousands of pirates an unwelcome surprise.

“In anticipation of the last day of the Serie A football championship and the Conference League final, the IT specialists of the Fiamme Gialle have registered hundreds of new services and resources dedicated to the sale of IPTV activities through illegal streaming,” a GdF statement reads.

The Gruppi Sportivi Fiamme Gialle is the sports division of the Italian police force, with team members competing in athletics, rowing, skiing and other sports including judo and karate. In this instance, however, they were lying in wait as IPTV pirates scooped up an enticing offer.

‘Applicazione Ufficiale’

The ‘Official Application’ subscription package offered every regular TV channel and subscription TV service at the “ridiculously low price” of six euros and promised access on devices including TVs, phones, tablets, and computers. Police say it was advertised on Telegram channels, some with as many as 20,000 users, with a free trial and guaranteed anonymity to put subscribers at ease.

Meanwhile, GdF officers were engaged in parallel IPTV disruption activities. They say more than 500 web resources relating to pirate IPTV were seized or blocked, including over 150 websites and 40 Telegram channels. In addition, 310+ pieces of IPTV infrastructure, including primary and balancing servers distributing illegal streams, were taken offline.

Italian police don’t go into specifics so the precise mechanism of what came next is unclear. However, the suggestion is that through seized IPTV infrastructure, police were able to track people who tried to access illegal streams via ‘Applicazione Ufficiale’ subscriptions.

“In fact, a real tracking system was implemented which made it possible to identify the users of the pirate streams. Anyone who tried to connect to the pirated service was immediately redirected to a special information panel that warned that the site, through which the program was being viewed, was seized and the connection data traced,” GdF says.

Police ‘Discover’ Stream Creed

Back in 2019, police in Italy announced a huge anti-piracy operation that targeted, among other things, the company operating popular IPTV service management system Xtream Codes . The software/system offered a comprehensive package that allowed people to manage their own IPTV reselling service and its customers but according to police, Xtream Codes acted illegally.

Almost three years later, there is no news of subsequent charges, if any, but there have been accusations that the team behind Xtream Codes remained in the business with a similar product called Xtream UI. That claim was subsequently denied by the Xtream Codes team and it appears police now have a new and related discovery on their hands.

“The consequent analyzes carried out by the investigators have, at present, made it possible to ascertain the existence of a new management system for IT flows, called ‘Stream Creed’, which appears to derive from the source code of the already known ‘Xtream Codes’, a worldwide pirate platform dismantled by the same Special Unit in 2019,” GdF says.

The suggestion that police IT specialists only just discovered the existence of this software seems unlikely. The Stream Creed platform has been discussed in IPTV communities for at least two years accompanied by videos on sites including YouTube.

But whether the Stream Creed discovery is new or old, DAZN – which secured rights to broadcast Serie A matches in a $3 billion deal in 2021 – is happy with the outcome of the operation.

“We renew our full support to the law enforcement agencies who are committed every day to countering the phenomenon of piracy which every year generates enormous damage to our country system, with a particular impact on the media and entertainment industry and on end customers,” says DAZN CEO Stefano Azzi.

“Piracy affects the whole world of OTT players, not just DAZN. With the diversification of platforms and channels, the methods of piracy also change. DAZN’s anti-piracy division and its partners are already working to stop thousands of instances through law enforcement, injunctions and continuous innovation to protect subscribers.”

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

For many image conscious consumer-orientated businesses, a key to commercial success lies in carefully calibrated branding and marketing.

A hand-picked celebrity with the right attributes, for example, can enhance the images of both parties in the eyes of consumers. These associations can be nurtured through memorable online promotions but for the past several years, some websites have been virtually labeled “proceed with caution”.

Rightsholders Warn Brands Not to Support Piracy

Thousands of pirate sites rely on advertising to generate revenue but entertainment companies are keen to highlight the downsides of dealing with them. The general message is that advertising on illegal platforms not only fuels piracy but also supplies a reputation boost due to association with legitimate companies.

As a result, major brands work with companies such as White Bullet to keep their ads away from pirate platforms, while industry groups such as Hollywood’s MPA lobby authorities to take action against supportive advertisers and networks.

While it’s clear that more can be done, there are plenty of obstacles too. Advertising networks can be extremely complex, pirates have a reputation for deploying countermeasures and adapting to threats, and some advertisers are attracted to the millions of people visiting pirate sites. Other issues are even more tricky.

Imagine a scenario where a major sports rightsholder with its own piracy problems is sponsored by a company accused by Hollywood of using piracy as a promotional vehicle. Then, given the importance of branding and association, imagine that company’s logo is instantly recognized by millions of pirates as being piracy-linked, while those same pirates are being criticized for supporting piracy.

Ridiculous, surely?

Serie A Chief Blames Pirate Fans For Revenue Failures

As CEO of top-tier football league Serie A, Luigi De Siervo has responsibility for ensuring that Italian football is a success locally and elsewhere in Europe. But despite Serie A’s standing as one of the best football leagues in the world, De Servio has a problem.

Known locally as ‘pezzotto’, piracy-configured set-top boxes are often linked to unlicensed IPTV services and other illegal streaming sites. Italian fans looking for cheap viewing options are using them in their droves, diverting money away from the league. This means that Serie A struggles to compete with the most powerful league in Europe, its CEO says.

“How can Serie A compete with the Premier League? We must all do our part,” De Siervo said recently.

“When we hear people talking about the pezzotto and illegal ways of watching matches, we need to ask them to stop. Piracy takes away from Italian football over 300 million euros a year, resources that would be reserved for our clubs.

“This sad record of the Italians who think they are always smarter than the others must end. In reality we are a country of freeloaders, something unacceptable from a public point of view,” he added.

According to the Serie A chief, the financial gap between his league and that of his English rivals is about 500 million euros, a figure that could be cut in half if piracy didn’t exist. While that doesn’t take into account any boost in revenues the Premier League might also gain in the absence of piracy, De Siervo’s messaging is clear; piracy is wrong, damaging, and should not be supported in any way. That might be a problem.

Serie A is Sponsored By 1XBET

Back in 2019, Serie A launched an anti-piracy campaign , declaring that “Piracy Kills Football”. It’s a message still being pushed today but for millions of fans with a tendency to pirate, there is an elephant in the room.

Gambling platform 1XBET has been an official partner of Serie A for years, sponsoring the league’s presentations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North Africa and the Americas. The original deal noted that 1XBet would be featured in all match graphics, idents and virtual goal mat advertising, in all live Serie A broadcasts.

The problem is that the 1XBET brand is almost synonymous with a specific type of piracy. Hundreds if not thousands of movies illegally camcorded in cinemas have been released online with 1XBET branding. Who records them and puts them online is unclear but it’s safe to say they all like to advertise 1XBET, whoever they are.

Pirates have a love/hate relationship with these poor-quality watermarked releases (and their embedded promo codes) but if people want to watch movies that are still in theaters (Top Gun: Maverick, for example) beggars can’t be choosers.

1XBET watermarks like these will have been seen by a countless number of Serie A pirates over the years, and they are obviously on Hollywood’s radar too.

Hollywood Appeals to US and EU to Act Against 1XBET

In a submission to the Office of the United States Trade Representative last October, the Motion Picture Association gave its reasons why 1XBET should appear on the government’s ‘Notorious Markets’ report.

“1XBET is not an ad network but an advertiser. In 2020 it became the third most active online advertiser in Russia. It is an online gambling site that originated in Russia but now operates worldwide,” the MPA wrote.

“1XBET knowingly and routinely pays to place display ads on pirate sites as well as ads with promotion codes watermarked into infringing videos, including in some of the earliest releases of infringing theatrical camcord recordings. After Russian law enforcement agencies initiated an investigation in 2020, its advertising activity declined. However, 1XBET remains active, and its ads continue to appear on infringing websites today.”

Earlier this year, the MPA repeated similar complaints in a submission to the European Commission, adding in a few extra details for good measure.

“Piracy is used as a vehicle to support this online gambling giant. Within 6 months in 2019 alone, more than 1200 advertisements for 1XBET could be found on structurally infringing websites. 1XBET is blocked in Russia; its alleged beneficiaries are under criminal investigation for illegal gambling and declared fugitives at the request of the Russian Investigative Committee,” the Hollywood group wrote .

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a website run by the Danish Institute for Sports Studies reported that companies including 1XBET are still sponsoring Serie A and Spanish club Barcelona. According to the MPA, this has a particular function.

“1XBET still attempts to launder its reputation by sponsoring football events, most recently as an official sponsor of the African Cup of Nations,” the group told the European Commission.

Why European entities Serie A and Barcelona weren’t mentioned directly to the EC isn’t clear but if fans are to be persuaded to abandon their pezzotto devices, an understanding that everyone agrees on the same rules might be a good start.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

• Real Madrid come from behind to win 2-1 at Huesca
• Ronaldo lifts Juventus; Dortmund lose at Freiburg

The Real Madrid defender Raphaël Varane struck twice as his side came from behind to snatch a 2-1 victory at bottom of the table Huesca in La Liga and offer some respite to the Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane.

Huesca took a shock lead against the Spanish champions early in the second half with a vicious strike in off the post from Javi Galán and nearly doubled their advantage moments later when Rafa Mir struck the bar.

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