HARD TO WIPE OUT ILLEGAL LIVE STREAMING

Situation worsening as technology battles to keep up with pirates; most sports are hit

Broadcasters are facing a worldwide surge in illegal streaming of live sports that is depriving them of tens of billions of dollars in potential revenue, and there seems to be little they can do about it.

The unauthorised broadcasts can be appealing to cash-strapped fans looking to watch big-ticket events without paying subscription fees. But a lot of that money would otherwise flow back to the leagues themselves, so the bootleg broadcasts are effectively sucking money out of the clubs those fans support.

Piracy of live sports has been around ever since the 1980s. What has changed is how widespread - and normalised - it has become since sports broadcasting moved to the internet. A Google search will bring up an abundance of pirated broadcasts available with a few clicks.

The streams are advertised widely on social media, giving them an air of legitimacy and reaching audiences who would otherwise not consider breaking the law to watch their favourite team. Some of the higher-quality illegal services even have their own customer-support operations.

The result is that broadcasters are losing as much as US$28 billion (S$36 billion) in potential annual revenue, according to a study from Synamedia, which sells anti-piracy tools, and media research firm Ampere Analysis.

Almost every sport is impacted, including football, cricket, boxing and Formula One.

HOW DOES SPORTS PIRACY WORK?

Broadly speaking, sports piracy works by capturing a legitimate stream and rebroadcasting it on another website without the permission of the broadcast rights holder.