Illegal pirate TV services are already a booming business and a new report suggests that the value of the market could rise significantly over the next few years.
A new Parks Associates report finds that the value of pirate video services accessed by pay TV and non-pay TV consumers will exceed $67 billion worldwide by 2023. The analyst firm’s report suggests that if 10% of pay TV subscribers canceled pay TV services in favor of video delivered by pirates, the 2023 loss to those operators could approach $6 billion.
While many operators and organizations are going after pirate TV services, there is also a push from operators like Charter to go after password sharing.
The report finds many of the antipiracy efforts by U.S. pay TV operators currently focus credential sharing and account abuse. A Parks survey of U.S. broadband households determined 5% used someone else's credentials to access a pay TV service, and 6% did so to access an online video service.
RELATED: Charter joins ACE to continue its fight against password sharing
"More than 12.5 million pay TV households accessed pirate video in the U.S. in 2019, a low number compared to the Asia and Pacific region, where there are many more users but lower ARPU," said Elizabeth Parks, president of Parks Associates, in a statement. "Video providers are carefully monitoring this threat and establishing dedicated teams and solutions to respond to piracy."
"Credential sharing falls into two categories. Most sharing is casual, with no intent to profit. But the bigger risk is from pirates that purchase large stolen consumer databases via the 'Dark Web' and use automation to discover penetrable end user accounts,” said Steven Hawley, contributing analyst at Parks Associates and managing director of Piracy Monitor, in a statement.
Charter has been one of the most aggressive and vocal opponents of password sharing and other forms of unauthorized access to content. The cable company recently joined the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), and enlisted both Disney and Fox to help with implementing business rules to address unauthorized access to content.