By Stuart Thomson
Some 17.1 million people across the EU and UK used illicit IPTV services in 2021, according to a report by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), which also estimated that piracy cost legal pay TV providers €3.21 billion(US$3.42billion) for that year.
While the 17.1 million who accessed illicit services equates to 4.5 per cent of the population, the proportion is alarmingly higher among younger Europeans. Some 11.8 per cent of people aged 16-24 opted to access unauthorised IPTV. This represents nearly 5.9 million young individuals engaging in the use of unlawful IPTV in Europe, according to the AAPA.
The report estimates that €1.06 billion in unlawful revenue was generated by copyright infringing IPTV providers in 2021.
The AAPA noted that the COVID pandemic created a spike on streaming consumption that contributed to the boom in piracy. Some 13.7 million people or 3.6 per cent of the population are estimated to have consumed illicit IPTV services in 2018, meaning that the 2021 figure represents a 25 per cent increase.
However, it also cited EUIPO research that showed piracy was not much lower in the pre-pandemic period. According to the EUIPO research, the percentage of people in Europe who admitted using illegal online sources for digital content was at a high 10 per cent in 2013 and 2017 and slightly lower 8 per cent in 2020. Meanwhile, a third of younger eurpeans used digital content illegally this year, in line with the 2019 numbers.
Illicit IPTV is defined as streaming scheduled and video-on-demand content without the copyright owner’s consent
