Illegal Streaming Sites Earn Over a Billion a Year in Ad Revenue

Piracy is a massive problem for most entertainment industries because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up reducing the amount of revenue they can earn from the content that they have created. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that sites that offer pirated content are actually incredibly profitable, earning over $1.3 billion a year according to a study conducted by the Digital Citizens Alliance in collaboration with an anti piracy agency by the name of White Bullet Solutions.

The pandemic has increased demand for streaming entertainment by a huge margin, and people that don’t want to have to pay for a streaming service often go to these sites. Ironically, the money that these sites earn come from ad revenue. A lot of the ads that these sites earn from are for legitimate corporations such as Amazon, but it is almost certain that these ads end up there inadvertently.

Corporations need to take an active role in trying to stop piracy from being so prevalent. The increase in demand for streaming coupled with movies being released online instead of in theaters is making piracy far more profitable than it used to be with all things having been considered and taken into account. This might just result in the problem getting far worse, and with so much money at stake it will only be possible for the problem to be solved if these companies work together.

When Amazon was informed about these ads there was a noticeable decrease in their prevalence, so if enough companies take action there will be a huge drop in the revenue these sites can earn which will subsequently result in them becoming a thing of the past and entertainment industries will become more profitable as a result.


Photo: Nurphoto / Getty Images.

H/T: Bloomberg.

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