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India is among the top countries for online piracy in terms of peer-to-peer downloads and Blu-ray files. With increasing piracy concerns, it is costing India’s media and entertainment industry almost $2.8 billion of its total annual revenue, according to a report.
According to the report, the piracy is driven by the demand for high quality video content, sourced from either Blu-ray or early release Video on Demand.
The Irdeto Global Consumer Piracy Threat Report states that India is among the top five countries for peer-to-peer (P2P) downloads, with over 965 million P2P downloads between from January 2017 to May 2018. According to the report, India accounts for a large proportion of piracy visits (60 per cent) via P2P sites.
The Irdeto’s whitepaper notes that India is ranked fourth in downloading Blu-ray files at 171 million, surpassing China in terms of ranking (50.8 million) and catching up with the US (180 million).
In addition to illegal downloads, online piracy is a huge challenge for OTT content providers, such as Netflix globally. The report states that hundreds of stolen login details for popular OTT services are available every month on the dark web for an average of only $8.81 /£6.60, putting consumers at risk and also impacting OTT revenues.
Irdeto found 854 listings of OTT credentials from 69 unique sellers in over 15 dark web marketplaces. These credentials were from 42 different OTT services including Netflix, HBO, DirecTV and Hulu. This means that legitimate subscribers could have had their accounts compromised and used illegally for a small one-off fee, the report said.
“Content theft by pirates has become a full-fledged criminal enterprise, with some providing illegal subscriptions in an attempt to compete with established pay TV operators. Content owners, rights holders, technology and security partners and law enforcement agencies are working hard to combat the threat of piracy. However, consumers must also be vigilant to avoid the risks they may be subject to from illegal content,” said the press release quoting Mark Mulready, Vice-President – Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto.
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