LOS ANGELES –The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal ecosystem for creative content, today announced the successful shutdown of a major sports piracy operation in Morocco.
Before they were shut down Nov. 11, the streaming websites carried live soccer matches free of charge. The domains, livekoora.online and yalla-shoot-new.tv, drew 20.6 million monthly visits in October 2022.
The piracy operation primarily drew content from international sports broadcaster, beIN SPORTS, which joined ACE in April and supported this successful action in Morocco. The shutdown of a major sports piracy ring took place just nine days before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM is scheduled to start Nov. 20; FIFA is anticipating an audience of 5 billion viewers.
“The successful ACE action in Morocco is a direct result of our enhanced focus on the growing threat that live sports piracy poses to consumers, sports leagues and their fans,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Global Content Protection Chief for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Working with our member, beIN SPORTS, we have sent a clear message to piracy operators around the world, including anyone planning to steal content from the upcoming World Cup games, that we will find you and shut you down.”
A beIN Spokesperson said, “With just days to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM, we are delighted with the most recent shutdown of illegal broadcast websites in Morocco. We are grateful to our partners at ACE for facilitating this important anti-piracy activity, which safeguards our consumers in Morocco, ensuring they are not subject to harmful illegal streaming.”
ACE has dramatically enhanced its focus this year on the growing threat large-scale piracy operations pose to live sports broadcasters. According to a recent study from Synamedia/Ampere, addressing global sports piracy could amount to an additional $28 billion of annual revenue for the industry.
ACE’s comprehensive approach to reducing piracy, which includes criminal referrals, litigation, and direct communications among other tactics, has positioned ACE and its partners to move swiftly into reducing piracy of live sports broadcasts globally.
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About The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing digital piracy. Driven by a comprehensive approach to addressing piracy through criminal referrals, civil litigation and cease-and-desist operations, ACE has achieved many successful global enforcement actions against illegal streaming services and sources of unauthorized content and their operators. Drawing upon the collective expertise and resources of more than 40 media and entertainment companies around the world and reinforced by the content protection operations of the Motion Picture Association, ACE protects the creativity and innovation that drive the global growth of core copyright and entertainment industries. The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and Chairman of ACE. For more information, please visit www.alliance4creativity.com.
Media Contact
John Mercurio
john_mercurio@motionpictures.org
About beIN MEDIA GROUP
beIN MEDIA GROUP is a leading independent global media group and one of the foremost sports & entertainment networks in the world. The group distributes and produces an unrivalled array of entertainment, live sport and major international events across 5 continents, 40 countries and in 9 different languages spanning Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).
beIN MEDIA GROUP’s flagship sports network, beIN SPORTS, holds the single largest portfolio of sports rights of any global broadcaster; and through its iconic MIRAMAX film studio, beIN holds an extensive library of Hollywood blockbusters while having a growing presence in series and movies production and distribution, as well as in the digital space. beIN MEDIA GROUP acquired Digiturk, the leading pay-tv operator in Turkey, in August 2016. For more information on beIN MEDIA GROUP, please contact: mediaoffice@bein.com.
