Serie A and Google join forces to combat online piracy

As the football industry fights piracy and online violence, the amount of unwanted activity online is only rising. With this in mind, the Serie A football league in Italy has stepped up its efforts to fight online piracy. This top-tier league has partnered with none other than Google. In this partnership, they plan to remove video apps from their content network that enable users to watch live games illegally.

According to Lega Serie A, Google has promised to use cutting-edge tools to detect any copyright infringements. The first move has already been taken by Google. They are now removing apps from their PlayStore that were illegally reproducing content copyrighted by the Italian soccer league.

According to Fabio Vaccarono, the CEO of Google Italia, the battle against piracy is a constant commitment for Google. Furthermore, they are attempting to create ad hoc technologies and services that copyright holders may use to protect their rights on their websites.

In March, the Premier League and LaLiga placed a ban on the Mobdro app. The fight against piracy had reached a turning point. This app was broadcasting games from both tournaments without permission. Mobdro was dubbed the world’s most popular pirate streaming service since it had been downloaded by over 100 million people before being shut down.

Piracy has been a problem in the Italian league for some time. In 2019, the Italian league body launched its own initiative to raise piracy awareness among fans and viewers. As a result of the league’s efforts, IPTV blocking times by internet service providers have also been shortened. Lega Serie A reported that the financial and job costs of piracy totaled more than $1.2 billion per year.

This number has only risen in recent years, according to a new report by video technology firm Synamedia and Ampere Analysis. Their study found that piracy costs sports service providers and rights holders an estimated $28.3 billion in lost revenue per year. Eliminating piracy could also bring in $5.4 billion in revenue for OTT sports streaming services.

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