Tag: Muso

‘Game of Thrones’ Most Pirated TV Show in 2019

HBO may be back atop the industry when it comes to award nominations and wins, but the premium channel’s programming also has the distinction of being the top pirated.

Citing data from file-sharing platform BitTorrent, separate site TorrentFreak said HBO’s fantasy series “Game of Thrones” was the most pirated TV show in 2019. That was followed by the Award-winning miniseries Chernobyl and Disney+ rookie series “The Mandalorian.”

“Thrones” was also the most pirated TV show in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The show didn’t air episodes in 2018.

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Other top pirated series included “The Big Bang Theory,” “Vikings,” “The Walking Dead” (a previous winner), “Rick and Morty,” and DC Comics shows “Arrow,” “The Flash” and “Supergirl.”

Indeed, TorrentFreak contends the mere presence of new “Thrones” content in 2019 spiked illegal viewing 8% worldwide.

“The demand for piracy of ‘Game of Thrones’ is unprecedented,” Phil Taylor, analyst at Muso, told the platform. “The demand for “GOT” was so high that it visibly increased traffic for domains such as thepiratebay.org.”

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Report: Record 13 Million People Illegally Streamed Andy Ruiz Jr.’s Upset TKO of Anthony Joshua

Unheralded Andy Ruiz Jr.’s June 1 upset TKO of Britain’s Anthony Joshua to become the WBO, IBF and WBA Heavyweight champion delivered another blow – this one to fight’s pay-per-view/SVOD business model.

More than 13 million people reportedly accessed the fight illegally – the vast majority through YouTube, according to new data from MUSO, the London-based digital data tracking company.

The tally bettered the previous mark of 9.98 million set during the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder fight last December.

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The majority illegal access (2.3 million) occurred in Nigeria, home to Joshua’s family roots, followed by Kenya (998,000), the U.K. (922,000), U.S. (600,000), Mexico (587,000), Philippines (541,000), Uganda (417,000), China (376,000), Turkey (351,000) and Indonesia (310,000).

“The Joshua vs. Ruiz fight has been the largest unauthorized audience that we’ve ever tracked across boxing and it’s staggering to see that 93% of the audience watched via YouTube,” Andy Chatterley, CEO of MUSO, said in a statement.

Ruiz Jr. was a late substitute after Joshua’s initial opponent, Jarrell Big Baby Miller, dropped from the fight after failing three drug tests.

“The official PPV audience figures have yet to be published, but this is a massive audience that’s being ignored,” Chatterley said. “This highly engaged audience offers up huge insight and perhaps, more importantly, significant commercial opportunity.”

Report: U.S. Leads in Global Piracy Website Visits

Despite being home to the Motion Picture Association of America, Netflix, Hulu and other budget over-the-top video services, the United States leads the world in global visits to websites pirating illegal access to TV shows, movies, music and publishing, according to new data from Muso, a digital analytics firm.

There were 17.3 billion visits by U.S. residents to piracy sites in 2018, followed by Russia with 14.5 billion visits and Brazil with 10.2 billion.

Notably, the report found that nearly 50% of visits were to access TV programming, followed by movies (17%), music (16%), books (11.5%) and software (6%).

“Television is the most popular content for piracy and given the fragmentation of content across multiple streaming services,” co-founder/CEO Andy Chatterley said in a statement. “Whilst it’s important to restrict the distribution of unlicensed content, there is a wealth of insight to be garnered from piracy audience data that gives a comprehensive view of global content consumption.”

Interestingly, London-based Muso found that people engaging in pirated content are shying away from public file-sharing services, with 60% opting instead for unlicensed streaming sites.

“We have seen a 10% increase in people bypassing search engines and going directly to the piracy destination of their choice,” Chatterley said, underscoring how prevalent digital piracy remains globally.

“Simply focusing on take-downs is clearly a whack-a-mole approach and, while an essential part of any content protection strategy, it needs to be paired with more progressive thinking,” he said. “With the right mindsight, piracy audiences can offer huge value to rights holders.”

  1. United States Of America: 17.3 billion
  2. Russian Federation: 14.5 billion
  3. Brazil: 10.3 billion
  4. India: 9.6 billion
  5. France: 7.3 billion
  6. Turkey: 7.3 billion
  7. Ukraine: 6.1 billion
  8. Indonesia: 6 billion
  9. United Kingdom: 5.7 billion
  10. Germany: 5.3 billion