Pirated streaming of sports and premium TV is costing broadcasters and sports bodies billions of dollars a year, constituting “industrial scale theft of video services”, according to media analysts at Enders. 

Enders found that pirated feeds account for a “double digit percentage” of all viewing of premium sports and television, based on private data from broadcasters and analysis of internet data, though it was unable to put an exact figure on the scale of the problem.

A single pirated stream of a high-profile event, particularly a live football match, can attract “tens of thousands” of people, according to Enders, which on Friday will release a report analysing data from European TV groups. It found that this number may be multiplied many times when these streams are shared on social media.

Amazon Fire Sticks are enabling “billions of dollars” worth of streaming piracy, according to a report today from Enders Analysis, a media, entertainment, and telecommunications research firm. Technologies from other media conglomerates, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, are also enabling what the report’s authors deem an “industrial scale of theft."

The report, "Video piracy: Big tech is clearly unwilling to address the problem," focuses on the European market but highlights the global growth of piracy of streaming services as they increasingly acquire rights to live programs, like sporting events.

The research by Enders Analysis accuses Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft of "ambivalence and inertia" over a problem it says costs broadcasters revenue and puts users at an increased risk of cyber-crime.

Gareth Sutcliffe and Ollie Meir, who authored the research, described the Amazon Fire Stick - which they argue is the device many people use to access illegal streams - as "a piracy enabler".

Enders say there are often multiple streams of individual events - such as high profile football games - each of which can have tens of thousands of people watching them.

“What perhaps the AI ‘black box’ can guarantee is a certain level of performance from advertisers who otherwise aren’t savvy about more manual campaign management,” said Jamie MacEwan, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis. “And Amazon has to offer this solution competitively with Google and Meta’s equivalents to ensure it’s offering the full suite of expected services, as more advertisers get used to buying this way.”

Jamie MacEwan, senior analyst at Enders Analysis, estimated that "almost half of Apple's revenue is exposed to China."

Enders Analysis, a media industry research firm, said last week that Mr Cardinale’s status as a newcomer to news publishing meant the regulatory process could be smooth and complete by September. The potential involvement of Lord Rothermere, the owner of The Daily Mail, as a minority shareholder alongside RedBird could complicate matters.

Karen Egan, at Enders Analysis, said: “Openreach, like the other established players, are suffering line losses as a consequence of the alt-net fibre goldrush, and TalkTalk customer declines.

“It makes things tough for now but the free cashflow recovery story is not at risk and the line losses should moderate as the alt-nets no longer have the funding to expand their networks.”

Openreach, which operates a nationwide broadband network and sells access to other providers, accounts for about 30% of BT’s sales. Pressure from a new crop of challenger fiber optic providers, known as alt-nets, are hurting some older providers, Enders Analysis analyst Karen Egan said.

“Openreach is suffering losses to the alt-nets in the same way that the rest of its established peers are,” she said. “It’s tough for now, but those losses will naturally deplete as the alt-net funding market has dried up.”

“KKR wants to send a message that scale will bring higher margins,” says François Godard, a senior media analyst at Enders Analysis. “The M&A scene will continue to be dynamic, so we can expect Mediawan to keep growing.” The company refinanced last year, raising a €500 million loan and a €225 million revolving credit facility, which analysts say will fund acquisitions. D’Arvieu says Mediawan is unlikely to embark on a shopping “frenzy”, but will instead target partners that share the same “artistic vision as us”.