New research suggests an effective way to address it.
February 14, 2024
HBR Staff; Jamie Squire/Getty Images; grinvalds/Getty Images
Post
Post
Share
Annotate
Save
Piracy poses a growing challenge to all sorts of digital media and entertainment companies, but it’s particularly acute for companies that own the rights to sports broadcasts, because efforts to shut down pirated broadcasts often take longer than the broadcasts actually last. New research suggests, however, that there are effective ways to discourage the use of pirated broadcasts and boost payment for legal ones.
While many people watch the Super Bowl and NFL games legally each year, through cable subscriptions, local television, or NFL Sunday Ticket, a growing number of people are using another method: illegally pirated live streams. The piracy-tracking firm VFT estimates that 17 million viewers watched last Sunday’s Super Bowl on illegal pirate streams, and a 2023 survey of 3,200 NFL fans found that 35% of respondents regularly watch NFL games on pirate streams. The problem isn’t unique to the NFL. Most other live sports matches are made available through illegal streams.
BD
Brett Danaher is an associate professor of economics and management science at Chapman University. He is the co-founder and organizer of the Entertainment Analytics Conference, which annually brings together the top academic and industry data scientists focused on the entertainment ecosystem.
MS
Michael D. Smith is the J. Erik Jonsson professor of information technology and marketing at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College and Tepper School of Business.
RT
Rahul Telang is Trustee Professor of Information Systems at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. His research focus is information security and the digital-media industry.
Post
Post
Share
Annotate
Save
>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Harvard Business – https://hbr.org/2024/02/pro-sports-has-a-piracy-problem
