DoJ Busts Illegal Streaming Service With More Subscribers Than Netflix and Hulu

Two programmers in Las Vegas recently admitted to running two of the largest illegal television and movie streaming services in the country, according to federal officials. https://t.co/X0kxHHgmIR

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) December 16, 2019

However, law enforcement agents have now begun to crack down on illegal players in this space. Darryl Julius Polo and Luis Angel Villarino, two computer programmers, are the first to feel the ire of the Feds. The Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicted the duo on copyright infringements and money laundering charges.

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According to the release, both men admitted to running two of the largest illegal streaming services in the country. The platforms are iStreamItAll and Jetflix (a not-so-clever workaround on “Netflix”), which provide access to similar content found on legitimate streaming sites. The DoJ noted that iStreamItAll, which was run by the 36-year-old Polo, had about 11,000 movies and 118,000 TV series episodes. The platform reportedly provided access to more content than Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Vudu. He and Villarino teamed up to found Jetflix, a service that allows users to stream and download copyrighted programs without permission from the creators. DoJ officials confirmed that the men admitted to using “automated software programs and other tools to locate, download, process and store illegal content, and then quickly make those television programs available on servers in the U.S. and Canada.” However, piracy hasn’t been the only problem that streaming services have had to deal with. Earlier this year, tech-focused research and consulting firm Parks Associated released a report which estimated that streaming companies and Over-the-top (OTT) media services have lost up to $9.2 billion in revenue from vices such as piracy and shared passwords.

#OTT and pay-TV companies will lose out in around $9.1 billion of revenue due to #piracy and account sharing in 2019 alone #IBC365 https://t.co/PSswdpzqyO

— IBC365 (@IBC365) July 17, 2019

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The report, which was titled “360 Deep Dive: Account Sharing and Digital Piracy,” estimated that up to 27 percent of all American broadband households engage in account sharing or piracy, adding that 20 percent of broadband households use some form of piracy or jailbreaking app. The firm estimates that the companies in this space could lose up to $12.5 billion by 2025. Netflix has weathered the copycat storm so far, but increasing pressure from Disney+, a streaming service launched by the Walt Disney Company last month, has seen it lose market share. Last week, financial analyst Laura Martin forecasted that the California-based company could lose as much as 4 million subscribers next year, as more services that offer cheaper plans have started to eat into its market share. As she put it, the company will be faced with two options- either introduce a tier with a lower subscription price or resort to selling ads.

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