Premier League stars come together for latest phase of Boot Out Piracy campaign in Hong Kong
The Premier League today launched the second phase of its 2021/22 anti-piracy media campaign in Hong Kong. The 'Boot Out Piracy' campaign, which runs across digital platforms, highlights the poor viewing experience and dangers that fans face when watching matches via illegal streams. Not only do fans face delays, broken links, and pop-up ads, but they potentially expose themselves to the threat of malicious malware and ransomware, which often lead to data theft and fraud.
The second phase of 'Boot Out Piracy' will feature new videos from Premier League stars, including Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk and Leicester City's James Maddison. Past campaigns brought together some of the League's top players to raise awareness of the dangers of piracy, including Manchester United's Marcus Rashford, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-Min.
Aside from Hong Kong, the campaign is also running in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Kevin Plumb, General Counsel for the Premier League, said: "We are launching the second phase of this season's Boot Out Piracy campaign at a time of the year when there is a huge number of fixtures for fans around the world to enjoy, to continue raising awareness of the dangers of watching Premier League matches through illegal streams.
"Fans can experience a number of serious issues if they choose to watch pirated content, including having their data stolen and exposing themselves to cyber-attacks. They will also have to endure a sub-standard viewing experience which is likely to be disrupted by pop-up ads and frequent buffering.
Premier League Media Release
"The only way to avoid all those dangers is to watch Premier League football through our official broadcast partners. We will continue working with them and local authorities in Hong Kong and throughout Asia to protect fans from accessing pirate sites." Research by intellectual property and data analytics company White Bullet Solutions shows that, of the most popular pirate websites in Hong Kong for illegally watching Premier League content, 60 percent carried advertisements considered risky, containing either fraud, malware, adult or gambling content.
White Bullet Solutions founder and chief executive officer Peter Szyszko said: "Cybercriminals are taking full advantage of insecure illegal streaming sites to spread malware, gain access to personal data and commit fraud. Our message to the public is that piracy is simply not worth the risk." Raising awareness among fans of the risks and downsides posed by illegal streams is just one part of the Premier League's comprehensive anti-piracy work in the region.
Since the establishment of its Asia-Pacific office in Singapore almost three years ago, the Premier League has initiated blocking action against illegal websites in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, and has worked closely with local authorities to bring criminal action against website operators and suppliers of illicit streaming devices across the region, including in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The League works closely with its local broadcast partners on much of this work.
Derek Choi, Head of Pay TV, HKT, said: "As the official broadcaster of the Premier League in Hong Kong, Now TV, the media entertainment arm of HKT, continues to enhance the viewing experience of Premier League matches, not only the live matches, but also the accessibility of the match replays and highlights through our TV portal. Hence, we launched a dedicated "Soccer Home" page that host the live matches, replays, and highlight in one view. Moreover, we also launched the "Premier League Multi-Angle" feature that gives our fans a new way in viewing the matches from multiple camera angle in the stadium.
Those are the experience that cannot be matched by illegal streaming sites." The Premier League is a member of the AVIA Coalition Against Piracy, the industry association for leading video content creators and distributors in Asia, which focuses on tackling the threat of piracy across Asia. Aaron Herps, General Manager of the AVIA Coalition Against Piracy said: "The dangers of accessing pirated material continue to rise for consumers.
According to our research, only 37 percent of Hong Kongers understand that watching pirate content increases their risk of getting malware, which can lead to becoming a victim of cybercrime. It's great that the Premier's League's stars, who have huge influence, are coming together to help fans understand the significant cybersecurity risk of pirating matches."