I recently started to get spammed on Facebook from a couple of these services. I searched the first service whose ad I saw and only got bot “review “ sites that didn’t say whether the streaming site was legitimate or not. I’ve seen that Facebook has stopped blocking fraudulent sites from advertising so I figured it to be some sort of scam.
When I watched video from my desktop I’d occasionally watch sports from pirated sites. They tended not to stay up for too long. I assume these newer services will also go away frequently and anybody who signed up for a subscription may keep getting charged. On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 4:03 PM Doug Eastick <[email protected]> wrote: > I just went searching for a news article I recall about a Toronto > operation that got busted sometime in 2025. But I found this one instead > from Nova Scotia..... which mentions Adam's soccer league stuff at the very > tail end. > > > The rise and fall of a Halifax man's illegal TV streaming empire | CBC News > <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-man-illegal-streaming-empire-1.7112573> > > > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 5:41 AM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The UK part of The Athletic has published some good writing and a podcast >> documentary ( >> https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-underground-world-of-illegal-streaming/id1488521447?i=1000735929491) >> on sports piracy in the last week or so. This feels like an existential >> threat to sports rights owners now as they spread their wares across >> multiple platforms, and people just can't afford all the different >> streaming services to follow their favourite sports and teams. >> >> The podcast documentary concentrates on the Premier League, but I think >> the same is true for lots of other sports. "Fire Sticks" (using the term >> generically rather than only Amazon devices) that run Android and can have >> pirate streaming apps "sideloaded" onto them have proliferated enormously. >> Lots of people are very open about the fact that they have one of these to >> stream sports. >> >> If you don't know, it basically works like this. You either already have >> a Fire Stick or similar, and you find someone advertising on WhatsApp. >> They'll point you to a website where you download an app to your Fire >> Stick. You then pay someone an amount of money for access to the app. In >> the UK that might be £60 ($79) for a year's access, and you get >> *everything*. Every sport from Premier League to F1 to PPV Boxing. It >> might not come with English commentary, and it might not have the usual >> graphics or presentation that you're familiar with, but you get the sport >> that you want, with the streams themselves often being sourced from an >> overseas location. (Sidenote: In the UK, Premier League games often briefly >> display numbers in the corner of the screen during the match. They're >> bespoke to my box, and mean that if I pirated my feed, the Premier League's >> anti-piracy people could trace the source of the pirate feed directly to >> me!). >> >> The way that access is sold to these pirate apps is similar to drug >> dealers. There are higher level folk who have distributors and then dealers >> on the ground. The dealers are easiest to catch of course, and they're >> probably using PayPal or direct bank transfers to collect their money >> (Venmo isn't really a thing in the UK). So that's easy to trace. But >> further up the chain it probably turns into crypto and is much harder to >> follow. Organised crime gangs are running many of these schemes, with the >> servers themselves being located overseas. >> >> But obviously, as sports costs rise, and subscriptions are increased to >> account for those costs, it becomes more attractive to more people to go to >> piracy which is probably seen as a "victimless crime". >> >> Incidentally, Amazon's very latest Fire Sticks no longer use Android and >> you can no longer sideload apps onto them. Amazon, of course, is invested >> in streaming sports itself, and was probably under pressure from sports >> rights owners to do something. But there are a multitude of no-name >> generic Android sticks that you can buy on Amazon very cheaply and that can >> do the same thing. >> >> >> Adam >> >> On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 1:23 AM Joe Hass <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> What is infuriating to me is that, once again, MLB is handing out >>> exclusive windows like butterscotch at Grandma's house. If you lived in >>> Chicago and wanted to watch all 162 Cubs regular season games and the first >>> two rounds of the playoffs, you'd have to have access to (pay for): >>> * Marquee Sports Network >>> * ESPN >>> * Apple TV+ >>> * Fox >>> * Roku >>> * TBS >>> >>> Now we're going to ditch Roku, but add Netflix and Peacock?!? Why does >>> Rob Manfred (who screwed the pooch with the ESPN and Roku deals earlier >>> this year) hate his own sport? This is why I've never understood the hatred >>> towards the NFL with their multiple partners: since their first deal with >>> ESPN in 1987, they've always ensured if you live in the local market, you >>> always get *all* your games OTA, regardless of who's carrying them. >>> >>> Where's the Tylenol? >>> >>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2025, 16:03 'Bob F' via TVorNotTV < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> WSJ saying it's $800MM/year over three years, between NBCU (who'll take >>>> over the Sunday night banner on the main network), Netflix and, as many had >>>> suspected, a smaller role for ESPN: >>>> https://deadline.com/2025/11/major-league-baseball-rights-deals-espn-netflix-nbcuniversal-1236623833/ >>>> (link) >>>> But the lack of labor peace can complicate all that... >>>> B >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/3e61b8f3-865e-4f26-89fc-473c82533332n%40googlegroups.com >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/3e61b8f3-865e-4f26-89fc-473c82533332n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2Bf5kcyMCfq54yCS%3Df824yy0TmnUTN2NdQvLuPE8a-Y2Zg%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CABru7%2Bf5kcyMCfq54yCS%3Df824yy0TmnUTN2NdQvLuPE8a-Y2Zg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGBQTDju3Eve_Lz1Nkb-dOzJf5ZdMLpDP0xrxqKECg_D2Q%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGBQTDju3Eve_Lz1Nkb-dOzJf5ZdMLpDP0xrxqKECg_D2Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAK5Q1BrQ-Sf2Qpju%2B%2Bf9Ga9fAyP3ecK-uWXEYtWuBHy1bD91Eg%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAK5Q1BrQ-Sf2Qpju%2B%2Bf9Ga9fAyP3ecK-uWXEYtWuBHy1bD91Eg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. 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