Pirate Streaming Site Smashes Viewership Records, Netflix and Disney+ Feeling the Heat

“Steal a car? Never!”

The Internet will have revolutionized many things, including the way of stealing all possible intellectual properties: inevitably, films and series were the first works to circulate freely, which posed many problems for legal authorities. “The eMule era” some will say, which has calmed down somewhat with the advent of SVOD platforms in the last decadeNetflix in the lead.

But here it is: with the regular increase in prices, the multiplication of paid services – Netflix therefore, but also Prime Video, Disney Plus, Canal VOD… = as well as their options and a bill which continues to increase, illegal streaming platforms are making a comeback. At the top of the list, we find FMoviesone of the most visited sites in its category: 160 million visits per month, a third of which comes directly from the USA. In terms of visits via a web browser, this also makes it a media ahead of titans like Disney+ or Crunchyroll. Obviously, this poses a problem.

Structures being put in place

Faced with the growth of FMovies and its competitors, Charles Rivkin, CEO of the Motion Picture Association, recently spoke at CInemaCon: he wants to put in place a regime to simply block these sites in the United States. A system already applied effectively in other countries, but nevertheless complex to adopt in the USA. There, forcing internet service providers to “block” navigation on these websites via court orders is problematic: this notably counters the notion of freedom of access to the internet.

We imagine that more discussions will take place soon to counter the problem, while keeping in mind that certain government authorities have already struggled with it. In France for example, it is impossible not to think of Hadopi, set up in 2009 and whose effectiveness has often been questioned over the years. Business to follow.

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