World Cup 2022: A Review
The FIFA World Cup took place from November 20 to December 18, 2022. Despite the controversies over the choice of Qatar, football remains one of the most popular sports on the planet and still attracts an extremely large audience.
Since 2010, the number of viewers has indeed kept rising; although worldwide figures have not yet been published for 2022, in 2018, broadcasts of the matches reportedly attracted more than 3.5 billion viewers in total, including 1.2 billion for the final.
For 2022, while it is too early for reliable figures, some countries have begun to publish a few results – notably for the historic France-Argentina final.
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- The BBC confirms that 14.9 million people watched the match in the United Kingdom, including 7.1 million via streaming.
- In the United States, about 25 million viewers reportedly watched the match
- Telemundo reports 9 million viewers for its Spanish-language broadcast of the final in the United States
- Streaming viewership of the entire tournament also reportedly rose by about 158% compared with the figures for the 2018 World Cup final, according to Fox
Since football is one of the sports most affected by piracy, a number of initiatives took place during the World Cup, and after it, to try to limit its extent.
Proactive actions
In early November, members of the European Parliament, with the backing of the biggest broadcasters, reiterated to Ursula von der Leyen their call for European legislative harmonization to fight the piracy of sporting events; in particular they are asking for a 30-minute takedown order, modelled on what exists in the United Kingdom, among other places. Although symbolic, this action shows a growing awareness of piracy at the political level.
In other parts of the world, the actions were more aggressive:
- The Canadian Federal Court issued a blocking order against two major streaming sites at the request of Bell Media, among others
- 3 days before the start of the tournament, beIN Sports obtained two orders from the Paris judicial court for the preventive blocking of 22 streaming sites and 7 addresses leading to IPTV services
- A major piracy network was dismantled in Morocco a few days before the start of the World Cup. This network was, among other things, pirating the beIN Sports network; the sites concerned had received more than 20 million visits in October 2022.
Mass shutdowns of illegal domains
Around fifty domains serving several tens of millions of viewers were shut down in December by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security; a few days later the sites were again hosted on new domains, but this time the authorities were able to react quickly and have the copies removed almost immediately as well.
Mass phishing
Finally, another aspect of this type of sporting event that is sometimes overlooked is the multiplication of phishing operations from sources posing as FIFA, using classic techniques such as an alleged payment problem or tickets won for the event. The aim, as always, is to obtain personal data or money.
The number of fraudulent emails thus doubled in October 2022, ahead of the tournament. In France, the CNIL in particular urged French viewers to be extra vigilant.
Like many events, the success of the World Cup was accompanied by a correspondingly large amount of piracy. Despite the quick reaction of some states, live events nevertheless lose considerable revenue if takedowns are not carried out in real time. It is therefore essential to back up these legal actions with proactive monitoring that allows quick removal.
Agence PDN offers you monitoring of your live events, before your event as well as during it, ensuring the real-time removal of illegal streams; for live events, time is indeed of the essence. Don’t hesitate to contact one of our account managers, and we will be happy to help by proposing an offer suited to your needs.
Join us in February for our new theme: the role of social networks in piracy. Happy reading!
