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. 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