Serie A: League closed 28,900 illegal streaming sites in 2011-12 and 2012-13

Nearly 30,000 websites were closed by the Lega Serie A during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons for illegally streaming Serie A matches, said the National Professional League, which manages the Italian first division, at a meeting on 03/02/2014.

To fight against information piracy and preserve the value of TV rights of the Italian championship, the Serie A has engaged the services of English and Italian companies Friend MTS and Vidierre respectively, both of which use digital "fingerprinting" technology to follow the streaming of the 380 Serie A matches played in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

This work has identified 80,000 illegal Internet signals, corresponding to 36,000 websites sources worldwide, 28,900 of which were closed over the last two seasons (7,900 in 2011-12 and 21,000 in 2012-13 ). In 60% of cases, these sites were inactivated within 15 minutes after the kick-off.

In 2013, Serie A opened a judicial proceeding in the court of Milan in order to preserve the interests of the Italian first division clubs and their official broadcasters, Sky and Mediaset media groups. This action has…