The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) 2025 Annual Report is a yearly report developed to highlight IBCAP’s work and accomplishments in protecting its members’ content by ensuring that unauthorized services and retailers are shut down and held accountable through a holistic approach to anti-piracy efforts. The report is released to coincide with IBCAP’s annual member meeting, held this year on May 14 in Anaheim, CA.
Representing more than 220 television channels from the United States, Europe, Brazil, the Middle East, and South Asia, as well as major U.S. distributors, IBCAP has continued its commitment to addressing piracy worldwide. This includes the following highlights:
- The addition of three new members to join in the fight against piracy
- The development and rollout of a proprietary automated VOD monitoring and takedown system
- The coordination of two more lawsuits against non-compliant hosting providers
- Driving a significant impact on controlling piracy of live cricket matches
- The coordination of a lawsuit against Lemo TV and Kemo IPTV for infringing IBCAP member copyrights.
IBCAP EXPANSION AND OPTIMIZATION
IBCAP New Members
In June 2024, IBCAP announced the addition of NHK, marking IBCAP’s expansion into protecting Japanese language content. NHK is a public broadcaster in Japan with its television and radio channels available in approximately 160 countries and regions. Our announcement regarding NHK joining IBCAP can be found here.
In March 2025, IBCAP announced that DIRECTV, a leading video distribution company in the U.S., joined IBCAP. The addition of DIRECTV allows IBCAP to broaden its scope as it works with DIRECTV to identify the sources of piracy of mainstream American content. Our announcement about DIRECTV’s membership can be found here.
Recently, RAI, Italy’s national broadcaster, joined as the latest coalition member marking IBCAP’s expansion into protecting Italian-language content. With this welcome addition, IBCAP will provide monitoring and takedown services for many of RAI’s most popular channels, including Rai Uno and Rai Italia, which air variety shows, sports, and live Serie A football. RAI television programming is available in 174 countries on five continents.
Increased Automation
Over the past year, IBCAP’s lab enhanced its industry-leading monitoring and takedown tools by developing and launching proprietary automatic monitoring software for detecting infringing VOD content on STBs and IPTV services. This software utilizes automation to assist in capturing and preserving evidence of infringement and sending automated takedown notices to infringing services, CDNs and hosting companies, typically resulting in the removal of illegal streams worldwide. IBCAP plans to explore offering this automated capability to non-members and other organizations to benefit the broader fight against piracy worldwide. Our announcement can be found here.
IBCAP MEMBER WIN HIGHLIGHTS
Lawsuits Against Virtual Systems and Innetra
On the heels of a successful $3 million settlement with hosting provider Datacamp, in October 2024, IBCAP announced a lawsuit against Virtual Systems, and in May 2025, a lawsuit was filed against Innetra PC. The lawsuits against Virtual Systems and Innetra each allege that the hosting providers used their servers and network infrastructure to host and transmit IBCAP member-copyrighted works over the internet, enabling access to unauthorized streams provided by pirates. The complaint against Virtual Systems alleges that the hosting provider implemented a “DMCA Ignored” policy under which it advertised that “we ignore DMCA takedown notices.” The complaint also asserts that Virtual Systems ignored more than 500 separate infringement notices from IBCAP and allowed the continued use of Virtual Systems’ servers and network by numerous pirate services. The IBCAP Lab also identified Innetra as a major offender responsible for delivering approximately 15% of unauthorized IBCAP member streams on STB and IPTV services during the first quarter of 2025. The case against Virtual Systems seeks more than $41 million in statutory damages, and the case against Innetra seeks more than $25 million in statutory damages. Both instances also seek orders for permanent injunctions to stop both companies from hosting infringing content offered by their customers.
Sports Takedowns
IBCAP continues to have an industry-leading impact on reducing cricket piracy. During the IPL 2024 tournament, IBCAP disrupted 6723 streams over the course of the tournament and disrupted more than 2.1 million views on Facebook Live streams worldwide. Through the swift actions of both the IBCAP team’s analysts in India and the United States, IBCAP sent takedowns in real time during the matches, resulting in a 100% takedown rate for streams on social media and mobile apps identified by the IBCAP lab — a key source of frustration for pirates and end users seeking to watch the matches using pirate streams. During the highly popular Cricket T20 World Cup, the IBCAP lab removed 3783 streams and disrupted more than 1 million views on Facebook Live streams worldwide. Of the STB and IPTV services monitored, more than 2852 streams were removed, with a 77% success rate. Of the web live streams monitored, 5940 were removed, with a 70% success rate. The takedown rate for both social media and mobile apps, like IPL 2024, was 100%.
Lemo TV and Kemo IPTV Litigation
In April 2025, IBCAP announced a lawsuit against the operators of the illegal streaming service known as Lemo TV and Kemo IPTV. Despite receiving approximately 100 infringement notices from IBCAP, Lemo TV and Kemo IPTV continued to stream IBCAP-protected content illegally. During the first quarter of 2025, the service accounted for almost 30% of all unauthorized streams detected on STB and IPTV services monitored by the IBCAP lab. The complaint seeks statutory damages of more than $25 million. In addition, the complaint seeks profits attributable to the infringement of potentially thousands of unregistered works, an injunction prohibiting the service and associated parties from operating or supporting infringement, an order requiring the transfer of domain names used by the service and the recovery of reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. Additional background information about the Lemo TV and Kemo IPTV litigation can be found here.
ABOUT IBCAP
International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy, Inc. (IBCAP) is a coalition of leading international and U.S. content owners, broadcasters and distributors representing more than 220 television channels from the U.S. and around the world. As the largest anti-piracy organization focused on illicit services offering multicultural content, the nonprofit organization proactively monitors and identifies unauthorized video services, collects evidence and assists with legal actions and criminal investigations against organizations and individuals engaging in pirate activities. IBCAP coordinates with government agencies and law enforcement both in the U.S. and abroad, reports suspected infringers to the appropriate authorities, initiates investigations and promotes the prosecution of persons or companies that participate in the illegal distribution of its members’ video content.
More information is available at www.IBCAP.org. Follow us on LinkedIn.
Issued: May 28, 2025