Global piracy site visits fell 5.7% in 2024 to 216.3 billion, according to MUSO. Over the same period, estimated industry losses climbed toward a projected $125 billion by 2028. Both figures are accurate, and the space between them is where piracy now operates: private IPTV services, Telegram channels, and invitation-only redistribution networks that visit counts cannot see.
The 2026 Global Piracy Report maps that landscape in full. It covers the attack surfaces driving losses, the regional picture across five markets, and the four countermeasure categories available to address them. It draws on DoveRunner’s technical assessment of tier-1 streaming platforms alongside data from MUSO, Kearney, EUIPO, METI, Alianza, Ampere Analysis, YouGov, and ACE, with inline attribution on every quantitative claim.
What Does the 2026 Global Piracy Report Cover?
- The attack surfaces driving losses in 2026, including CDN leeching, credential abuse, cloned CDMs, live stream redistribution, and AI-assisted evasion
- Regional analysis across five markets, covering North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America, with enforcement capacity measured against actual demand conditions
- What our assessment of six tier-1 streaming platforms found about license-binding posture, and why implementation quality now separates well-protected platforms from exposed ones
- The four countermeasure categories, what each one addresses, and what each one leaves open
Who should read this report, and what will it help you decide?
- Platform security leaders: Understand how ad-tier growth is expanding the software-security DRM surface quarter over quarter, and what that means for where your next budget cycle goes.
- Rights holders and broadcasters: See why the enforcement window for live content is measured in minutes, and what makes attribution and response possible inside it.
- Content owners and distributors: Learn what post-distribution attribution requires when content has already been accessed legitimately and then redistributed.
- Product and engineering leads: Compare the four protection layers against your current configuration and find the gaps a single layer leaves open.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the 2026 Global Piracy Report cover?
The report covers the global content piracy landscape as it stands in 2026: attack surfaces and threat types, sector analysis across media, OTT, and educational technology, regional breakdowns across five markets, and the four countermeasure categories available to address them.
Where does the data come from?
The report’s findings on license-binding posture, DRM implementation quality, and platform security architecture come from DoveRunner’s own technical assessments of tier-1 streaming platforms, with platform identities anonymized and results presented at tier level. That proprietary analysis is contextualized with third-party research and government data from MUSO, Kearney, Parks Associates, the EU Intellectual Property Office, Japan’s METI, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), and more.
Is total piracy actually declining?
Measured piracy site visits declined 5.7% in 2024 while estimated financial losses rose. The report examines why, and what visit-based measurement misses.
Why is measured piracy falling while losses keep rising?
Visit-based measurement captures open-web piracy well and closed distribution poorly. Private IPTV services, Telegram channels, and invitation-only networks generate no trackable visits, and that is where enforcement pressure pushed the ecosystem.
How much does piracy cost by region?
Losses concentrate differently in every market. Cumulative US streaming losses are projected to reach $113 billion by 2027, and Alianza found annualized Latin American losses above $8 billion, with the report covering Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa in equivalent depth.
What are the main content piracy attack surfaces in 2026?
Live stream redistribution, credential abuse, CDN leeching, cloned CDMs presenting stolen device credentials, and AI-assisted evasion of watermarking and content recognition. The report analyzes each one and the countermeasure that addresses it.
Which anti-piracy technologies address which threats?
Multi-DRM and license-server controls govern access before and during playback, forensic watermarking handles post-distribution attribution, AI detection covers monitoring volume and response speed, and client-side runtime protection secures the application environment. The report maps each layer to the specific attacks it covers and the ones it leaves open.
Why is live sport the hardest content to protect?
The enforcement window is measured in minutes rather than days, so by the time a blocking order is secured the event is over. The commercial damage from lost subscriptions, advertising, and pay-per-view is not recoverable after the fact.
Does DRM alone stop content piracy?
DRM remains the foundational layer, and it governs access before and during playback. Post-distribution leaks, closed-channel redistribution, and client-side attacks fall outside that scope and require additional layers, which the report covers in detail.
How much does piracy cost the media industry?
Kearney estimates current annual losses at $75 billion, projected to reach $125 billion by 2028. The report breaks that down by region and by sector.
Which industries are most affected by content piracy?
Media and entertainment, OTT and streaming platforms, live sports rights holders, and educational technology. The report analyzes each sector separately, since the attack patterns and available countermeasures differ significantly between them.
Is the report free?
Yes. It requires a short form, and you’ll receive both the full report and a one-page executive summary.