An estimated 318,000 Irish homes watched the Champions League match final on illegal dodgy box streams, new figures provided by Gaming Compliance International have revealed.
The company traced illegal streaming to 318,000 unique Irish IP addresses, with a total of 1.2 million views of 90 seconds or more on an illegal stream.
By contrast, an estimated 434,000 watched Arsenal play Paris Saint Germain for free on RTÉ, with a further 474,000 watching later on RTÉ Player.
On Newstalk Breakfast, tech journalist Adrian Weckler said the figures underline just how pervasive the use of dodgy boxes is.
“Likely that there are a number of people who have dodgy boxes in their homes who now default to just watching it and who are too lazy to switch over to the free stream,” he explained.
“Also, don't rule out people watching on their mobile phones - a lot of people watch TV or individual events on their phones.”
Mr Wreckler said dodgy box use in Ireland continues to be “rife and normalised” and is likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
“I've spoken to the Guards more than once who say that they won't prosecute dodgy box use in Ireland, even though it is illegal under Irish law,” he said.
“The reason we've spoken about this before, the reason they won't do that is because there's no easy way to do it under the way the law is framed here.
“It is a full prosecution going to court, DPP - all of that stuff; the Guards say it's disproportionate.
“They don't have an administrative way of doing it, like you would say for penalty points.”
A man with a TV remote. Picture by: Alamy.com. Earlier this year, Sky recovered the names and addresses of some 200 dodgy box users, following a court case against a man who facilitated an illegal streaming service.
Letters were sent to all dodgy box users, but Mr Weckler believes this will have little real impact.
“We're talking about 318,000 streams here that have been referred to by this company, Gaming Compliance International,” he explained.
“So it's likely to say that, you know, the 400,000 estimated dodgy box owners in Ireland may not stop using their dodgy box just because Sky sent out 200 legal letters.”
Given the high cost of premium streaming services, many will have little sympathy with a large company like Sky losing revenue because of dodgy box users.
However, this is not an argument Mr Weckler has much sympathy with.
“In general, what people watch on dodgy boxes is entertainment and premium sport,” he said.
“It's not crucial life information - like essential news, weather.
“So, it's very arguable as to whether this is an essential service, which is just being charged too much for.
“On the other hand, if nobody's going to enforce the law, then you can reach for any excuse you want and nobody's going to stop you watching it.”
Main image: A man is holding a remote control. Picture by: Alamy.com.
