Tyrone GAA ‘winning the war’ against organised crime gangs as pirate operations are shut down
Tyrone GAA are winning the war against organised crime gangs who have intercepted live streams of their championship matches.
A number of pirate operations have been shut down due to a combination of prosecutions and enhanced computer software.
A dramatic drop in revenue from its streaming service has been reversed, and Tyrone GAA TV is flourishing once again.
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The county’s IT officer, Gerard Bradley, confirmed that subscriptions to coverage of the Tyrone Championship have recovered to healthy levels.
“The live stream of this year’s championship attracted a very substantial increase in subscribers,” he said in his annual report.
“The increase was due to range of factors including the deployment of software technologies and identification of the accounts used by the IPTV pirates, “ Bradley confirmed.
“Tyrone GAA has to strike a delicate balance between a highly secure service for genuine subscribers that requires a level of IT expertise to access the live stream and a service that is open to piracy.
“Making the pirate services unreliable did lead to many of those with ‘dodgy firesticks’ not being willing to take a risk with an unreliable illegal service for subsequent fixtures.
“The civil authorities have recently successfully prosecuted a number of pirates, including high profiles cases north and south of the border.”
Every championship game, in all three grades, senior, intermediate and junior, is broadcast live by Tyrone GAA TV.
The Tyrone GAA website, meanwhile, is on course to hit the three million mark in hits this year.
“By the time this report is published it is likely to have exceeded three million views in this calendar year,” added Bradley.
"The website continues to be the most popular online platform for Tyrone GAA, dominated by viewers looking at club fixtures and results. While not on the same scale as Fixtures and Results, there are also significant numbers using the website for reference material and club information.
"The website peaked for views on the biggest championship Sunday of the year in September of this year, when it attracted 48,243 visitors."
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