Bad news for DStv pirates

MultiChoice is ramping up its fight against pirate streaming services in 2025, following a year in which it had already intensified its battle against the crime.

The company recently told MyBroadband it would increase its efforts to combat piracy, with the support of law enforcement, to apprehend and hold accountable those involved in these unlawful acts.

MultiChoice turned up the heat on piracy of its licenced content and channels in 2024, with numerous successful arrests of pirate streaming operators and facilitators.

Although the company could not disclose the losses incurred due to the negative effects of pirate streaming services, it argues these platforms caused significant financial prejudice to broadcasters and legitimate streaming platforms. 

Back in 2018, MultiChoice estimated there were around two million active pirate streams, costing the local industry billions of rand in revenue.

According to MultiChoice’s interim results for the first half of its 2025 financial year, the company undertook 233 anti-piracy cases between April 2024 and September 2024.

That represented a jump of 109% from the 111 cases it took on during the same period in its previous financial year.

MultiChoice publicly reported on nine raids and 15 arrests of illegal streaming service operators and facilitators during the year.

The dates and details of these actions are summarised below:

• 31 May 2024 — Raid on Waka TV operation in the Western Cape, resulting in the arrest of “key suspect” distributing the service
• 4 June 2024 — Suspect arrested in Kempton Park for allegedly managing several pirate customers and illegal streaming resellers
• 14 August 2024 — Raid on suspected piracy operation in Cape Town, Western Cape, resulting in the arrests of male and female believed to be selling streaming boxes providing access to pirated content
• 6 September 2024 — Raid on Waka TV operation in Germiston, Gauteng, resulting in the arrest of an individual allegedly involved in fraud, money laundering, theft, and Cybercrimes Act violations.
• 19 September 2024 — Raid on piracy streaming operation in Worcester, Western Cape, resulting in arrest of an individual allegedly distributing login credentials for unauthorised access to premium content for which MultiChoice holds the rights
• 1 October 2024 — Botswana national allegedly in South Africa illegally and involved in Waka TV operation arrested
• 29 October 2024 — Rain in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, resulting in arrest of individual selling devices with illegal preloaded content
• 30 October 2024 — Raid in Booysens, Johannesburg, on unauthorised streaming devices distribution network, resulting in arrest of three suspects
• 22 November 2024 — Raid in Eldorado Park, Soweto, resulting in the arrest of an alleged Waka TV reseller

MultiChoice’s Irdeto, a copyright protection software company, is collaborating closely with the South African Police Service and Hawks to achieve these successes.

Irdeto broadcasting anti-piracy director Frikkie Jonker has repeatedly highlighted that piracy endangers the livelihoods of creators, producers, and rightsholders, who must make money for the industry to be sustainable.

He has also bemoaned Africa becoming a dumping ground for inferior products, including dodgy and illegal streaming services.

“Outdated regulations, inefficient law enforcement, bribery and corruption all play a role in this,” Jonker said.

“Despite this, African authorities are doing a heroic job fighting cybercrime and content piracy.”

“There have been huge successes in prosecuting content piracy operations.”

Jonker believes that changing people’s attitudes to content piracy must be an industry-wide effort, involving both government and private business.

He has also issued a warning to people distributing and accessing pirated content — technological advances in AI, automation, watermarking, and digital tracing are making it easier to detect the crime.

“We are actively tracking additional targets,” Jonker said. “The message is clear — those participating in this illegal network will be brought to justice.”