R74 pirate streaming service warning

South Africans must tread carefully when using lesser-known video hosting apps that promote themselves as personal media players while allowing users to upload and watch copyrighted content.
One video platform that has recently ramped up its advertising widely on Facebook in South Africa is Watchlist Pro.
The service’s website includes pricing details for plans starting from R74 per month for a single stream, going up to R2,299 per year for a four-stream package.
While the website itself has no details on what content the service offers, a description under an FAQ header at the bottom of the page explains that the service is a “personal media player whose sole purpose is to provide cinematic information.”
The service exempts itself from any liability in the event that user-loaded content is “of an illegal nature.”
“This means that it is not responsible for uploading any content to the platform, nor for monitoring the availability of such content,” the service states. “Users are responsible for uploading their own content, if they wish.”
Based on that description, Watchlist Pro is similar to another popular app that has often illegally hosted copyrighted — MyFamilyCinema.
Watchlist Pro implies that it does not upload or host any copyrighted content but that its users add it.
However, its social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) and Pinterest, which are linked directly from its website, advertise many recent movies and shows.
MyBroadband found that legitimate streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Showmax currently licence large numbers of these titles.
The issue is that even if Watchlist Pro does not load this content itself, allowing its users to do so and then actively promoting content for which major streamers hold the rights is problematic.
MyBroadband asked broadcasting giant MultiChoice, which has cracked down on piracy in South Africa in the past year, about the legality of Watchlist Pro.
MultiChoice agreed that although the platform was not inherently illegal, its acceptance of “user-generated content” that it shared with other users was an issue.
“The content that is uploaded and shared by users may include unauthorized or illegal material, which violates copyright laws and makes the content distribution illegal,” MultiChoice said.

The broadcaster explained that although more well-known platforms like YouTube and Facebook also allowed users to upload videos, they operated within legal frameworks.
“These platforms comply with legitimate takedown requests from content owners and licensees with respect to the protection of copyright and intellectual property,” MultiChoice said.
YouTube has particularly sophisticated systems for detecting when copyrighted content has been uploaded and imposes copyright strikes and takedowns on user channels.
In some instances, it has been accused of being too tough on creators, with false copyright claims from bad actors being a big problem.
Another popular video hosting service, Plex, differs from Watchlist Pro in that users can only watch content on their home server.
While they can choose to share this server’s login details with family members or friends, which may also amount to illegal sharing, the reach is far more limited.
MultiChoice said the responsibility lay with rights holders to take appropriate action to address misuse of these platforms.
“They must work with these platforms to ensure that infringing content is removed in accordance with applicable laws and policies,” MultiChoice said.
“This approach emphasizes the distinction between the legality of the platform and the unlawfulness of specific content uploaded by users.”
MultiChoice told MyBroadband it was currently tracking several platforms like Watchlist Pro but could not provide more specific details as these were part of ongoing investigations.
Performance and security issues
Aside from the legal issues surrounding the use of Watchlist Pro, there are red flags regarding its performance and security.
MyBroadband found numerous users online complaining about buffering, bugs, audio problems, and a lack of subtitles.
Hosting a reliable video streaming service at scale requires significant and expensive infrastructure, something which smaller operators are less likely to have.
In addition, although the app is available on Android and Android TV, it is not officially hosted on the Google Play Store.
That means it potentially violates the Play Store’s criteria on security and privacy.
Users must first allow their devices to install app packages from unknown sources to use Watchlist Pro.
Lastly, we also found posts from users who struggled to get refunds or cancel their subscriptions.