Live Event Anti-Piracy Checklist: Before, During and After the Match

Key Takeaways

• Preparation decides the result. Rights documents, notice templates, contacts and monitoring targets should be ready before the event starts.
• Speed matters most during the event. Reports need to reach platforms and hosts while the stream is still live.
• Cover the whole chain. Social live streams, restream sites, IPTV services and the links that promote them all need attention.
• Review after every event. Recording what was found and how fast it was removed improves the plan for the next one.

Why live events need their own plan

Ordinary takedown processes that take days do little for a 90-minute match. EU law and policy recognise this. Article 16 of the Digital Services Act (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) sets notice and action rules for hosting services, and Article 22 requires online platforms to give priority to notices from trusted flaggers and to process them without undue delay. Commission Recommendation (EU) 2023/1018 on combating online piracy of sports and other live events goes further: it states that urgent action on notices is essential for live events and encourages hosting providers to process notices and decide on them during the live transmission, including through cooperation with trusted flaggers and technical tools such as application programming interfaces.

The same Recommendation encourages the use of dynamic blocking injunctions tailored to live events, within the injunctions already available to rights holders under the Enforcement Directive (2004/48/EC) and Article 8(3) of the InfoSoc Directive (2001/29/EC). The Recommendation is not binding, and how such orders are granted depends on national law. How those orders work is covered in what is site blocking? how ISP blocking orders work against piracy.

Before the event

1. Confirm the rights position. Know which territories, feeds and formats you control, and have proof of rights or authorisation for any agent ready to attach to reports.
2. Prepare notice templates for each platform and host type, with fields for the event, time, stream URL and evidence, so reports can be sent in seconds.
3. Check reporting routes and contacts. Confirm the current forms, email addresses, APIs or trusted-flagger channels for the platforms and hosts you expect to see.
4. Build the monitoring list. Include known restream sites, IPTV services, social platforms, messaging channels and search terms, including team names, fixture names and common misspellings.
5. Plan evidence capture. Decide how screenshots, recordings, URLs and timestamps will be stored so each report can be backed up later.
6. Use technical marks where available. Session watermarking on your own feeds can help identify the accounts used to source restreams; see content fingerprinting vs watermarking.
7. Line up legal options. Where a live or dynamic blocking order is available and justified, it needs to be in place before the event. Ayatii's site blocking orders service covers that preparation.

During the event

1. Start monitoring before kick-off. Pre-match shows and "link up soon" posts reveal where streams will appear.
2. Verify before reporting. Confirm each stream shows your feed, capture evidence and record the time found.
3. Report immediately and to the right party. Send notices to the platform hosting a live stream, and to the host or CDN behind a restream site, rather than only to the page linking to it.
4. Report the links as well as the streams. Social posts, messaging channels and search results that point to restreams keep sending viewers; see Telegram piracy: how rights holders get channels and files removed.
5. Track response times. Note when each report was sent and when the stream went down, so slow routes can be escalated.
6. Watch for replacements. Streams often reappear on new URLs or accounts within minutes, so keep working the same targets until the event ends.

After the event

• Clear the backlog. Report highlights, full-match uploads and recordings that appear after the live broadcast.
• Review the numbers that matter. Streams found, reports sent, removals during the event and time to removal are more useful than raw counts.
• Identify persistent sources. Sites, hosts, IPTV services and accounts that appear every week may need delisting, blocking, payment and ad disruption or legal action rather than more notices. See payment and ad disruption and search engine delisting.
• Update the plan. Add new sites, search terms and contacts to the monitoring list for the next fixture.
• Report to stakeholders with a short summary of what was found and what changed, supported by evidence. Our piracy intelligence and reporting service covers this.

Where social platforms fit

Much live piracy now appears through social platforms' own live tools as well as through links to outside restreams. Platforms generally act faster than independent hosts, but only if reports are specific and timely. Ayatii's social media takedowns service covers platform reporting, and live sports and IPTV piracy: why real-time takedowns matter explains the wider picture.

Talk to Ayatii about protecting your content

Ayatii is an anti-piracy and brand protection company based in Dubai. We monitor for infringing content, verify what we find and handle takedowns for streaming platforms, broadcasters and content owners. Contact the team to discuss what you need to protect.

You can also reach us at contact@ayatii.com or on +971 543509790.

Protect your content with Ayatii

Talk to the Ayatii team about monitoring and takedowns for your content and brand.

TALK TO AN EXPERT