Twitch Sued for Approximately $3 Billion Over Illegal Streams
Media rights are a big deal when it comes to sports. Generally one of the highest sources of revenue for leagues, they can range from the tens of millions to billions of dollars in cost depending on the sport, with the NFL’s worth $15,200,000,000 for eight years and the English Premier League’s going for $12,000,000,000 for three years.
Traditionally sold to TV stations to broadcast and draw eyes to their channel, many of these leagues have now begun selling their rights to streaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch amongst others, attempting to draw in the younger generation that has moved away from traditional television in droves for these platforms.
The major problem for these leagues and those who hold the rights, however, is also caused by these platforms, as a growing number of users have begun using their streams to broadcast these events, especially on Twitch, the king of streaming.
Now Twitch is finding itself in hot water as Russian media company Rambler is allegedly being sued for nearly $3 billion for failing to combat pirated Russian streams of the Premier League, whose broadcast rights in the region are held by Rambler after paying the league 7,000,000 Euros.
Why is Twitch Being Sued For So Much?
According to a report on the lawsuit by Russian news site DTF, the valuation from the lawsuit came from Rambler’s estimate of 36,000 viewers watching the streams on Twitch, with each viewer count as a single instance of illegal viewing for which Twitch would be required to pay $80,088.55 for each.
That comes to an eye watering $2,883,197,800 in fees to be paid out, an astronomical sum that would likely be one of if not the highest amount ever paid for an illegal rebroadcast.
At the time of this writing, Rambler has claimed to be in talks with Twitch to reach a settlement agreement between the two, noting that Twitch had provided them with the tools to help combat pirated streams.
These claims have been denied by Twitch, however, with company representative Yulianna Tabastaeva remarking that they were not currently in negotiations for a settlement.
The company also claimed to have done all they could to block these streams in the first place, and that they had only received undated screenshots of streams from Ramblers, who also allegedly failed to notify these streamers that what they were doing was illegal.
It’s a very strange situation, and will likely be a bit before any judgment has been reached by the Moscow City Court, who will begin hearings on Friday, but as always we’ll keep you updated as the situation develops.
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