‘Large number’ of Bell subscribers tried accessing unauthorized NHL streamers, telco said
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers said viewership on its official channels increased after it was ordered by the Federal Court to block unauthorized streamers of National Hockey League games during the 2022-2023 season.
The Federal Court ordered service providers to block access to unlicenced streamers of the games. As part of the order, the court required a report on the lessons from the block within 60 days of the final NHL game, which occurred on June 13. The deadline, therefore, was this week.
In an affidavit filed to the court as part of a notice of discontinuance of the blocking order, a Rogers executive said while it’s difficult to say with certainty that there’s a correlation between anti-piracy efforts and business performance, it saw an increase in viewership of the NHL games on its official channels. The block was limited to the period in which the games were played.
“For the 18-34 age group, viewership on Rogers Media’s Sportsnet channels increased by 13% for ‘National Games’ and 9% for games between two US teams and for ‘Regional Games,’” Greg Sansone, senior vice president of Sportsnet, said in the affidavit, adding the company considered the blocking order “effective from a commercial standpoint.”
Sarah Farrugia, vice president of business intelligence and retention at Bell, said in her own affidavit that an undisclosed “large number” of its subscribers tried to access the IP addresses that were subject to the block.
Bell said it figured out the anonymized traffic because it only started blocking access 15 minutes after the games began.
“To measure the traffic and subscribers, we analyzed the number of subscribers who accessed the last list of the blocked IP addresses from the day before the game(s), which is likely to understate the results as it does not include additional IP addresses identified during the day of the game(s),” the affidavit said.
The exact number of subscribers who tried accessing the blocked addresses is redacted from the affidavit and were only for Ontario and Quebec, Bell said, adding the blocking affected other regions, namely Manitoba and Atlantic Canada.
Bell said the figure it pulled is likely to be an underestimation for multiple reasons, including that the same user IP address likely attempted access to multiple games and that its experience with traffic analysis allegedly shows a much higher number of viewers near the end of the game rather than at the beginning, which is where it pulled the redacted figure.
“Anyone who tried to access one of the blocked IP addresses after the blocking was implemented does not appear in the data reported above but will still have been prevented from accessing an infringing stream of the game,” Bell said.
Bell also reported that there was “no material increase” in the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) during the period the order was live. VPNs allow users to re-route their traffic to another server at a different location, thus masking their true IP address and allowing them to circumvent the block.
“VPN usage regularly fluctuates from month to month based on factors such as the extent to which customers are connected to employer’s networks while working from home (which is by far the most common use of VPNs),” Bell’s affidavit said. “That said, there does not appear to have been any increase – and certainly no material increase – in VPN usage in response to the implementation of the 2022- 2023 Order.”
Bell concluded that the blocking order for this season was “effective.”
The Federal Court ordered the first “dynamic” blocking order for NHL games in May 2022, which meant providers had to actively block a refreshed list of IP addresses without court approval. It similarly ordered blocks of illegal streamers of the FIFA World Cup soccer games this past winter.
Last month, the court ordered a dynamic blocking of IP addresses that are illegally streaming Major League Baseball games.
Telecoms with media divisions have been struggling as of late with a rough advertising market. The large providers have asked the CRTC for relief from regulatory obligations as the regulator embarks on the long road to implement the Online Streaming Act, which is intended to force foreign online platforms to contribute to the Canadian content system.
