One in Four Malaysians Use Pirated TV Boxes

A new survey commissioned by the Asia Video Industry Association’s (AVIA) Coalition Against Piracy reports that 25 percent of consumers in Malaysia are using pirated set-top boxes—known as illicit streaming devices—to access pay-TV channels and VOD content.

The survey, conducted by YouGov, discovered that 33 percent of Malaysian consumers have bought an illicit streaming device in order to receive a streaming service for free. Of those, 60 percent canceled all or some of their subscription to legal pay-TV services, both local (35 percent) and international (19 percent). The use of these devices is prevalent across Southeast Asia, including in Singapore (15 percent of consumers), Hong Kong (20 percent), the Philippines (28 percent) and Taiwan (34 percent).

“The illicit streaming device (ISD) ecosystem is impacting all businesses involved in the production and distribution of legitimate content,” said Louis Boswell, CEO of AVIA. “ISD piracy is also organized crime, pure and simple, with crime syndicates making substantial illicit revenues from the provision of illegally retransmitted TV channels and the sale of such ISDs.”

Neil Gane, the general manager of AVIA’s Coalition Against Piracy, added, “Piracy websites and ISDs typically have a click-happy user base, and are being used more and more as clickbait to distribute malware. Unfortunately, the appetite for free or cheap subscription pirated content blinkers users from the very real risks of malware infection. The type of malware embedded within the piracy ecosystem can include particularly harmful malware such as remote access trojans which allows the hacker to activate and record from the device’s webcam without the victim being aware.”