How Illegal Streaming Sites Build Businesses Around Advertising And Stolen Content

Free is a strong word for a website that needs servers, domain names and somebody to keep the whole thing online. Illegal streaming sites can charge nothing to watch a match or film while still generating revenue through advertising. The content may belong to someone else, but the website can make money by attracting viewers and selling advertising space around their visits.

Behind the play button sits a business with revenue streams, technical infrastructure and a plan for when things go wrong. Pop-ups, hidden web pages and replacement domains can all play a part. The video might take a bagillion attempts to load, but the adverts rarely seem to have that problem.

That Pop-Up Is Paying the Bills

Advertising is one way piracy websites make money. A 2021 investigation by the Digital Citizens Alliance and anti-piracy firm White Bullet estimated that websites offering pirated content generated $1.08 billion in annual advertising revenue worldwide. The five highest-earning websites in the report averaged $18.3 million each in advertising revenue.

The investigation also found that recognisable brands appeared in advertising on piracy websites and apps. Well-known brands accounted for around 4% of adverts on the piracy websites studied, while one in four adverts on the piracy apps came from recognisable companies. Advertising systems can place legitimate companies’ adverts on these sites without their knowledge, meaning their advertising budgets can help fund websites distributing content without permission.

Nobody Here Needs to Own the Match

The site collecting advertising revenue doesn’t always host the video. Some services act as directories, pointing viewers towards streams hosted elsewhere without storing the content themselves.

A 2016 study by researchers from KU Leuven and Stony Brook University identified 5 685 free live-streaming domains and analysed more than a terabyte of network traffic to examine how these services operated. The research mapped the different parties involved, including websites that indexed links to broadcasts and the infrastructure supporting the streams.

This separation can complicate enforcement as taking down a website that collects streaming links doesn’t automatically remove the separate services hosting or delivering the video. The researchers also found that these services used domain names and logos associated with popular television channels, creating further opportunities for confusion.

Licensing costs are another difference between legal streaming services and piracy operations. Licensed services pay for the rights to distribute films, television programmes or live sports. Operators distributing content without permission can avoid those licensing fees while earning money through advertising. They may still face infrastructure and operating costs, but they don’t have to pay for the distribution rights they are bypassing.

The Audience Is What Gets Sold

Sometimes the advertising operation is more complicated than a few banners around a video player. In 2023, cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes and advertising analytics company DeepSee investigated a scheme in which illegal streaming sites loaded websites containing Google adverts into invisible frames beneath the video player.

Viewers didn’t need to see those pages for the adverts to load. The researchers found that the hidden pages could generate advertising impressions while somebody watched a film. They identified 14 domains involved in the operation that were loaded by more than 250 piracy sites.

Using traffic estimates and measurements of advertising activity, the researchers estimated that advertisers spent between $127 000 and $1.27 million on the scheme in January 2023. The range reflected uncertainty over the prices advertisers paid for the impressions, which the researchers couldn’t establish directly.

The operation generated advertising activity without requiring viewers to visit the pages displaying the adverts. It also meant advertisers could pay for impressions connected to piracy sites without realising where their adverts were being loaded.

The Hidden Risks Behind Piracy Adverts

Advertising on piracy websites can expose viewers to cybersecurity risks. The 2016 study documented deceptive adverts, malware, malicious browser extensions and fraudulent scams on free live-streaming services. Some adverts redirected users to harmful websites, while others encouraged them to install software they didn’t need.

A separate 2022 investigation by the Digital Citizens Alliance, White Bullet and cybersecurity firm Unit 221B examined thousands of piracy websites and found that malicious advertising accounted for 12% of the adverts on the sites studied. Nearly 80% of those sites served malware-ridden adverts, and the investigators estimated that visitors faced 321 million adverts designed to harm them.

The report estimated that piracy operators generated at least $121 million a year by allowing malicious advertisers to reach their users. The threats included ransomware, malware designed to steal banking information and spyware used to track activity. The researchers also estimated that one in six visits to the piracy sites led to an attempt to serve malware – which describes an attempted delivery, not a confirmed infection on every affected visit.

Seizing A Domain Doesn’t End the Business

A website’s address can be replaced when it is seized. Operators may move to another domain, while copycat sites can use familiar names to attract viewers. The Digital Citizens Alliance and White Bullet’s 2021 investigation also documented domain changes and redirects among piracy websites seeking to avoid enforcement and advertising blocklists.

In September 2025, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an anti-piracy coalition, announced that it had worked with Egyptian authorities to shut down a network of more than 80 domains using the Streameast name. ACE reported that the network had attracted more than 1.6 billion visits over the previous year.

TorrentFreak reported that the seized domains belonged to a separate network from the original Streameast service. The original operator denied any connection to that network, which had used the same name to attract viewers.

The original operation had already faced US domain seizures in August 2024 but continued through alternative addresses, according to TorrentFreak’s reporting at the time. In September 2025, the publication reported that the original team had regained control of the Streameast.xyz domain after it expired.

The Business Behind The Play Button

Illegal streaming sites can generate revenue without charging viewers directly. Advertising can provide an income stream, links can direct audiences to streams hosted elsewhere and replacement domains can help operators maintain access when websites are taken down.

For viewers, the risks extend beyond watching unlicensed content. Advertising can expose them to scams, malicious downloads and attempts to steal personal information. The stream may be free, but the business built around it can still make money from the audience.