Pirates are earning less and less from advertising, and the ‘follow the money’ strategy is working, according to White Bullet’s report on piracy funding on the Polish internet from advertising in Q2 2022.
Estimated advertising revenue generated by traffic from Poland on the monitored sites fell by 39%. Moreover, only ten websites account for more than two-thirds of the identified estimated ad revenues.
Another important piece of information is that the estimated ad revenue generated by traffic from Poland fell to 4% on the monitored sites. The remaining traffic came from abroad. Meanwhile, advertising from major brands fell from 5% to 4% compared to the April 2022 report. This is evidence of a clear increase in advertiser awareness.
In July 2021. Signal and White Bullet have declared a joint fight to protect intellectual property on the internet by demonetising piracy sites and preventing them from being funded by advertising. As part of the agreement, White Bullet tracks advertisements funding piracy on Polish sites and estimates the revenue of pirates.
The ‘follow the money’ strategy, which involves implementing measures to cut off funding sources for services that distribute content without the rights owners’ consent, is currently identified by the European Commission as the most effective tool in the fight against audiovisual content piracy.
As part of the campaign, Sygnal conducts regular monitoring of illegal sites, develops mechanisms and tools to assist in the conscious placement of advertising budgets on lawful portals, and participates in or initiates meetings dedicated to the implementation of this concept.