TAG Initiative Reduced Advertising Revenue from Piracy

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative with the goal of diminishing the number of advertisements that appear on websites which facilitate access to illegal content or counterfeit goods, released a new study called "Measuring Digital Advertising Revenue to Infringing Sites." 

Here are some of the key findings from the study:

• Digital ad revenue linked to infringing content was estimated at $111 million last year, of which 83% came from non-premium advertisers.

• If the industry had not taken aggressive steps to reduce piracy, those pirate site operators would have potentially earned an additional $102-$177 million in advertising revenue, depending on the breakdown of premium and non-premium advertisers.

• Ongoing industry efforts against piracy have therefore reduced the advertising revenue of pirate sites by 48% to 61%.

It is necessary to address, and diminish, piracy and content theft through voluntary initiatives like TAG to help ensure that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their creative works – thereby incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth.