The operation was conducted jointly by inspectors from the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) and officers from National Police Service in Makadara Subcounty, Nairobi County, and led to the arrest of the primary suspect responsible for the site, which had over 21,000 active users and attracted 27.6 million unique visitors globally within a year.

It’s worth noting that Kenya contributed approximately 8.85 million unique visitors, accounting for 32.08% of the total traffic to the site, while South Africa and Nigeria accounted for approximately 1.62 million and 1.15 million unique visitors, respectively.

score808.US facilitated access to illegal broadcasts of high-profile sports events, including matches from the English Premier League, Serie A and La Liga through channels such as Sky Sports and SuperSport. During the raid, authorities seized the site’s backend database, took the platform offline and the suspect’s mobile phone and laptop for further further forensic analysis by the Kenyan Police Cyber Crime team. Authorities confirm that additional arrests are anticipated as the investigation progresses.

KECOBO’s Acting Executive Director, Mr George Nyakweba, emphasized the importance of protecting intellectual property, while industry representatives praised the operation as a vital step against piracy. “We fully support all rights holders in protecting their intellectual property. It is KECOBO’s mandate to assist rights holders in safeguarding their rights in Kenya. Such raids are crucial in preserving the integrity of the works of the creatives,” said Mr. Nyakweba.

“This is part of our ongoing strategy to address piracy in all its forms across the African continent. We commend the Kenya Copyright Board and the National Police Service for their excellent work in this operation. Their dedication to combating piracy is invaluable in protecting the rights of legitimate content owners,” said Frikkie Jonker of Irdeto, a world leader in digital platform cybersecurity.

The shutdown of score808.US is expected to safeguard legitimate revenue, support job retention, and bolster Kenya and Africa’s creative industry by mitigating the economic impact of piracy.

Demand for streaming has increased because large parts of Europe are self-isolating at home due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The video-streaming provider said lowering the picture quality would reduce Netflix data consumption by 25%.

But it said viewers would still find the picture quality good.

The change appears to include the UK but Netflix has not responded to the BBC’s request for confirmation on this.

Video Quality

The company will cut its streaming bitrates, which influence how clear and smooth videos look when streamed online.

Videos with a higher bitrate tend to look less “blocky” or pixelated, but use more data.

The announcement came after a phone call with European officials.

Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, had earlier said people should “switch to standard definition when HD [high-definition] is not necessary”.

An hour of standard definition video uses about 1GB of data, while HD can use up to 3GB an hour.

Netflix also offers ultra-high definition 4K video for some of its programmes.

Netflix’s decision to reduce video bitrate by a quarter appears to be a compromise.

“Following the discussions between Commissioner Thierry Breton and [Netflix chief executive] Reed Hastings, and given the extraordinary challenges raised by the coronavirus, Netflix has decided to begin reducing bitrates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days,” the company said.

Commissioner Breton praised the “very prompt action” Netflix took just hours after the phone call, saying it would “preserve the smooth functioning of the internet during the Covid-19 crisis”.

Internet Usage

Netflix has not yet said whether the bitrate reduction will be applied to other areas such as North America.

Internet usage has been heightened in the last few weeks as more people work from home and avoid going out.

Telecoms giant Vodafone reported a 50% rise in internet use in Europe earlier this week.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that the platform was seeing “big surges” as users tried to stay connected with friends.

The social media boss said the company typically saw its largest surge in use on New Year’s Eve, but that recent demand had outpaced that.