ACE in the Hole

Apple TV+ is ACE's Rich Uncle

October 13, 2020

News reports this week revealed that Apple TV+ joined the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. This anti-piracy coalition has different membership tiers and includes major streaming powerhouses like Disney, Netflix, and Amazon. Despite the company's low pick-up rate among users, ACE gave Apple a voting seat. Without much other explanation, it appears Apple's fairly big pockets helped buy it a seat on the board. Never heard of ACE? This week, we'll talk more about ACE and what it means for cord-cutters.

Streamer's Spotlight: What Is ACE and Why Does It Matter?

Piracy is a major problem for streaming services. As a whole, TV and movie companies lose around

$29 billion annually

due to piracy in all of its various forms, from illegal streaming sites to torrents. Most of these companies have internal departments set up to fight piracy, but most realize it's not a battle that can be easily fought alone. Thus, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment was born. Major studios and services figure (quite correctly) that if they fight the battle together, it's better for all of their bottom lines.

But what is ACE? What does it do? And is it even successful at its mission?

ACE, in a Nutshell

It's not hard to understand what ACE is from a conceptual point of view. As it states on its website,

"We are a global coalition of leading content creators and on-demand entertainment services committed to supporting the legal marketplace for video content and addressing the challenge of online piracy."

Their emphasis here is on the "legal marketplace". ACE is an anti-piracy coalition composed of pretty much every big name is movie and TV show production in the US (and some abroad). Membership requires a financial contribution, which is consequently why Apple was given such a big seat at the table. While we don't know how much Apple paid for a voting seat, it's quite likely the company contributed an outsized amount compared to its video streaming market share.

What Does ACE Do?

The coalition appears to mostly spend its time and vast resources sending stop-and-desist letters to individuals and businesses that engage in piracy that involves the content of any of its members. More recently, though, ACE appears to have set its sights on

illegal IPTV services

. These services are literally

everywhere.

Most are fly-by-night operations that only work as resellers of other, larger IPTV service providers, but they're also an easy target as their services are quite obviously illegitimate.

Unlike YouTube TV, fuboTV, Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV, Philo, et. al, illegal IPTV services tend to advertise hundreds of channels and on-demand video streaming for impossible small monthly fees (often under $20 per month). Many advertise on Reddit, but others have also taken to advertising directly with paid ads on Facebook.

ACE usually sends strongly-worded letters from its lawyers, but it often uses other means as well, including the legal seizure of websites that host or provide illegal content.

Is ACE Good or Bad for Cord-Cutters?

This really depends on your perspective. The landscape that ACE is dealing with is a distinct consequence of such a fragmented and siloed streaming market. As more services emerge and lock their content away, consumers are growing increasingly frustrated with having to pay an increasingly large amount of money to get all of they want.

Netflix was an early solution to siloed content, but the market saw that Netflix was good, so competitors arose. Now that the market is more distributed, piracy is increasing. If you're a pirate that's certainly good, but for cord-cutters, piracy is bad news. It can help increase subscription prices and lead to more restrictive subscription service structures (like DRM that blocks screenshots on your favorite streaming apps).

The Future of ACE

ACE will exist as long as the market finds a need for it. Until someone creates a centralized place to get all of your content for one reasonable price, piracy isn't going anywhere. And that means ACE is probably here to stay as well.

This Week's Streaming Guide

1. Babysitters Fight Monsters on Netflix

In case you needed a more eccentric premise for a movie,

A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting

streams on Netflix this WEDNESDAY.

- Watch on Netflix

2. 'Star Trek Discovery': Season 3 Premieres

The crew of the Discovery finds itself in a future none of them could predict. Watch the Season 3 premiere on CBS All Access this Thursday. -

CBS All Access Review

3. A New Marvel TV Show Joins the Fray

Marvel's Helstrom will be available to stream on Hulu this Friday. -

Watch on Hulu

4. Who Is Killing the Cheerleaders?

A former cheerleader returns to her high school to help uncover a new mystery: Someone is targeting cheerleaders, just like that did in the past. Watch the movie on Lifetime at 8 PM EST this Sunday

. - Watch Lifetime Without Cable