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The Pirate Bay seems to be testing a streaming option again

The Pirate Bay seems to be testing a streaming option again

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Is this another entry in the streaming wars?

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Torrent site The Pirate Bay has long been infamous for allowing people to download pirated movies and TV shows. But now, it looks like it’s giving users a new option: streaming. For certain titles, a green play button appears next to the download buttons, which gives the option to “Play now using Baystream”. BayStream, according to TorrentFreak, allows you to stream videos in your browser, although right now, it’s not clear who runs BayStream, and what their connection is to The Pirate Bay. The streaming feature also doesn’t appear to be fully functional yet.

This isn’t the first time The Pirate Bay has tried to enter the world of streaming. In 2016, the torrent site enabled Torrents Time, a plug-in that similarly allowed in-browser streaming, but not of the best quality. (Torrents Time still appears to be online, but it’s no longer used for streaming by The Pirate Bay.) The Pirate Bay also started its own file-sharing platform, BayFiles, in 2011. BayFiles shut down when Swedish police raided The Pirate Bay’s server room in 2014, but relaunched last year under new ownership.

Piracy is most popular for content that’s exclusive to a specific streaming service

As the number of streaming services increases, access to content becomes harder and more expensive, which has raised concerns about a potential rise in piracy and other illegal alternatives. Piracy is most popular for content like Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian, which are exclusive to a specific streaming service.

Disney+’s The Mandalorian is predicted to become the most pirated show of the year and may even surpass Game of Thrones to become the most pirated show ever. Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere had over three times as many pirated views in its first 24 hours as it had views through official HBO services, with most of those pirated views coming from illegal streams, according to Muso. If The Pirate Bay adds a simple streaming option, it’ll likely only further those trends.