Unaired episodes of 'American Gods', 'The Bold Type' and even full seasons of 'Ramy', 'The Red Line' hits the piracy sites courtesy of promo screener leaks
Image/Photo Credit: STARZ
A huge number of recently leaked pirated TV shows from a number of different distributors and TV networks could suggest that pirates have found a new way to access promotional screeners.
Leaks of new episodes of shows like 'The 100' and 'The Bold Type', and even complete unaired seasons of shows like 'The Spanish Princess', 'Ramy' and 'The Red Line'.
Shows from The CW, Hulu and Starz are among the vast treasure trove of content that has recently hit the piracy networks, suggesting the leak isn't with any particular distributor, network or production company.
What is clear is that the pirated shows were all sourced from promotional screeners due to the fact that they were all watermarked that way.
Promo screeners are sent to reviewers, award voters and others in the industry as a way to promote new shows and upcoming seasons. They are almost always protected via watermarking technology that either clearly identifies the content as a screener and in some cases, clearly identifies the person that the screener was sent to. In fact, a leaked 'American Gods' episode even features the name 'Jessica Silvester', possibly the original intended recipient of the screeners. There is no suggestion that this Jessica Silvester is the source of the leak, however, as the screeners could have been intercepted before they reached her, or were digitally/physically stolen from her at some point.
Also present among many of the videos is a watermark added post piracy promoting the Russian gambling site 1XBET, who, according to piracy news website TorrentFreak, has been a "sponsor" of several recent pirated releases.
It's unknown at this time whether a legal investigation has commenced in regards to the source of the leaks, something that has happened in the past and has led to arrests.
Here is a list of all the leaked screeners so far, according to TorrentFreak:
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