A Birmingham ‘family man’ has been jailed for running an illegal streaming service in a ‘rare’ catch for Sky TV. Gary McNally ran a ‘sophisticated and large-scale’ operation for four years from his own address.
The 56-year-old focused on providing viewing access to Premier League football matches as well as other sporting events such as pay-per-view boxing, which attracted up to 2,000 illegal users at the peak. But not only did McNally distribute the illicit streams he also ‘harvested’ much of the content himself.
He was sentenced to two years and nine months at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday, January 15 having admitted two charges of making or supplying articles for use in fraud. McNally, of Tavistock Road, Acocks Green ran his racket between November 2017 and September 2021 when he was arrested.
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Judge Peter Cooke said: “Although not uncommon for those involved in the selling of illicit streaming services for pay television to be prosecuted, cases concerning those who do the capturing and encoding and distributing are relatively rare. Your case is very unusual with features of both aspects.
“Sky and other broadcasters and other content owners regard people who do the harvesting as sitting at the top of the piracy hierarchy. You can understand why. If the harvesting wasn’t done the revenue driving viewing of the pirate streams can’t take place.”
Sky TV
(Image: PA)
However, he accepted McNally’s role did not necessarily mean he was one of the top earners in the illegal streaming underworld. Ari Alibhai, prosecuting for Sky TV Ltd, told the court McNally ‘operated a sophisticated and large-scale stream harvesting system’ from his home and connected outbuildings.
He stated the defendant’s setup had a ‘high-degree’ of complexity and was powered by ‘office-grade broadband’ which cost McNally £420 a month. Mr Alibhai explained the operation was also resilient with the capability to re-upload material within 48 hours if broadcasters managed to disable it.
The prosecutor told the court McNally ‘focused’ on providing access to English Premier League football for a fraction of the cost of a legitimate Sky package. He also took advantage of worldwide streams to circumvent the ‘blackout’ rule, which prohibits matches being legally screened at 3pm on Saturdays in order to encourage fans to attend lower league football.
The English Premier League
(Image: Daily Record)
Mr Alibhai estimated McNally earned up to £60,000 from the scheme but the defendant became visibly annoyed at the claim in court, prompting his barrister to counter that the figure was closer to £40,000. A Sky analyst calculated that he had unlawfully distributed over 80,000 hours worth – more than nine years – of television.
“This is not a homebrew small operation, that’s a relatively large-scale operation,” said Mr Alibhai who added: “There have been many cases concerned with the supply of illicit streams, there have been few dealing with content creators – the harvesters.
“Those within broadcasting consider those who harvest and create content sit at the top of piracy pyramid. It does not mean they receive the most money. Mr McNally played a relatively unusual role in capturing the content. Distributing is more common.”
After being arrested McNally immediately confessed he was running an illegal streaming service. But he said he was ‘pressured into it’ by a man he refused to name, further alleging he had been left ‘in the lurch’.
McNally also stated the majority of the profits went to the same third party, although there was no evidence of a pattern of withdrawals and transfers from his bank to support the claim. Justin Jarmola, defending, said: “His criminality ceased upon his arrest due to the wakeup call he must have had when the police knocked upon his door.
“There has been no further offending. Under all the stress and anxiety this family man continued in gainful employment. There is a positive side to the character of Mr McNally who is a contributing, tax-paying, hard-working, employed man.
“The stress of these proceedings has had a considerable impact on him. He has a number of health issues and is not a particularly well man. He has the benefit of a supportive and loving family. They speak extremely highly of him.”