I watched the Emmys pirated and yes, it was a disaster

Box? What box?

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Don’t pirate content, folks. Even if someone else is doing it, it’s best not to get hooked on it. It’s bad, illegal, and will never be as good as the paid thing. That’s lesson number 1. Lesson number 2 follows.

The news that Dan and Eugene Levy would be hosting the 2024 Emmy Award Show was met in my home with some excitement. We’re all hugeSchitt’s Creekfans, having been hooked when we streamed the entire five seasons on Netflix (irony to follow) at least twice. But when it was time to watch the Emmys, which was airing September 15, 2024, on ABC in the US, we forgot to account for one little wrinkle: We no longer have cable, and live shows are often difficult or impossible to watch.

Live but not for you

Thebest streaming networksare constantly making deals to host live events like football and baseball games. Sometimes the networks have their own streaming platforms where they show these events in their entirety. I watched all of theSummer OlympicsonPeacockand absolutely loved the Gold Zone they built to help you keep track of the best of all the live medal-worthy events.

Not everything, however, can be found on these streaming platforms. ABC network appears to have more than a few dark spots and the Emmy Awards, which honor the best of television across broadcast, cable, and, yes, streamers, is one of them.

Initially, everything seemed fine.RokuTV, which I have for free as part of myTCLRoku TV, was airing Emmys Live from The Red Carpet. We all watched in happy silence until 8 PM ET, when the screen went black and then switched to endless promos for other Roku TV shows. We all stared at each other and then looked back at the TV in horror, silently willing it to bring us Dan and Eugene Levy’s cold open.

Soon we were all searching online for who might be offering a live feed. fuboTV was listed and that was about it. But I’d already used my fuboTV Live free trial to watch the Oscars. I was not about to shell out $98 a month just to watch the Emmys.

After searching across Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming options for a feed that wasn’t a Red Carpet replay, I opened theYouTubeapp on my Roku TV.

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At the very top was an “Emmys Live feed.” It looked legit.

It was not.

The crime

I launched the stream and saw that it was, in fact, the Emmys, live. There were the hosts, but they were behind a poorly rendered black box that said “EMMYS” at the top and then explained, “Sorry, we can’t show you the full stream because it will be taken down by Youtube.” Below that, it encouraged you to click on a link in the chat and “send a donation if you want to watch the full show.”

Apparently, someone was using “XSplit Broadcaster” to pull a feed from their computer and then place it on YouTube. The show was somewhat watchable despite the box, which would disappear for various lengths of time, seemingly at random. Once, it was gone for 40 minutes, but then it was merely gone for just five minutes. I noticed in the YouTube channel chat that people were begging the “broadcaster” to remove the box. It was as if they didn’t understand this was illegal, and the guy could not remove it for the duration without being discovered.

A quick search on YouTube revealed a few different illegal streamers, all using various apps to pull the live feed off, likely their cable feeds or another streaming platform.

At one point, the feed, which was about 2 minutes behind true live, went into glitch mode, and we were treated to a view of the pirate’s full computer desktop. Yes, it was comical.

What’s not funny, though, is that I can’t keep denying the inescapable fact that there is still a form of cable/broadcast television that is worth paying for: live TV and commercial-free television.

As more and more streamers introduce ad-supported versions or reduce what was once both affordable and ad-free to almost affordable but riddled with ads, paying for some of these premium packages that drop ads and bring your live local, broadcast and cable channels is starting to look more and more worth it.

It is frustrating, though. I left cable behind because of all the channels I was paying for that I never watched. It just turns out that there are still a fair few I do want, now miss, and might be willing to pay for.

As for the pirated Emmys, they continued through to the end, but increasingly with the box fixed in place. I guess you get what you pay for.

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A 38-year industry veteran andaward-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoffmakes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, theToday Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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