Kodi has become hugely popular over the past few years and its growth shows little signs of stopping.
A recent report suggested that over 35 million people now use the Kodi TV player and that number is set to get even bigger in 2018.
The statement was made by MPAA Senior Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Neil Fried, who explained that there are around 38 million Kodi customers across the world of which 70 per cent use it to stream shows illegally.
If the MPAA calculations are correct it would mean around 26 million people are still streaming content without permission – whilst only 11 million are playing by the rules.
Whilst Kodi is totally legal it can be adapted, via add-ons, to show illegal content.
With around 70 per cent of Kodi users accessing some form of premium TV without paying, this issue hasn’t escaped the gaze of content providers or law enforcement.
Over the past few months many add-on services have closed their doors in fear of facing huge fines and even prison.
Now Kodi is having its say on the issue of illegal content and its views may shock its millions of fans who don’t pay for premium TV.
In a recent post on its blog Kodi said that it was “a good thing” that illegal add-ons where closing as it mean’t “fewer people damaging the Kodi name.”
The post also went on to reveal that the blocks appear to be working as Kodi is seeing an increase in the rate of user churn.
This, they say, is probably linked to operators fleeing from these legal issues and Kodi’s discontinuation of support for the older versions of Android that many of these devices run.
Kodi has always stated that it has neutral stance on piracy but it is definitely trying to distance itself from these issues.
The TV Player recently got embroiled in a major spat with TVAddons – one of the leading add-on libraries for the Kodi media player.
Despite TVAddons boasting that it is “powered by Kodi” within its official logo, there seems to be no love lost between the online repository and the media player software.
The Twitter spat started when an account identified as Mark Davies tweeted Kodi to congratulate them for being “an excellent pathway for pirate add-ons” and to “keep up the good work”.
Kodi, which has a reputation for its abrasive responses to fans of online piracy, said the user was an excellent example of why contraception should be more widely considered”.
This shocking comeback caused another social media user mentioned TVAddons in relation to the tweet.
Kodi said they “have zero respect for anyone as they are bunch of lying weasels”, referring to the group behind the online Kodi add-on library.
TVAddons, who have more than 14,000 followers on the site, responded: “We respect @KodiTV and all of our users, sucks that you’d kick us while we’re down.
“If we lose in court, repercussions will affect you too.”
“We dearly hope you loose in court!,” Kodi, who have a much larger following of 157,000 on Twitter, replied.
Despite all the recent blocks to add-ons for Kodi, as well as restrictions on torrent repositories like The Pirate Bay have failed to stop a significant number of users from watching content illegally.
Some 47 per cent of those who watch content online illegally have not been perturbed by the recent blocks and restrictions, an exclusive survey for Express.co.uk has revealed.
The survey was conducted by price comparison site Finder.com – the biggest comparison site in Australia, which launched in the UK back in February 2017.
It surveyed some 2,000 adults from across the UK.
According to the research, the recent efforts to blocks Kodi Box add-ons and torrent sites have stopped 52 per cent of those who watched paid-for content illegally from pirating in future.
Meanwhile, more than 47 per cent haven’t been put off by the new restrictions and penalties in place in the UK.