Duco CEO addresses live streaming issues ahead of Parker bout

Duco CEO Martin Snedden. Photo / Getty Images

Duco CEO Martin Snedden has admitted the battle against illegal streamers will be never end but believes they are better equipped to address the issue for tomorrow's fight between Joseph Parker and Solomon Haumono in Christchurch.

Joseph Parker's last bout against French-Cameroonian Carlos Takam was unlawfully re-broadcast live on social media by lawful viewers filming Sky TV's $49.99 pay-per-view.

The streams were available for free and attracted over 100,000 views.

On the streams, Snedden said "it is a growing issue, probably across the world".

In order to combat this, Snedden said Duco have been working with Sky and Facebook among others to try prevent or limit illegal streams in the future.

Listen: Martin Snedden on the Crowd Goes Wild Breakfast

"We've been working with Sky. To be absolutely honest we really didn't understand much about it last time around" said Snedden.

"The last few weeks really has been about working with Sky to much better understand what's actually happening in New Zealand, if we can, and that's not simple in itself".

Snedden offered some potential solutions to the problem.

"The first of those solutions I think is to recognise the fact that the feed for the fight up until now has been available only to those people subscribed to Sky."

Snedden said he had been working with Sky to make the fight available via Sky's FanPass service, where viewers who are not Sky subscribers can pay to watch the fight as a one-off for the same price as Sky subscribers.

Snedden admits that the battle against illegal streaming will be never ending.

"What we know is we are never going to be able to close this thing down completely".

"My concentration over the last few weeks in discussions with Sky and Facebook and others is to say what's the tools available now to actually get in the way of people who are trying to illegally stream".

Focus areas for Snedden and Duco are the live streams available on Facebook and other websites providing illegal streams.

Thursday's fight will be something of a trial run as Snedden and his team attempt to combat illegal streamers. He also acknowledged that while they work towards shutting down streams, the streamers will be looking for more ways around their efforts.

"Not totally sure how we're going to get on tomorrow night and not too worried about that because I think what we do is accept it's a bit of trial and error".

Snedden said he has been in contact with social media giant Facebook to see what tools are at his disposal.

"Facebook is not a New Zealand based organisation worldwide, Google's the same. Are they particularly interested in helping Duco sort out a Parker issue? No, it's not something they lay awake at night about"