Amazon has vowed to intensify efforts against piracy on its Fire TV Stick devices following a critical report by Enders Analysis that accuses major tech companies of enabling “industry-scale theft” of video content.

The research, authored by Gareth Sutcliffe and Ollie Meir, specifically targets Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft for facilitating widespread piracy, with sports broadcasting identified as the primary victim due to increasingly expensive legal access costs.

According to Sky data from the first quarter of 2025, 59% of UK users who admitted to watching pirated content on physical devices used Amazon Fire products.

The report highlights that illegal Fire TV Sticks are frequently sold through Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp, creating easy access to unauthorised streaming services.

The piracy problem stems partly from Fire TV Sticks’ ability to run side-loaded Android apps, as the Fire TV operating system is based on Android.

This capability allows users to install applications not available in official app stores, similar to Android TV and Google TV devices.

“Big tech is both friend and foe in solving the piracy problem,” the report states.

“Conflicting incentives harm consumer safety by providing easy discovery of illegal pirated services, and reduced friction through low-cost hardware such as the Amazon Firestick.”

An Amazon spokesperson told the BBC that “pirated content violates our policies regarding intellectual property rights, and compromises the security and privacy of our customers.”

The company confirmed it has implemented changes to Fire devices to make unauthorised streaming more difficult.

Amazon’s most significant anti-piracy measure involves transitioning Fire TV Sticks to its proprietary Vega OS, replacing the current Android-based system.

This switch would require developers to rebuild all applications and eliminate the ability to side-load Android apps, effectively closing the primary avenue for piracy applications.

The Enders Analysis report also criticises Google and Microsoft, stating that Digital Rights Management solutions provided by these companies “are in steep decline,” further contributing to piracy issues across the industry.

The research emphasises that sports broadcasting suffers disproportionately from piracy as subscription costs continue rising, driving consumers toward illegal alternatives.

The combination of affordable streaming hardware and easily accessible piracy applications creates what researchers describe as an unprecedented scale of content theft.

Amazon’s commitment to the Vega OS transition represents the most concrete step toward addressing these concerns, though implementation timelines and potential impacts on legitimate app availability remain unclear.

The move would fundamentally alter the Fire TV ecosystem while potentially reducing piracy capabilities significantly.

The report calls for coordinated action across the tech industry to address piracy infrastructure rather than individual content violations, suggesting systemic changes are necessary to protect intellectual property rights effectively.