With millions of monthly users, USTVGO was one of the most visited live TV streaming portals on the Internet.
With millions of monthly users, As its name suggests, the portal focused on US channels, making it a popular site for cord-cutting Americans or those living abroad.
Last week, USTVGO came to an abrupt end. Instead of the usual list of links to over a hundred channels including ABC, CBS, NBC, and Nickelodeon, visitors were welcomed by a brief statement suggesting that it had shut down; “Sorry, we are closed”.
In recent days the message disappeared, and the USTVGO.tv domain name became completely unreachable. The same applied to several other domains reportedly operated by the same owner, including ustv247.tv and watchnewslive.tv.
ACE Takes Credit
No immediate explanation for the shutdown was made available, but in these types of cases, the most likely culprit is some type of legal pressure. Today, we can confirm that is indeed the case.
Jan van Voorn, Chief of Global Content Protection for the MPA and head of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), informs TorrentFreak that USTVGO’s shutdown is the result of ACE enforcement efforts.
The anti-piracy coalition, which is backed by several major video entertainment companies, took action after it tracked down and contacted the site’s owner in Hanoi, Vietnam.
At the time of writing ACE has yet to seize control of the site’s domain names, which were registered through the privacy service Njalla. However, Van Voorn informs us that the domains should be signed over to the anti-piracy alliance in due course.
“We are in the process of taking all the domains and hope to conclude this case soon,” Van Voorn notes.
The USTVGO shutdown is another major victory for ACE but the next threat is never far away. Many disgruntled users of the streaming site are already flocking to alternatives; for as long as they last.
