Illegal streaming site noonoo TV to end its service

noonoo TV's notice announcing the end of services, posted to Telegram on Thursday evening. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Illegal streaming site noonoo TV will end its services.

noonoo TV announced through a notice Thursday evening that due to “all-around pressure,” the site will stop operations on Friday.

“Based on the problem of uncontrollable traffic charges and all-around pressure on the site, we have made a decision to terminate the service after careful consideration,” read the notice released through Telegram by Studiouniversal, the company operating noonoo TV.

noonoo TV opened in 2021 and provided illegal streaming of content from domestic and foreign paid streaming services including Netflix, Watcha, Tving, Disney+ and others.

The Korea Communications Commission started blocking URLs (internet addresses) to noonoo TV but the site continued operations through methods such as changing domains. noonoo TV’s most recent domain was reportedly located in the Dominican Republic.

The Alliance for Protection of Videogram (AVP) — formed by Korean broadcasting companies, streaming services, movie producers and distributors in February — announced on March 8 that it had filed a complaint against noonoo TV.

AVP claimed that noonoo TV had garnered 1.5 billion total views in February 2023 — higher than legal streaming services. The alliance also pointed out that the illegal service is profiting off of illegal gambling site advertisements.

In response, the Ministry of Science and ICT stepped up to directly block the URL, and Rep. Byun Jae-ill of the Democratic Party proposed an amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act to prevent more cases of illegal streaming services such as noonoo TV. Busan Metropolitan Police also launched an investigation into the case.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]