TAG commissioned the above study with two objectives in mind:

1) Estimate the annual revenue that piracy operations earn from digital ads served linked to copyright-infringed content. 
Digital ad revenue linked to infringing content was estimated at $111 million last year, the majority of which (83 percent) came from non-premium advertisers.

2) Estimate the financial impact of the quality control steps taken by the digital ad industry to address this area. 
If the industry had not taken aggressive steps to reduce piracy, those pirate site operators would have potentially earned an additional $102-$177 million in advertising revenue, depending on the breakdown of premium and non-premium advertisers.

The purpose of the study was to provide TAG with objective estimates to assist in evaluating the effectiveness of the "Certified Against Piracy" program as well as the overall impact of the quality control initiatives being performed by the industry. 

Ernst & Young conducted this study independently on behalf of TAG between July 2016 and July 2017.