LACK OF THE NET
Court go-ahead for block on illegal TV football streaming
PREMIER League bosses have won the legal power to stop fans seeing matches on the internet without paying.
They were granted a “blocking order” by the High Court, allowing them to launch what will be the biggest ever crackdown on illegal streaming both in the home and pubs.
The order will be in place for next season, which kicks off in two weeks’ time.
The League’s director of legal services Kevin Plumb said: “It’s a game-changer in our efforts to tackle the supply and use of these streams. It will let us quickly block and disrupt illegal broadcasting by
methods that include pre-loaded Kodi boxes.” The free Kodi service streams apps and services to users’ TVs.
The software is legal but often boxes enable Premier League viewing without payment to the official broadcasters.
Live Premier League rights are held by Sky and BT Sport, who paid a record £5.136billion for three seasons. But with up to a third of fans watching illegally – many streaming games via dodgy websites or banned Kodi add-ons – both firms’ football viewing figures are down.
Last season live Premier League TV ratings had their biggest drop in seven years, with Sky falling 14% and BT 2%.
League chiefs won a similar clampdown order for the 2016-17 season’s last two months. That led to the blocking of at least 5,000 internet provider addresses that were streaming top-level matches.
The league previously only had power to block individual streams, which hosts could re-establish using a different link.