Thousands hit in crackdown on illegal Premier League stream
TENS of thousands of Irish football fans who watch live English Premier League matches on illegal streaming websites, set-top ‘dodgy boxes’ and other devices discovered their service was blocked when they settled in to watch matches yesterday.
The nationwide disruption comes two months after the Commercial Court granted the Football Association Premier League Ltd Ireland’s first ever order compelling internet service providers to block the live-streaming of matches.
The order is against Eir, Sky Ireland, Sky Subscriber Services, Virgin Media and Vodafone. Under the order, the content provided by the illegitimate servers or hosts, using streams from legal outlets, was targeted in one blow using the latest advances in technology. Similar blocking orders were obtained in the UK last year.
The nationwide block has been brought into effect by the Premier League using video monitoring technology to identify servers and IP addresses which are illegally streaming games. They then notify service providers almost instantaneously who block the relevant IP addresses and ensure customers are not able to access the websites.
A Sky spokesperson said: “We fully support the Premier League’s fight against piracy, and this type of blocking activity, which has been extremely successful in the UK, is an important part of that fight.
“We continue to work with the industry to track down the criminals providing this illegal content, to take down illegal streams and to make people aware of the risks they are taking in accessing content in this way.”
A separate industry source told the Sunday Independent that, although there might be many disappointed sports fans this weekend, true fans will always pay their way.
“I think while there will definitely be some fans who were taking advantage of the system and the service, there are a lot more fans who are paying full price because they value the service they are getting and where their money goes and ultimately when you pay for the service above board, it goes back into football.
“And so the people who will be disappointed really aren’t true football fans, they are the people who are trying to rip off football.
“The true fans pay for the service from legitimate service providers because that money ultimately goes back into the sport and enables us to have great football year after year.”
In July, Jonathan Newman SC for the Premier League told the court it was no longer just “a student on his couch with a laptop” but had become so overwhelming that the bulk of infringements came from people with “set-top boxes” plugged into a TV.
He said it was such that “perhaps a veneer of respectability” had crept into what was an illegal activity.
The internet protocol (IP) addresses of the streaming hosts will be updated at least twice during a match so blocking can be enabled. It will be possible to respond “within minutes” to the illegal streaming, Mr Newman added.
He said the criteria for obtaining the order was clearly met and there were safeguards so it did not impact on legitimate use of the internet.
Alleged infringers will also be notified each week and will be required to notify the end users of the order.
Meanwhile, in a survey of 2,000 adults, 36pc admitted they accessed material they were not entitled to, 19pc of whom admitted accessing Premier League matches this way. Some 51pc did not feel guilty.