England’s High Court issued an order on behalf of the Premier League to require internet service providers in the United Kingdom to block servers illegally live-streaming matches.
Such pirated content has apparently been rampant, with Kodi boxes and IPTV (internet protocol television) devices being used to circumvent the Premier League’s official broadcast partners. Sky Sports owns the rights to three-quarters of all fixtures, with BT Sport retaining the remaining quarter, in which the media companies paid a combined £5.136 billion in 2015 (worth about $7.8 billion at the time) for three seasons.
A BBC survey earlier this month indicated that more than a third of Premier League fans, 36 percent, watch these unofficial (and illegal) livestreams to watch a match at least once a month; 22 percent of respondents said they stream matches at least once a week. Almost half of those polled have streamed a match at some point.
“This blocking Order is a game-changer in our efforts to tackle the supply and use of illicit streams of our content,” Premier League director of legal services, Kevin Plumb, said in a statement. “It will allow us to quickly and effectively block and disrupt the illegal broadcast of Premier League football via any means, including so called ‘pre-loaded Kodi boxes.’
“The protection of our copyright, and the investment made by our broadcast partners, is hugely important to the Premier League and the future health of English football.”
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
Kodi boxes are a legal way to stream accessible content but third-parties can “pre-load” applications to display pirated livestreams, such as Premier League matches, which is illegal.
A similar High Court Order was in effect for the final two months of the previous season, and the Premier League reported that more than 5,000 server IP addresses were blocked as a direct result. The Guardian reported in March that police had conducted a series of raids and arrested at least a half-dozen individuals for the sale or distribution of the pre-loaded Kodi boxes, including one man who received a suspended sentence and £250,000 fine.
The BBC noted that Premier League viewership on the sanctioned channels dipped last season, with Sky suffering a 14 percent ratings decline and BT Sport a 2 percent dip.
Sports media rights deals have escalated exponentially in the last decade as advertisers seek to combat cord-cutting and capture one of the last genres of content which viewers watch live. That’s what prompted this Premier League contract in which Sky spent nearly twice as much to maintain the same inventory of matches. League revenue, per the Guardian, is estimated to have risen 25 percent, from £3.6 billion to £4.5 billion because of the lucrative new media rights deal. It’s little wonder, therefore, why the Premier League goes to such great lengths to protect its broadcast partners.