The new football season means broadcasters obtain more court injunctions to try and stop illegal streaming / IPTV services

With new football season starting this weekend, and the Premier League starting this coming weekend, the rights holders (Sky and the Premier League) have been getting new and extending court orders in an attempt to block illegal streams of these football matches.

In an recently published article in the Financial Times

it was reported that Sky has obtained a High Court blocking injunction reportedly to protect its own broadcasts, and to block piracy services streaming its “best selling football games”. This blocking order aims to prevent unauthorized access to streams across a wide range of linear channels, including Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic. Interestingly, the court order actually identified six pirate IPTV services by name.

Today it has been reported that the Premier League itself has obtained a similar court order, allowing the Premier League to block pirate IPTV services during the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons. This seems to be just an extension of their existing court order.

This comes a few weeks after Italy’s brand new anti-piracy law was approved, and becomes law on 8th August 2023. This new Italian law authorizes blocking of live events and enables fines of up to 5,000 euros to users of pirate streams.

So as the new football season starts, it seem the game of “whack a mole” between the rights holders and broadcasters and the streamers has started again. While the specific details of these blocking orders remain undisclosed, it shows how rights holders and broadcasters are taking steps towards tighter security with the ongoing battle against illegal streaming services.