Premier League awarded High Court blocking order
July 23, 2018
By Colin Mann
The English Premier League has been granted what it describes as a “significant” High Court Order that will enable it to disrupt and block illegal streams of its content across the whole of the next football season.
On July 19th 2018, Justice Arnold granted an Order that will require the UK’s major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) – including Sky, BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, plusnet and EE – to block and disrupt servers that host illegal streams of the Premier League’s matches.
A similar Order was granted for the entirety of the 2017/18 season and was hugely successful, enabling the League to disrupt or block nearly 200,000 illegal streams of its content.
This new Order is enhanced and will allow the Premier League to block more servers in a more effective manner.
The League’s wider anti-piracy programme is one of the most compressive in the world and saw hugely successful results in 2017/18, including 450,000 illegal clips of Premier League content being removed from social and digital media outlets.
Targeted investigations into suppliers of illicit streaming devices (ISDs) have resulted in significant criminal convictions.
On July 16th, a Premier League and FACT investigation led to a supplier of ISDs and an illegal streaming service being jailed for five years.
“Last season the Premier League operated one of the biggest and most successful anti-piracy programmes in the world and this decision by the High Court is a significant factor in being able to continue that approach,” commented Kevin Plumb, Premier League Director of Services. “A similar Order granted last year was a game-changer for our work in this area, enabling us to block or disrupt nearly 200,000 illegal streams across the 2017/18 season.
“The ability that Premier League clubs have to develop and acquire talented players, to build and improve stadiums and to support communities and schools, is predicated on being able to market, sell and protect commercial rights.”
“This makes the protection of our copyright hugely important to the future health of English football and beyond,” he declared.