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.