The English Premier League has been granted an order by the UK’s High Court that will allow it to disrupt and block illegal streams of its football matches for the duration of the 2018-19 season.
The order will require the UK’s major internet service providers, including Sky, BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Plusnet and EE, to block and disrupt servers that host illegal streams.
A similar order was granted for the whole of the 2017-18 season, leading to nearly 200,000 illegal streams being curtailed, but the new order will allow the league to block more servers in a more effective manner.
“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,” the league’s director of services, Kevin Plumb, said.