If you’re one of the many football fans who rely on internet streams to watch Premier League matches, there may be some bad news afoot.
According to the BBC, the Premier League is to request a court order which would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to cut off access to FirstRow1.eu, which operates from Sweden and is highly popular with football fans in Ireland as well as across Europe.
All of the major ISPs in the UK are believed to have been contacted by the Premier League yesterday informing them of the court order and the BBC understands that none of them plan to challenge it, meaning that football fans won’t be able to access the site from next season onwards.
Essentially that means that if they don’t already avail of subscription services such as Sky Sports (or from next season, BT) they’ll have to fork out some cash to do so or go down to the pub/around to a mates to watch Premier League games next season. They could just wait for Match of the Day, if they’re able to stick it, of course.
The Premier League are following in the footsteps of the BPI music industry body, who successfully lobbied to have a number of piracy websites, such as Pirate Bay, blocked.
What effect these developments will have on other streaming websites and on Irish ISPs is as yet unclear but there is bound to be a domino effect in terms of the ability to stream football and other sports live over the internet in the future.
Football fans may have cursed the constant buffering and the numerous pop-up ads that came from internet streams in the past, but we might find ourselves pining for them if the experience of watching the Premier League changes drastically from next season on.
