Sky Raises the Bar on ISP Blocking Against Pirate IPTV Services with Dynamic Blockades

• British broadcasting company Sky addressed a piracy loophole with an extended blocking order.
• The new directive involves blocking pirate domains and subdomains at the ISP level.
• The enhanced order enables Sky to deploy dynamic and static blocking.

Sky, one of the UK’s largest TV broadcasters and ISPs, has fortified its fight against pirate IPTV services with a newly extended High Court blocking order. This updated injunction introduces advanced measures to address loopholes previously exploited by IPTV providers.

Under this new phase of enforcement, 16 pirate IPTV operators, including BunnyStream, Enigma Streams, GenIPTV, CatIPTV, GoTVMix, and IPTVMain, are being comprehensively targeted. 

This follows a similar order that Sky obtained in 2023. The updated injunction also includes other platforms, such as FastIP.tv, UKIPTVMedia.co, TheSkyIPTV.shop, and Calmahub.live.

The objective is clear—disrupt the operations of these illegal services in the UK by blocking their domains and subdomains at the ISP level. Respondent ISPs such as BT, Virgin Media, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE, and Sky’s own broadband division are required to carry out the blocking measures.  

The enhanced order equips Sky with the ability to deploy Dynamic Blocking, targeting IP addresses associated with IPTV server operations. This allows IP addresses to be blocked in real-time as soon as unauthorized streaming is detected, particularly during designated "Blocking Windows" when live broadcasts of Sky content are identified. Once the streaming event concludes, the blocked IP addresses are unblocked.  

Additionally, Static Blocking has been introduced. This measure permanently blocks URLs and Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) linked to pirate services, eliminating the ability of IPTV providers to rely on subdomains to evade blocking measures.

Sky’s previous blocking attempts faced countermeasures from pirate operators, who exploited wildcard certificates to generate infinite subdomains at no cost. 

The updated order curtails this by empowering Sky to block not just the subdomains but also the main domains of services that predominantly enable access to illegal content. This move is likely to make circumvention more cumbersome and costly for pirate operators.  

Respondent ISPs employ various technical measures to comply with the court order, including IP blocking, DNS blocking, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), and URL Blackholing.  

Google, though not directly involved in the injunction, is actively removing pirate IPTV domains from its search results, creating additional barriers for these services. This has inadvertently boosted visibility for review websites, with scammers seizing opportunities to exploit this vacuum.