Watching football on Kodi? Here's why your internet could be SHUT DOWN

[bsaambl]

Football fans are the latest to be targeted in a series of measures aimed at those streaming copyright content illegally online. 

Anyone caught watching games illegally on devices using dodgy add-ons or pre-loaded Kodi boxes could have their online streams shut down, after a major legal win for the Premier League.

The High Court has issued a "blocking order" for the 2017-18 football season which experts say will be a "game changer" in the ongoing crackdown against online piracy.

Under the order, UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will have to stop people from illegally streaming football games. At the moment fans can only legally watch Premier League games on Sky Sports and BT Sports - the BBC only has the rights to screen highlights.

As many as one-third of football fans are estimated to watch the sport illegally via the internet.

It's not the first time that such a drastic measure has been used - blocking orders were introduced in the final two months of the 2016-17 season.

This ban resulted in over 5,000 server IP addresses being blocked.

Up until then the league only had the power to stop individual streams, which made it easy for hosts to re-route the user with an alternate streaming link.

Illegal streaming is a huge problems for Sky and BT Sport who together have paid more than £5 billion for rights to show top flight matches for three seasons.

Last season saw the biggest fall in live Premier League TV viewing figures for seven years, with both Sky and BT hit by the drop.

Sky reported a 14 per cent fall in viewing numbers, while BT channels dropped by two per cent.

Loss of revenue from online piracy is believed to be one of the reasons that Sky Sport launched a major revamp of its channels as well as cutting subscription prices.