Sky TV has issued a fresh warning over the illegal streaming of their content.
The company’s chief operating officer Nick Herm has called for a fresh crackdown on those using so-called ‘dodgy’ Fire Sticks.
As recently as last month, illegal streamers were threatened with ‘significant consequences’ if they continued to use the ‘jailbroken’ TV sticks.
During a recent Financial Times Business of Football conference, Herm spoke out again against the illegal plug ins.
He said: ‘If you speak to friends and colleagues, [or] you watch football, people will know that you can get jail-broken Fire Sticks, and you can access pirated services on Fire Sticks.’
‘There are football fans who literally have shirts printed out that say Fire Sticks on them.
‘With some of the tech giants, Amazon in particular, we do not get enough engagement to address some of those problems, where people are buying these devices in bulk.’
Hern added he believes that modified Fire Sticks ‘probably’ account for ‘about half of the piracy’ in the UK.
Sky appears to be calling on Amazon to stop the sale of these pre-loaded ‘jailbroken’ Fire Sticks, which have unofficial apps ‘side-loaded’ onto them.
This allows people to add unofficial applications onto the device, which then provide access to illegal content online.
Amazon told the FT that it is ‘committed to providing customers with a high-quality streaming experience while actively promoting a streaming landscape that respects intellectual property rights and encourages the responsible consumption of content.
‘On Fire TV, we’ve always encouraged our customers to use legal channels for accessing content and have included on-device warnings informing customers of the risks associated with installing or using apps from unknown sources.’
One streaming operation which provided illegal access to Sky Sports and Sky Cinema was recently closed down by police and its mastermind jailed,.
Gary McNally was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison last month after admitting two charges under the Fraud Act 2006.
He set up a service called Each Online, which operated between 2017 and 2020, and at its peak it illegally streamed a World Championship boxing match from Sky to 2,000 users.
Each Online was an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service, which refers to any service using the internet to deliver live television.
IPTV services themselves aren’t illegal, with Sky Stream and Sky Glass two examples of legitimate IPTVs which use the internet rather than a satellite dish.
But the term is often used by fraudsters advertising their services, which could be accessed online, via social media, or using hardware like the Amazon Fire TV Stick or a Roku dongle.
Sky first became aware of McNally in June 2020 after an investigation found he was using legitimate NOW accounts to gain illegal access to Sky content.
They referred the case to the police, who searched two homes in Birmingham in September 2021.
During the searches they found laptops, hard drives and NOW TV devices believed to have been used by McNally to operate pirate IPTV services.
McNally, 55 and from Acocks Green, was sentenced at Birmingham crown court last month.
Speaking after the sentencing, Sky’s head of anti-piracy, Matt Hibbert, told GB News: ‘Today’s sentencing highlights the significant consequences that can arise for those that get involved in illegally streaming content.
‘We are grateful to the West Midlands Police for acting so robustly to take down a highly sophisticated illegal streaming operation.
‘We will continue to work with law enforcement to protect our content and help keep consumers safe from criminal piracy networks.’
The Intellectual Property Office estimate that online copyright infringement costs the UK economy about £9billion and causes more than 80,000 job losses every year.
A version of this article was previously published on February 10, 2025
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