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The fight against India's sports piracy has turned into a cat-and-mouse game, where every new tournament spawns fresh pirate sites and broadcasters scurry for blocking orders. Despite increasingly sophisticated court orders to block pirated streams, rogue websites resurface under new domains, profiting off stolen content and raising legal costs for broadcasters.
In 2026, broadcasters including JioStar, Zee, Sony Pictures Networks India and DAZN approached the Delhi High Court over piracy during marquee events such as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup and the Indian Premier League. Among the pirate sites targeted were CricHD.ch, Cricfree.cyou, DaddyLive.app and WebCric.im.
“Exclusivity is central to a sports media right, and piracy erodes it. When audiences are diverted to illegal sources, subscription growth and retention suffer, advertising inventory loses value, and the audience measurement that advertisers rely on is distorted,” said a JioStar spokesperson. JioStar holds media rights for the IPL, WPL, major ICC cricket tournaments in India and the English Premier League.
Pirate operators gain from advertising and subscriptions without bearing the costs of acquiring rights or producing broadcasts, weakening returns funding future sports rights and innovation, the spokesperson said.
Some of the high-profile sporting events taking place soon include India’s T20I series against West Indies (6–17 October), India women’s series against Zimbabwe (16–28 October), and India’s home ODI series against Sri Lanka (13–19 December).
Blocking orders do not automatically cover future events, and broadcasters may need to initiate fresh proceedings to establish their rights, adding to recurring litigation and enforcement costs.
The Delhi High Court granted JioStar anti-piracy relief for ICC tournaments on 29 January 2026 and the IPL on 25 March. The broadcaster returned to court on 30 September, seeking protection for its rights for the West Indies tour of India,
“The staggering costs associated with continuous copyright enforcement directly eat into the profitability of sports broadcasting and can significantly hurt their commercial viability,” said Anupam Shukla, partner at Pioneer Legal. Round-the-clock anti-piracy teams, technical investigations and repeated litigation add to broadcasters’ operating expenses, he said.
Sony Pictures Networks India has approached the Delhi High Court multiple times in 2026 to protect its sports-broadcasting rights. On 1 July, it secured interim anti-piracy relief for cricket events involving England, including matches featuring India and New Zealand. On 20 July, it sought protection for the Commonwealth Games 2026 and Australian Open 2027. Sony’s sports portfolio also includes exclusive rights to international cricket played in England under its agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Australian Open , UEFA competitions and UFC events.
In June, Zee Entertainment Enterprises w moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection for its FIFA World Cup 2026 broadcasting rights, including real-time blocking of rogue websites, mirror links and associated mobile applications. Zee Entertainment secured exclusive rights from FIFA in June 2026 to broadcast, stream and distribute 39 FIFA competitions in India from 2026 to 2034.
UK-based sports streaming site DAZN has repeatedly approached the Delhi High Court to protect its sports-broadcasting rights. In September 2026, Sporta Technologies, which owns FanCode, approached the Delhi High Court after discovering websites illegally streaming Formula One’s Italian Grand Prix practice session in India.
Sony, Zee, DAZN and the ministry of electronics and information technology did not respond to queries.
FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco said the company is tackling piracy through a multi-layered approach combining technology, monitoring and swift enforcement. “This includes encrypting streams through Digital Rights Management (DRM), using short-lived authentication tokens to prevent unauthorised stream sharing,” he said.
FanCode also said it uses digital watermarking and stream tracking to trace leaks and works with anti-piracy partners to detect illegal streams and initiate takedown.
Sports broadcasters' losses from piracy could not be ascertained; however, a May 2025 report said losses to the broader online video segment from piracy could reach $2.4 billion by 2029, up from an estimated $1.2 billion in 2024. The study by Media Partners Asia, IP House and the Confederation of Indian Industry estimated that around 90 million users accessed pirated video content in 2024.
According to Bhairav Shanth, co-founder of ITW Universe, a global sports, entertainment and future-media firm, repeated piracy undermines the exclusivity underpinning sports-media rights, affecting subscription revenues, advertising yields and sponsorship value.
This could make broadcasters more cautious about bidding for future tournaments as they factor in the risk of losing audiences to illegal streaming platforms.
“When broadcasters cannot reliably monetise the audiences they pay millions to reach, the returns on their investments come under pressure. While piracy is not the only factor influencing media-rights valuations, it adds to the commercial risks broadcasters must account for when deciding how much they are willing to pay,” Shanth said.
JioStar said it had filed 14 John Doe suits since 2025 to protect cricket rights for the IPL, the Women’s Premier League, ICC events and bilateral series. It said it had blocked more than 2,250 rogue domains in India, contributing to an approximately 80% reduction in the cricket piracy it monitors across rogue websites.
Blocking orders, issued in the form of injunctions, can cover mirror websites, redirects and modified URLs hosting infringing content. Broader remedies may allow broadcasters to seek real-time blocking of newly identified piracy links and websites through internet service providers (ISPs) during live sporting events, subject to the court’s directions.
Digant Popat, partner at Khaitan & Co, said fresh proceedings may be necessary when new tournaments or agreements fall outside an existing suit. “Each new agreement or tournament gives rise to a new cause of action which does not form part of the earlier suit. Therefore, a broadcaster has to file a new suit to enforce rights under subsequent or new agreements or tournaments not covered by the existing suit,” he said.
However, lawyers said courts must guard against the misuse of broad blocking orders.
“A new tournament could result in a new cause of action, possibly against a new infringer. There could also be innocent or genuine use mistaken for piracy. All sorts of arguments can exist. Courts, therefore, have to examine the case on merits,” said Aarushi Jain, partner and head of media, education and gaming at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.
The challenge is compounded by the speed at which piracy networks adapt. Operators increasingly use mirror websites, altered URLs, redirects, rogue mobile applications and IPTV services to evade blocking orders, while some frequently change streaming links or distribute content through social media.
“The challenge now is more the lack of technological ability than the absence of a legal remedy, given the sheer speed and number of new access points that operators create,” said Shally Bhasin, partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.
Enforcement is complicated when alleged infringers remain anonymous or fail to appear in court, said Dhruv Anand, partner at intellectual property law firm Anand and Anand. “Eventually, even if the plaintiff gets some relief, it remains a paper decree,” he said.
This leaves broadcasters facing the challenge of identifying infringing streams, coordinating with internet service providers and domain registrars, and pursuing operators who may be based outside India, even after courts grant real-time blocking relief.
Shiv Sapra, partner at Kochhar & Co, said real-time blocking had accelerated enforcement, but the system still relied on broadcasters detecting piracy and pursuing infringers. “We have become better at chasing piracy. The larger challenge is preventing the same pirates from repeatedly resurfacing,” he said.
JioStar has called for a faster statutory mechanism to block verified pirate websites and streams without repeated court applications, alongside stronger intermediary obligations, cross-border cooperation and action against the advertising and payment channels funding piracy.
Krishna Yadav is a Senior Correspondent at Mint, based in New Delhi, and part of the corporate bureau. He joined the newsroom as a trainee in 2023 and quickly grew into his current role. He writes on legal and regulatory developments in corporate India, with a focus on insolvency, taxation, company law, and policy. His reporting includes tracking and breaking key legal stories from the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court, NCLT, and NCLAT.<br><br>With a background in law, Krishna is known for simplifying complex legal developments into clear, accessible stories for readers. His work focuses on trends in corporate law and policy that affect businesses. This ranges from explaining tax disputes—like whether coconut hair oil is edible—to writing on why celebrities are seeking personal rights protection. He closely tracks India’s insolvency system, covering issues such as creditor losses, gaps in the process, and challenges in how the framework works in practice.<br><br>Krishna also tracks developments within law firms—covering hiring trends, how firms help companies navigate global challenges, and how the legal industry is adapting to artificial intelligence. Beyond legal reporting, he has written long-form pieces, including on-ground coverage of the 2024 general elections, capturing the scale and logistics of polling across India.<br><br>Outside work, he enjoys travelling, exploring new places, and reading about geopolitics and history.
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