5 hours ago
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Fans who illegally stream football matches are in for a major shock with the release of Amazon's brand new Fire Stick model.
The tech company has unveiled a new version of the popular gadget with huge upgrades, including one of the biggest shake-ups to its system in years.
For years, illegal streamers have watched live sport and other premium content on jailbroken Fire Sticks, despite authorities' best efforts to clamp down on the illicit activity.
While many consumers use Fire TV Sticks legally by streaming services available on Amazon's App Store — such as Netflix, Disney+ and BBC iPlayer for example — a huge proportion use modified devices to access copyrighted material not supported by the tech giants.
In June, Daily Mail Sport reported that approximately 59 per cent of UK Fire Stick owners admitted to using the device for illegal streaming purposes.
But now, following the release of the new Fire TV Stick 4K Select model, illegal streamers will find it very difficult to watch 'fully loaded' content.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K Select model will make it much harder to watch content illegally
A huge number of Amazon Fire Stick owners use modified devices to access copyrighted material not supported by the tech giants - including live Premier League matches
The Fire Stick's new system prevents illegal streaming apps from being downloaded
Firstly, users of the latest model are, for now, not able to download VPNs (virtual private networks), which allow illegal streamers to hide their location.
Revealing that this change is something which will be addressed by Amazon in the future, a spokesperson told CordBusters at the product's launch: 'At initial retail availability, the new Fire TV 4K Select running Vega OS won't support VPN apps, so NordVPN won't be available in the App Store on day one.
'Amazon plans to enable VPN protocols via a software update in late October. Our app is ready, and we'll make it available in the Amazon App Store for the new Fire TV devices as soon as that update goes live.'
Even if VPNs are restored by late October, there's no guarantee illegal streamers will be able to access jailbroken content in the same way they did before.
That's because the Fire Stick's new system prevents illegal streaming apps from being downloaded on the device.
Rather than using the open Android operating system, Fire Sticks will now be dressed with a new in-house alternative known as Vega, which is specifically designed not to run sideloaded apps.
Dodgy apps that were used on previous Android-run devices will now not work on the new Fire Sticks.
It comes after Sky, the largest broadcaster of Premier League matches in the UK, criticised Amazon for not doing enough to clamp down on piracy earlier this year.
Around 59 per cent of UK Fire Stick owners admit to using the device to watch illegal streams
There has been a clampdown on illegal streaming in recent months led by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) - following repeated alerts from the Premier League
'There are football fans who literally have shirts printed with "dodgy boxes and fire sticks" on them,' Sky's chief operating officer Nick Herm said.
Following repeated alerts from the Premier League in recent years, there has been a major focus on tackling illegal streaming in the UK.
This has led to a string of arrests, including one man based in Halifax earlier this year, with Sonny Kanda jailed for two years after cheating legitimate providers out of more than £108,000 across an 18-month period between 2020 and 2022.
Research in 2023 by the Intellectual Property Office claimed that nearly four million people in the UK had illegally streamed live sport in the previous year.
In the 2023-24 season, it was estimated that fans had to pay around £870 each year in TV subscriptions if they wished to see all televised Premier League games.
