Delhi High Court restrains unauthorised streaming of India Tour of England 2025

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has passed an ad-interim injunction restraining unauthorised online streaming of the upcoming India Tour of England (ITE) 2025. The order, issued by Justice Saurabh Banerjee, prohibits four rogue websites from streaming, communicating, or making the matches available for download or viewing without the necessary authorisation, as per the report. 

The tour, scheduled to take place between June and August, features a five-match Test series between the Indian and England national cricket teams. The streaming rights for the event are held by JioStar, which has partnered with Sony to make the matches available on the OTT platform JioHotstar.

In response to a suit filed by JioStar, the Court restrained the four websites from illegally distributing the content and directed the suspension and blocking of access to these domains. Justice Banerjee stated that the dynamic+ injunction was granted to “protect the copyrighted works of JioStar, as soon as they are infringed or created.”

The Court clarified that if additional websites, such as mirror, redirect, or alphanumeric variations of the rogue websites, are found streaming or distributing the matches without permission during the tour, JioStar would be permitted to notify their Domain Name Registrars (DNRs) or, alternatively, the Internet Service Providers (defendant numbers 8 to 16) to block those sites.

The suit alleged that the rogue websites had previously streamed sporting events such as the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, in which JioStar also held exclusive digital rights, without consent from the company or other rights holders.

The Court remarked, “Thus, in light of the violations already committed by the ‘rogue websites’ by unauthorized streaming of the plaintiff's copyrighted works during the ongoing 'IPL', this Court sees every likelihood that such ‘rogue websites’ will continue to stream copyrighted works to the public during the ITE 2025 without authorization or license from the plaintiff.”

It further observed, “The systematic, organised and intentional nature of the infringement, and the regularity and consistency with which the said content is being updated/ uploaded on the said ‘rogue websites’ shows the extent of the violation of the rights of the plaintiff in real time. The said ‘rogue websites’ are also employing the URL-redirection and identity masking methods as noted above, putting the plaintiff in an even more precarious condition to defend itself against their infringing actions.”