Premier League pirated by 9% of Brits

The extent of sports piracy has been illustrated by a new study which has found that 9% of Brits admit to having illegally streamed at least one Premier League game over the past 12 months.

According to new research from personal finance comparison site finder.com, this total is equivalent to 4.5 million people over the course of the season.

In total, 81% of the 2,000 surveyed Brits use a paid streaming service, while 17% – equivalent to 8.9 million people – streamed content illegally. The report goes on to say that this means that of all illegal streamers, 24% view Premier League games, with the number rising to 44% when it comes to any kind of sports. 

Of paid streaming services with Premier League football, Sky Go is the leader, with 24% of respondents saying they had used Sky’s OTT platform. Now TV, also a Sky product, was in second at 19% while only 13% said they had used BT Sport’s OTT offering at some point in the past 12 months.

London has the highest percentage of illegal streamers at 21% with Scotland the second highest at 17%. Wales and East Anglia at 4% and 6% respectively are the regions with the least amount of illegal football streaming. 

Agewise, it is unsurprisingly younger people who are illegal streamers, with 13% of 25-34 year olds admitting to watch Premier League football illegally. 

In terms of the paid streaming services, Netflix is the most popular platform with two thirds 66% using it over the last 12 months, this is equivalent to 28.4 million users in the UK. Amazon placed second with 49% of British streamers using the service and Sky Go placed third 29%.