RIL’s Viacom18 gets relief from Delhi HC in illegal IPL streaming case

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)’s subsidiary Viacom 18 has got major relief from the Delhi High Court amid illegal streaming of the IPL by a bunge of websites.

According to a report by Bar and Bench, the HC has granted a “dynamic+injunction” order in favour of RIL’s media company and restricted several websites from illegally streaming the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches.

In legal terms, the “dynamic+injucntion” orders are passed to protect the copyrights. It ensures that no irreparable losses are caused to the owner of the copyrighted works.

According to the Delhi High Court, quick action to prevent the infringement is crucial to preserve the investment of Viacom 18 in broadcasting rights and protecting the company’s copyrights.

“During the currency of the IPL Events, if any further websites are discovered which are illegally streaming and communicating content over which the Plaintiff has rights, the Plaintiff is given liberty to communicate the details of such websites to the DoT and MeitY for issuance of blocking orders, and simultaneously to the ISPs for blocking the said websites, so as to ensure that these websites can be blocked on a real time basis there is no considerable delay,” Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order.

Viacom18 had approached the Delhi High Court that several rogue websites are illegally telecasting IPL matches.

Viacom 18 owns RIL’s over-the-top (OTT) platform – Jio Cinema. The Reliance-backed Jio has obtained exclusive digital rights for the television rights for IPL from 2023-2027.

The Delhi High Court has ordered Internet service providers to block access to rogue websites that are telecasting IPL matches illegally.

The Delhi High Court has also ordered domain name registrars to lock and suspend the rogue websites and disclose details of them.

In 2022, Viaocm18 acquired the IPL digital rights for the 2023-2027 seasons for ₹23,758 crore. The network also won the global media rights for the WPL for ₹951 crore for the period 2023-27.

Last year, Viacom18 bagged media rights of the BCCI (India’s cricket board) from 2023-March 2028 for a cumulative figure of ₹5,963 crore in e-auction. LiveMint