Hockey and Pirate IPTV: How Canada Cuts Streams Mid-Game
The 2026-2027 National Hockey League season starts in a few days, and with it comes back a question Canadian broadcasters know well: how many fans will watch the games on a pirate IPTV subscription?
Canada has long been a step ahead in this area. Since 2022, Canadian courts have authorized live blocking of pirate streams: IP addresses that broadcast a game without authorization are cut off during the game, then unblocked at the end. It is a model watched closely in Europe and the United States.
But this year, the legal calendar is working against rights holders. The multi-sport order that governed this blocking expired on July 19, 2026. As of this writing, no new order covering the hockey season that is about to begin has been made public.
In this article, we look back at how this blocking works, what it has achieved and what is at stake for the coming season.
2022: A First for Canada
In May 2022, the Federal Court issued an unprecedented decision in Rogers Media Inc. v. John Doe 1 (2022 FC 775). Justice Pentney authorized, for the first time in Canada, “dynamic” blocking: Rogers, Bell Media, TSN, RDS and Groupe TVA can have internet service providers block the IP addresses that illegally broadcast NHL games, only for the duration of the games.
The principle is simple, but its implementation is technical. A specialized agent spots pirate streams by comparing a few seconds of video with the official broadcast, a kind of digital fingerprint. The identified IP addresses are sent to the internet service providers, which block them for the length of the game.
The results were made public. According to the report of the independent monitor tasked with verifying the agent’s work for the 2022-2023 season, 19,178 IP addresses were added to the blocking list. Of a sample of 2,904 addresses checked, all complied with the order: none was blocked in error.
2024: An Order for All Sports
On July 9, 2024, the Federal Court went further. In file T-743-24, Justice Andrew D. Little issued a multi-sport order at the request of Rogers, Bell, CTV, TSN, RDS, Groupe TVA and FuboTV. Ten internet service providers are covered, including Bell, Rogers, Vidéotron, Telus, Cogeco and TekSavvy.
The mechanism is precise:
- the agent notifies the internet service providers of the IP addresses to block;
- each provider must apply the blocking within 30 minutes of the start of the event, then update its list at least every 30 minutes until the end;
- safeguards limit the risk of blocking legitimate services, with an address for reporting errors.
Over eight amendments, between July 2024 and June 2026, the order extended well beyond hockey: NHL playoffs, NBA, Premier League, Euro 2024, Blue Jays, UFC, the World Junior Championship, and finally the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Its expiry date was in fact pushed back ten days, to July 19, 2026, to cover the end of the World Cup.
Why Live Changes Everything
Sports cannot be protected like a film or a series. In its 2024 decision, the Court notes that replays of a game attract 5% or less of the live audience. In other words, almost all the value of a game is realized while it is being played.
A takedown notice sent the next day therefore arrives too late. That is the whole point of dynamic blocking: acting during the three hours that matter, not afterward.
July 2026: A New Weapon, but Not for Sports
On July 3, 2026, the Federal Court issued another important order (T-1127-26), at the request of Rogers, Groupe TVA and several major studios. It targets IPTV services such as Apollo Group TV or Diablo IPTV, and sites such as 123Movies or FMovies.
What is new: rights holders can add a new target by simple sworn declaration. If no internet service provider objects within five business days, the blocking applies without going back before a judge. A valuable tool against sites that change domain name every week.
But this order concerns television and film. It does not replace real-time blocking of sporting events.
And the 2026-2027 Season?
That is the question of the moment. The multi-sport order ended on July 19, 2026, and we have found neither an extension nor a new public order covering the hockey season that is about to begin, whether from the Federal Court, the internet service providers or the broadcasters.
A request may well be under way: previous orders were often issued shortly before or shortly after the start of a season. But as long as no order is in force, internet service providers have no obligation to block pirate streams during games.
A Block That Is Not Unanimously Supported
Not all players see these orders the same way. The provider TekSavvy, which contested the first Canadian blocking order (the GoldTV case, in 2019) all the way to the Federal Court of Appeal, considers blocking a serious infringement of net neutrality.
The courts took this into account: independent oversight, an obligation to correct errors quickly, limited duration. The 2022-2023 report, with no erroneous blocking in the sample checked, shows that precise blocking is possible.
For Subscribers: A False Bargain
Pirate IPTV resellers targeting Quebec now advertise subscriptions between $13 and $35 a month, with RDS and TVA Sports included. The phenomenon is not new: as early as 2017, a Sandvine study estimated that 8.3% of Canadian households were connecting to pirate IPTV services.
But the savings are only apparent. According to a Digital Citizens Alliance survey, 44% of households with a pirate IPTV box report a malware problem, compared with 7% of other households. And in the event of an outage in the middle of a game or credit card fraud, the subscriber has no recourse.
What Rights Holders Can Do Right Now
- Document streams during games: video fingerprint, time, IP address. This is the type of evidence the Court requires.
- Check each season the coverage and expiry of orders, without assuming they are renewed automatically.
- Monitor aggregators before games: links to pirate streams often appear there a few minutes before the start.
- Combine tools: blocking, removal of reseller ads on social networks and classified ad sites, and removal of search results.
Canada has shown that a pirate stream can be cut during the game, and cut cleanly. What remains is to make sure the tools keep up with the sports calendar. At AgencePDN, we monitor live events before and during their broadcast: if you are broadcasting games this season, talk to your account manager before the opening whistle.
Sources
- Federal Court, decision and reasons T-743-24 (July 9, 2024): PDF of the decision
- Independent monitor’s report, NHL games: PDF of the report
- TekSavvy, multi-sport blocking order: teksavvy.com
- Rogers, notice of blocking of sporting events: rogers.com
- Quebecor, July 23, 2026 news release on order T-1127-26: newswire.ca
- Sandvine, Video Piracy in Canada (2018): PDF
- Digital Citizens Alliance, Fishing in the Piracy Stream (2019): PDF
