Watching T20 World Cup illegally? JioStar wipes out 36 pirate apps and sites

JioStar has secured the removal of 36 IPTV applications from Google Play and Apple's iOS App Store during the ongoing ICC Men's T20 Cricket World Cup 2026, dismantling a piracy network that had accumulated more than 26.11 million global downloads.

The takedown targeted widely used players, including XCIPTV, Televizo, IPTV Smarters Pro, VU IPTV Player, and XTV Ultra IPTV Media Player, all of which were found to be unlawfully distributing JioStar's live cricket coverage without authorisation.

A Court-Backed Crackdown

The enforcement drive operates under a dynamic injunction granted by the Delhi High Court on January 30. Justice Jyoti Singh ruled that JioStar, which holds exclusive broadcast and digital rights for ICC events in India through 2027, had established a strong case of copyright infringement. The order empowers the broadcaster to report newly discovered infringing websites during the tournament for immediate blocking by internet service providers, the Department of Telecommunications, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, without needing to return to court each time.

The court noted that rogue websites "frequently resurface through mirror and redirect domains" and that any delay in blocking them would result in "irreparable harm, revenue loss, and dilution of exclusive rights".

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Scale of the Operation

Beyond the app store removals, JioStar has suspended 141 piracy websites globally during the tournament, disrupting an estimated 12.2 million instances of infringing traffic. An additional 279 websites carrying unauthorised streams, with more than two million in combined traffic, have been blocked at the ISP level under the same judicial order.

JioStar's anti-piracy team has also acted in real time against 15 additional third-party applications, impacting an estimated 11.5 million piracy-driven traffic instances. The company said the strategy is designed to choke off illegal supply and redirect viewers to its official platforms, including JioHotstar.

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Building on Earlier Enforcement

The app store purge builds on criminal enforcement measures JioStar initiated last year, which the company said led to the shutdown of a large-scale IPTV operation serving millions of users worldwide. With the T20 World Cup, which runs from February 7 to March 8, entering its final stretch, the broadcaster's multi-front campaign spanning courts, code takedowns, and ISP-level blocks reflects the mounting pressure on rights holders to defend live sports content in an era of easily replicated digital streams.