The Football Association of Nepal (FIFA) has banned more than 1,000 websites that were illegally broadcasting the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Nepal. FIFA has removed links to these unauthorized ban sites at the request and coordination of the official broadcasters.
The official rights to broadcast the FIFA World Cup in Nepal have been granted to Aspro Media Pvt. Ltd. The company has given the rights to broadcast on television to Himalaya Sports and the rights to broadcast on digital platforms to DishHome Go. DishHome is broadcasting the World Cup digitally through its OTT platform ‘Digo’ app.
FIFA’s central anti-piracy team is directly supporting this work. Locally, the Nepal Telecommunication Authority and Internet Service Providers are working to block unauthorized sites, while FIFA’s mechanism is working at the international level.
FIFA has been using AI bots and web crawlers to stop such illegal activities. They detect live streaming links and server IP addresses on the internet within seconds and report them to internet providers. This causes links to suddenly close even during the game. In addition, pirated links shared on social media such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Telegram, and X are removed by FIFA’s copyright team within minutes while the game is ongoing.
The government of Nepal has also shown its readiness to stop pirated links and unauthorized streaming. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has been sending letters to the Nepal Telecommunication Authority, directing it to close such unauthorized sites. Surya Prasad Lamichhane, Deputy Director of the Authority, informed that more than 45 unauthorized platforms have been blocked.
