WONDERING what’s changed after Amazon’s big crackdown on illegal Fire Stick streaming? Millions of devices are affected.
Last week, The Sun revealed how Amazon was launching a major bid to prevent Fire Stick owners from watching pirated telly on their devices.
For years, Amazon has been blocking piracy apps on its official Appstore.
But last week, Amazon began rolling out a new block that would prevent “side-loaded” piracy apps – ones from outside the Appstore – from working too.
These so-called ‘dodgy’ apps would previously have allowed Fire Stick to watch top Hollywood flicks and premium live sports without paying the creators and broadcasters.
But Fire Stick owners who are using these apps are now being blocked.
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IS ILLEGALLY STREAMING NOW BANNED ON FIRE STICKS?
Watching pirated telly on your Amazon Fire TV Stick was always unlawful.
And technically, it was always “banned” on Fire Sticks – in the sense that it wasn’t allowed.
Amazon officially restricted any apps that would allow illegal streaming from appearing on its own Appstore.
But Fire Sticks allow “side-loading”, which is when apps from outside of the Appstore can be installed on the device.
TV pirates would use this to install dodgy third-party apps that granted access to pirated telly.
As of Friday, October 31, Amazon has begun rolling out a system-wide block on piracy apps.
“Piracy is illegal, and we’ve always worked to block it from our Appstore,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Sun.
“Through an expanded program led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition fighting digital piracy, we’ll now block apps identified as providing access to pirated content, including those downloaded from outside our Appstore.
“This builds on our ongoing efforts to support creators and protect customers, as piracy can also expose users to malware, viruses, and fraud.”
You can still use your Fire Stick to watch TV legally.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO SIDE-LOADING ON FIRE STICKS?
Side-loading is a complicated issue on the Amazon Fire Sticks.
Until very recently, Amazon Fire Sticks have been based on Google‘s Android operating system.
And Android is an open platform that offers the ability to “side-load” content from outside official app stores.
This lets developers test unreleased versions of software, and gives users flexibility to customise their gadgets.
STREAM SMARTER – NOT MORE DANGEROUSLY
HERE’S some advice from The Sun’s tech editor Sean Keach…
The fact that millions of Brits are turning to piracy isn’t a surprise.
Telly subscriptions are now wildly expensive, and it’s increasingly hard to justify having them all.
I mean a top-tier Netflix subscription will cost you £17.99 a month, while Disney+ comes in at £14.99 a month.
And the offering seems to be getting worse: Amazon now shows ads on your Prime Video movies and shows unless you pay extra (on top of your Prime membership) to remove them.
That’s an extra £2.99 on top of the regular £8.99 fee.
Netflix, meanwhile, just hiked prices in the US – and experts told The Sun that a UK rise is likely to follow.
And if you pay for Sky – and extra services like Sky Sports – then your costs will simply balloon.
So what are you to do?
Well one of the best strategies to cut your TV bills is to try something called “service cycling”.
That’s where you only have one TV service active at a time, and then rotate through a list.
So one month you pay for Netflix and watch all of its top telly.
Then scrap it and move on to Disney+ the next month, before binning that and going to Amazon for the third month.
Do this with three or four services then start the whole process over again.
It means you’ll get three or four months in each year to watch all of each app’s content.
So you won’t miss any top shows, but you’ll avoid paying for all of the apps every single month for an entire year.
It brings enormous savings and you won’t miss out on any great telly either.
Plus it’s totally legal, so you don’t have to worry about that.
Amazon says it isn’t blocking side-loading on existing Fire Stick models as part of the ban.
Instead, it is only blocking specific side-loaded apps that allow for piracy.
However, Amazon recently released a brand new model called the Fire TV Stick 4K Select.
And this runs on Vega OS, which isn’t based on Android.
Side-loading on Vega OS is much more complicated and requires an official Amazon Developer Account.
This effectively puts a stop to mass Fire Stick piracy outright.
It’s also likely that future Fire Stick models will also run on Vega OS instead of the Android-based FireOS.
DOES A VPN GET AROUND THE BAN?
No, TV pirates won’t be able to use a VPN to skirt the ban.
BRITAIN’S STREAMING BILLS
How much does it cost to stream telly in the UK?
You’ll pay a pretty penny if you want to watch all the most premium telly in Britain.
Here’s how much the top-tier subscriptions will set you back each month…
- Netflix Premium – £17.99
- Disney+ Premium – £14.99
- Amazon Prime Video without ads – £11.98
- Apple TV+ – £9.99
- Sky TV – £15
- Sky Sports – £20
- Sky Cinema – £10
- Paramount+ Premium – £10.99
And then there’s the BBC TV Licence Fee, which is currently £169.50 a year (equivalent to £14.13 a month).
If you were to have all of those services, it would come in at £125.07 a month – or a whopping £1,467.78 a year.
However your bill could be slightly less if you claimed Sky TV’s offer for a Standard-tier Netflix subscription with your plan.
These prices also don’t include any pay-per-view sports events that you might want to watch either.
Picture Credit: Netflix
A VPN – or virtual private network – is a type of app that Fire Stick pirates tend to use to mask their activity.
It encrypts online activity, scrambling it so even internet providers can’t see what you’re doing.
And it also allows users to make it seem as though they’re logging on from a totally different location.
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But Amazon is blocking the dodgy illegal streaming apps at device level.
That means even if you’re using a VPN, the dodgy streaming apps won’t work, The Sun understands.
