Football fans admit using illicit streams.

ILLEGAL streams are watched by more than a third of Premier League football fans every month according to a new survey.

Radio 5 live quizzed more than 1,000 supporters about their viewing habits.

Nearly half have watched a game using a pirate internet stream at least once, with more than a third logging on to prohibited sites or services every month. One in five watch unlicensed football streams once a week or more, with a quarter using Kodi-style set-top boxes to follow matches. Kodi is not illegal itself, but add-on apps can be loaded on to it to access pirate content.

A third did not know the streams are illegal.

Fans told the survey they watched unofficial streams either because their friend set it up, the stream is good quality or the mainstream subscription packages are not good value for money. Kieron Sharp, director general of the Federation against Copyright Theft, said: "If you are accessing content for free such as sport, TV and films for which you'd normally need a subscription, or go to the cinema, or buy a DVD, this is illegal."