An illegal IPTV streaming operation that made £2,500,000,000 a year has been bust wide open after it was found to be supplying dodgy box links to more than 22 million households in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Streaming content illegally is something that is growing in popularity, with access to the online world a literal click away on any device.
Whether it is watching the latest Netflix show or live football, there is a growing number of people who don't want to pay for access to such premium content. As a result, illegal streams are their go to, usually through a service known as IPTV.
Standing for internet protocol television, it usually involves side-loading an IPTV app on to your phone or a media device, such as a jailbroken Amazon Fire Stick.
From there, people pay a heavily discounted subscription fee to access thousands of pieces of illegal content, whether being broadcast live - such as a Premier League match - or watching on demand. The service is set up illegally, with the funds going to organised criminals who have pirated the content without licence.
Now, the world's largest IPTV operation offering illegal streams to watch sport has been crushed by authorities at the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA).
Coordinated by Europol and Eurojust and involved more than 270 officers from the Polizia Postale, a total of 89 property searches were carried out in 15 Italian regions.
IPTV is used to stream the Premier League for free or a heavily discounted fee (Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images)
An additional 14 searches were conducted by law enforcement agencies across Europe, including five addresses in England, and further searches and seizures in the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, France, Bulgaria, Germany and Croatia.
In total, 11 people were arrested by the Cybercrime Division of the Croatian Police.
During the raids, cryptocurrency worth £1.37 million was recovered as well as £33,000 in cash; both linked to the IPTV operation. It is estimated the IPTV operation was making around £2.5 billion every year, or roughly £208 million a month, by supplying streams to more than 22,000,000 people in the world.
People use apps side-loaded on to their media devices to watch IPTV (Getty Stock Images)
Mark Mulready, Co-president of AAPA, said: “We applaud the efforts of the Catania Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Croatian State Attorney Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime, Europol, Eurojust, and all of the law enforcement agencies involved in these operations.
"The scale of these multi-jurisdictional law enforcement actions highlights the considerable challenge our industry faces when dealing with such sophisticated international pirate networks. We are proud to have collaborated with our law enforcement partners to provide technical training and in-field support to assist them in successfully tackling the world’s largest pirate network.
"We are very grateful to the AAPA members who supported this action day, including Premier League, Sky Group, Nagravision, Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL), beIN Sports, United Media, Friend MTS and Irdeto.
"We will continue to closely collaborate with law enforcement agencies in Europe and beyond to enable them to successfully identify, investigate and prosecute large-scale cross-border pirate networks.”
It was the world's largest illegal Premier League streaming operation (DARREN STAPLES/AFP via Getty Images)
Matt Hibbert, Group Director of Anti-Piracy at Sky, said: “We’re grateful to the Polizia di Stato, Europol, AAPA, and all law enforcement agencies for their collective efforts in achieving this great result. This sends a strong message that, alongside our partners, we are committed to dismantling pirate networks across borders and holding their ringleaders accountable.
"We will continue supporting efforts to end digital piracy and protect consumers from the risks of these illegal services.”
English (US) ·