Pirate IPTV Service With One Million Users Shut Down by Police

By iptv.legal , in News , at May 24, 2023

A massive pirate IPTV service with over one million users was shut down by Dutch Police.

According to reports, a substantial operation by the Dutch Police (FIOD) has resulted in a significant takedown of one of Europe’s most extensive IPTV services, reportedly supporting over a million users.

While the name of the IPTV service remains undisclosed by the authorities, it was reported to be considerable.

This undisclosed pirate IPTV service carried a monthly subscription fee of around 10 euros and offered over 10,000 television channels.

In addition to these channels, the service provided access to a vast library of 15,000 on-demand movies and TV series, sourced from popular platforms such as Disney+ and Netflix. This extensive illegal access has caused considerable financial damage.

BREIN revealed that the operation affected several hundred thousand households, leading to a blackout of their television services.

The services and companies involved remain anonymous, but BREIN, a local anti-piracy entity, reported that the targeted organization supplied access through third-party sellers.

Four individuals were arrested during the police raids, with searches carried out at multiple business and residential locations.

As a result of these searches, vehicles, computers, bank accounts, and substantial cash amounts were seized.

This operation took place across various cities in the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, Almere, Enschede, The Hague, and Den Helder.

BREIN’s director, Tim Kuik, lauded this operation as the most extensive criminal investigation into digital piracy in the Netherlands ever conducted by the Dutch fiscal police.

Kuik stated the following:

“This is the largest criminal investigation by FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service into digital piracy in the Netherlands ever. Illegal IPTV is the most serious threat to the legal supply of films, series, television and sports broadcasts. In this case, it concerns a criminal organization behind the large-scale sale of illegal IPTV subscriptions in, among others, the Netherlands. This concerns tens of millions of euros in damage in the Netherlands alone”

Research by Bournemouth University discovered that in 2021 more than 8% of the Netherlands population, or more than 1 million users, will be subscribed to illegal IPTV for an average price of 5.35 euros per month. That is equal to a total of 68.7 million euros.

Despite these takedowns, other IPTV services continue to proliferate, capitalizing on the opportunity presented by a potential revenue stream of a billion euros per year. However, the risks involved in such operations are far from theoretical, as this recent operation shows.

In the aftermath of this operation, numerous IPTV related domains and IP addresses have reportedly gone dark. As investigations continue and potential prosecution looms, more details are expected to surface.

For more information on this story, you can view the original press release on the Dutch Police FIOD website.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen notable IPTV services get into legal trouble or even shut down.

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