Law enforcement smashes illegal streaming network used by record-breaking 22 million people in UK and Europe

A piracy streaming network used by 22 million people across Europe has been dismantled in a record-breaking operation, law enforcement have announced. Dubbed Operation Takedown, the criminal IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) network generated €3 billion in revenue every year for the lawbreakers running it.

The operation was coordinated by the Catania District Attorney’s Office in Italy and involved Europol, Eurojust — the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, and multiple national police forces. The €3bn criminal network was behind more than 2,500 illicit channels, including live sports broadcasts, movies, and TV shows available in the UK and mainland Europe, causing an estimated €10 billion in damages to paid-TV broadcasters.

As well as shuttering thousands of channels — available via streaming on devices, including laptops, tablets, phones, and streaming dongles like the Fire TV Stick, Roku, and others — the operation resulted in 11 arrests, with a total of 102 suspects currently under investigation across multiple jurisdictions.

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The suspects face potential charges including copyright infringement, abusive access to computer systems, possession of access codes, and computer fraud. Law enforcement agencies conducted over 112 house searches across ten countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, and Croatia.

According to law enforcement, the disbanded criminal network was the largest pirate IPTV operation in Europe — with some suggesting it could even lay a claim to being one of the biggest worldwide.

Major streaming services affected by the piracy network included Sky TV, sports streamer DAZN, Mediaset, Amazon’s Prime Video service, Netflix, Paramount+, and Disney+, to name a few. The operation received funding from the European Commission and involved complex coordination between multiple agencies, including the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA).

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The financial scale of the criminal operation was revealed through seized assets, including €1.65 million in cryptocurrency and €40,000 in cash. According to estimates from law enforcement, the network generated monthly revenues of €250 million via its illicit streaming, which offered people access to premium content at a reduced rate compared to subscribing to genuine streaming services behind the same TV series, sports coverage, and films.

Over 560 resellers were identified during the investigation, highlighting the extensive reach of the criminal enterprise.

The operation yielded significant seizures across multiple countries:

At least 29 servers were taken offline during the raids
Law enforcement successfully shuttered 100 website domains linked to illegal streaming
Authorities seized 270 IPTV devices and set-top boxes used in the operation
During searches, police also discovered and confiscated various drugs and weapons

The operation uncovered a complex pyramid structure of suppliers, distributors, sellers, and resellers spanning across multiple European countries. The main servers in the criminal network were traced to the Netherlands, Romania, and China (Hong Kong), though at present, no enforcement has been reported in Hong Kong.

Nine servers identified as responsible for supplying illegal streams into Europe were specifically targeted in Operation Takedown.

Three administrators of the service’s IT infrastructure were traced to the UK and Netherlands, along with 80 IPTV panels used for subscriber management. The criminal network employed sophisticated methods to evade detection, using encrypted messaging services for communication.

The suspects used false identities to register phone numbers, obtain credit cards, subscribe to TV channels, and rent servers. Police monitoring of IPTV forums and social media platforms played a crucial role in identifying the suspects. The two-year investigation uncovered two operational offices in Romania and Hong Kong too.

Co-President of the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), Mark Mulready 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,” he added.

Sky Italia CEO Andrea Duilio, whose company triggered the initial investigation, praised the operation’s success. He said: “Actions like this, together with the systematic contribution of Piracy Shield, that allows us to block pirate sites in real time, make the fight against a phenomenon that damages the audiovisual industry by destroying thousands of jobs, much more effective.”

The coordinated shutdown across the European continent comes after a flurry of anti-piracy activity in the UK too.

Law enforcement worked with anti-piracy organisation FACT and Sky TV to execute a nationwide operation, closing 3,000 adverts on social media for illegal IPTV services offering cut-price access to Sky Sports and other pay-TV channels, cease-and-desist orders handed to 40 individuals from Essex to Dundee, and three arrests.

Police also issued cease-and-desist letters in 15 areas across the UK, warning those living at the address to stop streaming illegally or face the consequences. Of those who have previously received a letter and decided to continue watching TV shows, movies, and live sports coverage via illegal means, law enforcement made arrests too.

With further crackdowns planned, why is piracy such a growing concern again?

A winning combination of tough restrictions on the most popular piracy resources — a High Court order forced the biggest broadband providers in the UK to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay back in 2012 — and the proliferation of easy-to-use streaming services with vast catalogues, like Netflix, caused piracy rates to drop throughout the 2010s.

By 2017, The Software Alliance, an organisation based in Washington DC dedicated to combating online piracy, reported that the number of pirated films had plummeted by 37%. And according to figures from the European Union Intellectual Property Office, piracy bottomed out in 2021.

However, online piracy is on the upswing again.

A recent report from The Daily Beast believes some of the responsibility for this worrying trend rests with the streamers themselves. In a rush to replicate the success of Netflix, a slew of new streamers have entered the market, including Disney+, Paramount+, MGM+, Prime Video, Apple TV+, discovery+, Shudder, HayU, and more.

Many of these companies used to license their TV shows, films, and documentaries to Netflix — before pulling the titles to strengthen the catalogue available on their own bespoke streaming service. Some of these brands are beginning to U-turn on this strategy, but it’s left it much harder (and more expensive) to watch the boxsets and blockbusters that everyone is talking about at the water cooler in the office.

Worse than this fracturing of streaming libraries across a growing number of streamers all demanding between £4.99 and £10.99 per month, The Daily Beast article points the finger at media executives making some content unavailable without resorting to piracy.

Westworld, the big-budget science-fiction show from Jonathan Nolan that premiered on HBO in the US was pulled from Max after its fourth and final season. At the time of writing, it’s not available to watch on the streaming service owned and operated by the broadcaster that made it.

Likewise, Warner Bros. killed off Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme after both films were completed to obtain a $30 million tax write-down. Disney+ and Paramount+ have conducted similar (albeit smaller) purges.

With nowhere else to turn to watch some of these properties, viewers have been forced to look at illicit methods. Filmmaker Alfred Giancarli has voiced sympathy, stating: “Subscribers feel exhaustion and frustration when they can’t access ‘their content,’ or when titles—even titles produced for a streaming service — are dropped from that streaming service, or when titles bounce around from one streamer to another.

“I think there are lots of reasons why people download or use digital file sharing to access movies. From ease-of-use, cost- and space-saving, because the film may not be available where they live or may be too expensive to obtain through traditional means.”

MUSO, which specialises in content protection and piracy intelligence, found that piracy rates declined over the Covid-19 pandemic across Europe. However, since the lifting of lockdown restrictions, there has been a steady uptick in the number of people turning to illicit streams and downloads.

Research from MUSO shows one of the driving factors behind piracy rates is the income level of country. Low per capita income as well as a high degree of income inequality and high youth unemployment are all associated with increased consumption of pirated content.

Geography is another critical factor.

Film studios cut media-distribution deals for defined periods in each country. So, while one distributor might manage the rights in the United States for the next 10 years, the same movie will be handled by another company in Europe and Asia for a shorter period. It’s the reason why some TV shows, films, and documentaries will appear in the Netflix catalogue in the UK, but not in the USA.

Original productions commissioned by the streamers themselves, like Stranger Things and Bridgerton for Netflix and The Mandalorian on Disney+ are becoming increasingly popular since these can be distributed worldwide.

Apple TV+ has a catalogue that’s only made from original productions, so it’s streaming library is consistent across the globe. With no licensing deals, TV shows won’t vanish at the end of a two-year deal — leaving you unable to watch the finale.

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If your favourite film or TV show is no longer available on a streamer in your country, you might want to buy a DVD or Blu-ray disc. However, a growing number of studios aren’t bothering with physical releases these days.

With no recourse — what option to film fans have left other than to steal?

“The streaming industry has to converge towards a system where consumers can watch pretty much everything they like for an affordable price,” Van der Sars, who writes for trade publication TorrentFreak, told The Daily Beast. “That sounds straightforward, but in an industry that’s built around licensing silos with billions in revenue at stake, that’s easier said than done.”

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