Advanced Television

piracy

Italy: Widespread pay-TV piracy fines

Over 2,282 individuals in 80 Italian provinces have been identified and fined for illegal IPTV streaming of copyrighted content, particularly football. This follows a memorandum of understanding between the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AgCom) and the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police). The fines, issued between March and April 2025, range from €154 to €1,032, based […]

May 19, 2025From Branislav Pekic in Rome

France: Court orders VPNs to block illegal sports streaming

Canal+ has secured a ruling from the Paris Judicial Court ordering the blocking of over 200 domain names associated with illegal sports streaming sites by five VPN providers. In accordance with the ruling, a legal first, VPN providers NordVPN, CyberGhost, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, and Proton are now required to block access to 203 domain names used […]

May 16, 2025

Research: ISDs pose national security threat in Taiwan

Research reveals that illicit streaming devices (ISDs) in Taiwan are not only enabling rampant piracy, but also potentially pose significant cybersecurity threats to consumers and national infrastructure. The study was released at an enforcement workshop hosted in Taipei by the Taiwan Society of Convergence and the Asia Video Industry Association’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP). The […]

May 13, 2025

Fines, sentences in Ilford piracy case

A collaborative effort between the UK’s National Crime Agency Accredited Financial Investigator (NCA AFI), Barking and Dagenham and Redbridge Councils, Sky Broadcasting UK Limited (Sky UK), and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has culminated in significant convictions and financial recoveries in a complex IPTV piracy case. Since December 2022, the joint investigation has focused […]

May 9, 2025By Colin Mann

beIN’s TOD taps Friend MTS to tackle piracy

Friend MTS, a provider of content protection services, has announced that TOD, the sports and entertainment OTT subscription service for the MENA region by beIN Media Group (beIN), has chosen FMTS’s watermarking and anti-piracy services to protect its content including movies, the Premier League and the US Open. The latest version of the TOD platform […]

May 8, 2025

Piracy: Experts call for unified action

At the WAVES 2025 conference in New Delhi, a panel discussion on Piracy: Safeguarding Content through Technology brought together global leaders in media, law, and cybersecurity to address one of the most pressing challenges facing the digital content economy. Moderated by Neil Gane, Vice President and Head of Asia Pacific at IP House, the conversation […]

May 6, 2025By Colin Mann

Success in MultiChoice piracy case

South African pay-TV operator MultiChoice says a significant legal victory has been achieved in the fight against digital piracy, with the Germiston Regional Court finding Vuyisile Victor Selem guilty on all charges in case 285/12/2023. The charges included contravention of the Cybercrime Act 19 of 2022 and fraud – the accused has been sentenced to […]

April 30, 2025By Colin Mann

Piracy in Portugal at “alarming” levels

Portugal’s piracy problem is reaching “alarming” levels, with an estimated 288,000 households illegally accessing digital and audiovisual services monthly. The claim comes from Pedro Mota Soares, the general secretary of Apritel, the Portuguese association of electronic communications operators. Speaking to the Lusa news agency, he highlighted that young people are particularly affected, with Portugal having […]

April 29, 2025From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Plymouth licensee fined £14k for illegal Sky Sports screening

On March 27th, the licensee of the Premiere Bar and Grill in Plymouth, Devon, was found guilty of three charges related to the illegal broadcast of Sky televised programming. In this case, Vahid Babolhavaeji televised Sky Sports football matches with the intent to avoid payment of the applicable commercial subscription charge. Babolhavaeji, the designated premises […]

April 4, 2025

European broadcasters take united stance against piracy

European broadcasters, through the Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT), the Association of European Radios (AER) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which represent both commercial and public service broadcasters as well as video-on-services operators, have called on the Member States of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related […]

April 1, 2025