In tens of thousands, possibly even hundreds of thousands of Dutch households, television has gone black after the dismantling of an illegal IPTV service.
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The Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) has seized the servers of an illegal IPTV service in a data center in Den Helder. As a result, the picture has gone black for an estimated more than one million Europeans who bought an illegal subscription for this service. The subscriptions were not only sold via the internet: in the Netherlands subscriptions were also offered for cash payment at telephone shops, among others. In the Netherlands, offering and selling illegal IPTV subscriptions is punishable by law, but buying and watching content via such subscriptions is also not allowed. However, real prosecution of users has never happened in the Netherlands.
BRAIN
According to copyright watchdog BREIN, this is the largest action ever in the Netherlands against copyright infringement. Linear TV channels could be viewed with the illegal IPTV subscription. In addition, the range of all major streaming services from various countries could be viewed. All this for ten euros a year. Anyone who took an annual subscription based on full payment in advance could watch a few months for free and paid around one hundred euros.
Linear
Some of the subscribers used the illegal IPTV subscription as a replacement for the traditional linear subscription from providers such as Ziggo, KPN, T-Mobile or Delta. Dutch people abroad could watch Dutch TV channels and premium channels without a satellite dish, even in places where satellite reception was not possible. But illegal IPTV in general seems especially popular with customers who want to watch channels from abroad that Dutch providers are not allowed to offer due to broadcasting rights. For example, the commercial channels from Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom and the US.
streaming
This IPTV service was particularly noticeable because the almost complete range of streaming services such as Netflix, Disney +, HBO Max, Videoland, Prime Video and SkyShowtime was also available. Formula 1, football and darts could also be followed live via Viaplay. Formula 1 could also be viewed on dozens of other foreign channels, for example via the various Sky channels in Europe. The images from the cockpit of Formula 1 drivers could be followed through the illegal forwarding of the F1 TV Pro channels. The user of the illegal IPTV service did not have to pay anything extra for all these extras.
Lost money
The buyer of an illegal season ticket has permanently lost the prepaid subscription amount – subscriptions could be taken out for a duration of up to two years. FIOD thinks that this money has been laundered. The investigative service has therefore started a money laundering investigation. In this context, raids were carried out in several business premises and homes in the Netherlands, including in Amsterdam and The Hague. Luxury goods such as cars and a lot of cash were seized. The administration and computer equipment were also taken by the FIOD, which received help in this action from the European police organization Europol. The illegal IPTV service was available on the internet under various names.
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