An operation led by Europol, in which police forces from Cyprus participated, the Greece, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, was targeted by one of the world's largest IPTV piracy operations.
At least three people were arrested, and servers in Bulgaria and the Netherlands that supplied content to approximately 500.000 subscribers worldwide, with annual revenues that, according to the Authorities, reached approximately five million euros.
Live TV or IPTV offers access to content but is an extremely expensive proposition, since traditional monopolies require large subscriptions. IPTV offers the well-known to all of us application Kodi with various additives.
Thus there are IPTV pirates, who provide thousands of different subscriptions channela for a few dollars, euros or pounds per month.
This week, however, police forces across Europe have been tuned to hit one of the largest IPTV illegal companies in the world, Torrentfreak says. The survey was launched last February by IPTV and coordinated actions took place on Tuesday in Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece and the Netherlands.
Three suspects were arrested in Cyprus, two in Limassol (43 and 44 years) and one in Larnaca (aged 53 years). They all appear to be part of an international circuit that illegally transmits approximately 1.200 pirate content worldwide.
According to initial reports, the reach of the IPTV service offered by the network was immense. The information they report that the illegal ring had more than 500.000 subscribers, each paying around 10 euros a month.
Police authorities, under the guidance of Europol, have carried out at least nine raids worldwide.
The main servers of the IPTV service were located in Petrich, a small town in Blagoevgrad province of southwest Bulgaria.
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