Another IPTV service was shut down this week. Distributed under the brand Global Entertainment, the service seemed to be taken over by police in the UK Tuesday.
Rather than the content they had paid for, users were met with this message: “This illegal stream has been seized by Norfolk and Sussex Police. Watching illegal broadcasts is a crime. Your IP address has been recorded. You are instructed to cease and desist immediately from all illegal media streaming.”
Photos from users quickly started circulating on message boards, along with theories about whether the message was legitimate. Some speculated that the owners of the service may have faked the shutdown to get out of the business and take subscribers’ money with them.
Torrent Freak reached out to the Suffolk Police, who confirmed that the message was part of an investigation with this message: “Officers are aware that speculation is circulating online stating that the on screen message is a ‘hack’. However, recipients should be clear that this is a genuine police operation.”
Later, a 24 year old man was arrested “in connection with suspected illegal streaming of premium television channels, and other copyrighted material.” The Cyber and Serious Organised Crime team found that content was being distributed to “tens of thousands of people.” The man was arrested under section 44 of the Serious Crime Act and Section 11 of the Fraud Act, according to a report from Sussex Police.
This is just the latest pirate IPTV service to be shut down. We recently heard about a service with over 2 million users being taken down in “one of the largest IPTV busts in history” and the well known NitroTV being sued by major entertainment companies. As Torrent Freak notes, this seems to be the first time an IPTV service has been taken over by police and replaced with a warning to customers.