One illegal IPTV platform felt the hammer go down as raids in Argentina led to the shutdown of Digital TV and the arrest of its founder.
Digital TV boasted around 85,000 customers and offered a library of 900 live channels including sports, 8,000 films, 400 television series, and some adult content.
The raid was sparked by a complaint filed by DIRECTV with the Alliance Against Pay Television Piracy, or Alianza, an industry group made up of media players in Latin America. The group traced the location of Digital TV and its founder, Martin Coll, through his IP addresses as reported by TorrentFreak
The raid is a reminder of how quickly these illegal services can go down – subscribers likely saw their feeds abruptly halt. But this is only a drop in the ocean considering how many illegal IPTV services are available. Snuffing out one only leaves room for other illegal services to swoop in to fill the shady demand for free content.
Alianza is run by Jorge Bacaloni, who also works with DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Brasil to root out and shut down pirate IPTV services.
This is a big undertaking. A slew of governments, companies, and copyright holders around the world are working together to shut down all sources of illegal streaming. There have been a number of crackdowns this year, some netting pirates serious jail time.
“It is necessary for the entire industry to accept that this is a challenge for everyone and to work in coordination,” Bacaloni said in a statement released by TorrentFreak.
IPTV is legal if the providers purchase the licenses for the content in their video catalogs, but groups like Digital TV are skirting that rule by providing their customers content without proper approvals.
In similar cases, piracy operators faced serious fines. The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy won a court case shutting down Jaboo TV, another illegal IPTV service. Such services steal billions of dollars from creators and rightsholders every year.
Alianza has not responded to a request for comment on the case involving Martin Coll. What’s to become of him has yet to be determined. Digital TV has already been shut down.