Illegal PayTV site seized for 65,000 users
65 thousand customers, turnover of 1 million euros
The searches were carried out in as many as 32 Italian provinces (nominally 40% of the national territory) with searches of 71 people and 2 receivers:The investigations were started at the beginning of 2019 by the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Venice which, at following the monitoring of the web, it identified a website which, after registering and simultaneously paying a sum of money on special Postepay cards, allowed private users to make undue use of subscriptions to the main TV and pay platforms (SKY, DAZN, MEDIASET , INFINITY, SPOTIFY) for viewing about 50,000 entertainment contents multimedia of various types (cinema, sporting events, TV series and more).
The Guardia di Finanzia explains that the fraud was carried out on three different levels:
22 technicians who decrypted the signal and then redistribute it; 48 resellers, in charge of streaming the contents to customers; 65 thousand end customers who paid 10 euros per month to enjoy content illicitly. The turnover was equal to 1 million euros per year. Federico Bagnoli Rossi, FAPAV Secretary General comments:
The activities carried out by the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, to whom go our most heartfelt thanks, is of particular importance because it goes to tackle one of the most harmful forms of piracy of audiovisual, that is, the IPTV illegal. In the study FAPAV/Ipsos, which we recently published, has been highlighted as a piracy audio-visual is a phenomenon that is far from to be underestimated, with an incidence of 37% among the adult population. The IPTV illegal, in particular, represent one of the modes of use of illicit growth: its incidence at the end of 2019 is 10%, about a quarter of the total of the pirates. According to the findings from the study, during the lockdown, there was a further increase in the number of users of IPTV illegal, almost duplicated compared to 2019. All of this results in a damage to the Italian economy, estimated at one billion and one hundred million euros, with an impact on GDP of almost 500 million in addition to the nearly 200 million euros in terms of lost revenue for the State. Last, but certainly not least, there is the figure on employment, with approximately 5.900 jobs at risk due to the phenomenon. We are pleased to have provided our technical support and we renew our availability to collaborate with the competent Authorities, which we thank for the work carried out for the protection of the audiovisual sector in spite of the limitations imposed by the lockdown. We can't let our guard down in a moment so crucial to the audiovisual industry now in the phase of full resumption after the difficult months and the effects arising from emergency medical care
