Italy’s financial police force Guardia di Finanza has carried out a major crackdown on illegal video streaming IPTV platforms including Xtream Codes. Acting under instruction from the Naples public prosecutor the police said a Europe-wide network of hubs had been located that illegally distributed pay-TV content via web-streaming platforms. Subsequent raids coordinated by EU agencies Europol and Eurojust were carried out in several countries including the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.
The police added that the pirate services had over 5 million users in Italy alone and estimated annual revenues of around EUR 60 million. The Xtream Codes subscription-based platform, designed by two Greek citizens, offered Sky Italia, Dazn, Mediaset, Netflix and Infinity copyrighted content to some 700,000 users, said the police in a statement.
