Short answer: enforcement against unlicensed IPTV escalated sharply in 2026, and the pattern changed. Operation Switch Off, coordinated by Europol, Eurojust and Interpol and led by Italy's Catania prosecutors, seized three industrial-scale IPTV services across 11 cities and 14 countries, identifying 31 suspects in Italy, the UK, Spain, Romania and Kosovo. In the UK, City of London Police's PIPCU arrested four people in Manchester over a £750,000 operation. The common thread: these are now prosecuted as organised crime rather than civil copyright matters, and the timing was driven by the Milan Winter Olympics.
Operation Switch Off
The largest action of the year targeted services that captured and re-transmitted broadcasts from Sky, DAZN, Mediaset, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Paramount and Disney+.
Three industrial-scale IPTV services were seized. The operation ran through 11 cities across 14 countries, with 31 individuals identified — 11 in Italy, and 14 across the UK, Spain, Romania and Kosovo. Charges included broadcasting conditional-access television programming and unauthorised access to computer systems.
Italy led it for a specific reason: the country hosted the Winter Olympics in Milan in February, and preventing unauthorised broadcast of the games was a national priority. Major sporting events have become the scheduling driver for enforcement, which is a change from the opportunistic pattern of earlier years.
A related February action, coordinated by Eurojust with Europol support, involved agencies from Italy, Romania, Spain, the UK, Canada, Kosovo and South Korea. Investigators seized three IPTV platforms operating from Italy and shut down a provider running on servers in Romania. It built on data seized during a 2024 takedown — enforcement compounding on itself, with each operation supplying evidence for the next.
The Manchester arrests
In the UK, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit arrested four people in Manchester over an operation valued at £750,000, working directly with Sky.
Police framed it as a partnership model: working with rights holders to dismantle networks, with the stated aim of deterring people who profit from piracy. Sky's position was that it protects content given the investment involved and will keep working with police to disrupt these networks.
One detail from the police statement worth noting for viewers rather than operators: research cited by BeStreamWise found nearly 65% of illegal streamers had encountered security problems such as malware. Whatever the copyright argument, that's the consumer-side risk, and it's the part that affects people who think they're just getting cheap football.
What changed in the approach
Three shifts are visible across the year's actions.
Criminal, not civil. These are prosecutions under organised-crime frameworks, not rights holders suing for damages. That brings arrests, asset seizure and custodial sentences into play.
Coordinated internationally by design. Europol, Eurojust and Interpol operating together, with national forces in a dozen-plus countries acting simultaneously. IPTV operations deliberately spread infrastructure across jurisdictions; the enforcement response now spreads across them too.
Timed to live sport. The Olympics drove the Italian action. Rights holders have pushed for real-time disruption during major broadcasts, because that's when the services are both most valuable and most visible.
What it means for subscribers
Enforcement continues to focus on operators rather than customers. That's been the consistent pattern, and nothing in this year's actions changed it.
The practical effect on subscribers is different and more mundane: services disappear. When infrastructure is seized, subscriptions stop working immediately, with no refund and nobody to contact. Anyone who paid annually loses the balance.
That's the recurring outcome — not prosecution, but a service that vanishes mid-season, usually during exactly the period it was bought for.
A note on sources
Coverage of this topic includes a lot of material from companies selling anti-piracy services, and from IPTV services themselves publishing "is IPTV legal" explainers that conclude by recommending their own product. Several widely-circulated statistics about subscriber numbers and revenue trace back to those sources rather than to court documents or police statements.
The figures above come from the Europol-coordinated operations as reported, and from City of London Police's own statement. Where numbers circulate without that provenance, they're worth treating carefully.
Quick answers
What was Operation Switch Off? A Europol, Eurojust and Interpol operation led by Italian prosecutors that seized three large IPTV services across 14 countries.
Why was Italy leading? It hosted the Milan Winter Olympics in February, making unauthorised sports broadcast a national enforcement priority.
Are subscribers being prosecuted? Enforcement has focused on operators. The practical risk to subscribers is losing a paid-up service overnight.
What's the security angle? Research cited by police found nearly 65% of illegal streamers had encountered malware or similar problems.
Is this likely to continue? The pattern suggests yes, particularly around major sporting events.
Sources: BleepingComputer reporting on Operation Switch Off; City of London Police statement on the Manchester arrests; Creatives Unite reporting on the February multi-country action. Figures from anti-piracy vendors and IPTV marketing sites have been excluded.