Italy: 2m use pirate IPTV services
August 21, 2018
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
An estimated 2 million Italians access the main pay-TV platforms in the country (Sky Italia, Mediaset Premium and DAZN) via pirate IPTV services.
The figure comes from an Ipsos study for the Italian Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content (Fapav) which indicates that around two out of five Italians consume illegal video streams. This compares to the 5 million regular subscribers to Sky Italia, the country’s leading pay-TV platform.
The lost revenue of broadcasters is estimated at €617 million, while the losses to the Italian economy top €1 billion.
Over the past year, 37 per cent of the Italian population illegally used audiovisual content at least once (-2 per cent on 2016), a figure that rises to 70 per cent considering only internet users.
The study estimates that 631 million acts of piracy were committed in 2017 (-6 per cent), with movies dominating (81 per cent), followed by TV series, most commonly via streaming (26 per cent) and downloads/P2P (22 per cent).
Watching pay-TV channels via IPTV is an illegal practice, punished by Italian law with sentences up to 3 years of imprisonment and administrative fines of up to €25,000.
However, Fapav is now seeking new enforcement instruments, proposing the administrative blocking of IP addresses, stay down formulas and a judicial option.