City of London Police have seized more than £1.2 million worth of equipment after shutting down a major illegal streaming data centre in Farnborough.
The operation was led by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), working with Sky, and disrupted thousands of illicit streams across the UK.
Police said the data centre hosted clusters of high-bandwidth servers used to supply illegal streams to many thousands of customers nationwide.
Two people were arrested in connection with the operation, while £700,000 was seized from one individual. Both have since been released under investigation.
Detective Sergeant Ben Hobbs of PIPCU said the size of the operation showed how widespread illegal streaming had become in the UK.
“We will continue to work closely with industry partners like Sky to disrupt these illegal streaming networks and protect consumers,” he said.
Sky’s group director of anti-piracy, Matt Hibbert, said illegal streaming was part of organised criminality that undermines the creative industries and posed risks to consumers.
Police and industry partners warned that illegal IPTV services can expose users to compromised devices, personal data theft, banking fraud and identity fraud.
