Two Brits have been arrested for allegedly running an IPTV illegal streaming platform out of a home on the Costa Blanca.
The Policia Nacional said the platform had 330 paying subscribers and had netted the duo around €190,000 in revenue.
The suspects, aged 70 and 50, now face charges of relating to intellectual property offences, crimes against conditional-access television services and electricity fraud.
The investigation was carried out by the Policia Nacional via its Central Cybercrime Unit, which traced the illegal activity back to a residential property in Alicante.
During a search of the property, officers seized 42 set-top decoder devices, seven memory cards, a computer, two mobile phones and a tablet.
According to police sources, the equipment formed part of a technical infrastructure used to provide subscription packages to television channels without authorisation from rights holders.
The platform allegedly operated via username and password access, enabling customers to stream television content from countries including Spain, Germany, France, Norway and Denmark.
Programming could reportedly be viewed on smart TVs as well as mobile devices.
Investigators believe the suspects went beyond simply providing access credentials. The pair are alleged to have offered tutorials and specific tools – including pre-configured decoders – designed to help users bypass broadcasting protection systems.
Officers say this points to an organised structure equipped with the technical capacity to circumvent conditional access safeguards protecting audiovisual services.
Police have blocked the website linked to the platform, and the investigation remains ongoing to determine whether additional individuals were involved or whether the network had international connections tied to the distribution of illicit content.
