€5.3m Pirate IPTV Network ‘Dismantled’ By Spanish Police is Still Streaming

Spain's Ministry of the Interior says eight people have been arrested after police dismantled a €5.3m pirate IPTV network serving local expats. Authorities aren't naming the service but if the name TVMucho rings any bells, people are on the right track. That police identified the owner of the service is no surprise. The Dutchman has never hidden away and has continuously claimed his service operates legally. If only in part, it's still streaming channels right now.

A press release issued by Spain’s Ministry of the Interior on Friday initially sounds straightforward.

Based on a complaint filed by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, in November 2022 an investigation was launched to identify those responsible for two websites that marketed a service that allegedly violated the rights of ACE members.

“The complex computer and banking investigation carried out, together with several police investigation techniques, allowed the specialists of the Central Cybercrime Unit to prove that the websites investigated were registered, controlled and operated from several companies directed by the main suspect, a citizen of Dutch origin,” the statement reads.

“This man allegedly led a business and criminal network, made up of citizens living mainly in Gran Canaria, which appeared to be a legitimate business structure with which he managed to earn more than 5,300,000 euros.”

International TV Channels, Movies, TV Series

The press release describes an “international criminal organization” operating a pirate IPTV network using “the latest technology and the most advanced technical devices” to capture satellite signals from various countries.

“They subsequently amplified them and decrypted the multimedia content they transported, content that they then distributed publicly and illegally. In total, more than 130 international television channels and thousands of movies and series that they made available to citizens around the world,” the Ministry continues.

The service, which isn’t named by the Ministry, reportedly had more than 14,000 subscribers who paid between 10 and 19 euros per month, resulting in “damage to the rights of the authors, producers and distributors of these artistic works.”

Service Dismantled, Eight People Arrested

The Ministry of the Interior says that eight people, described as the main members of the network “who held or had held positions of responsibility” have now been arrested.

They were targeted in raids on addresses in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Madrid, Oviedo, and Málaga. Two home searches, executed simultaneously, led to the seizure of a vehicle and two computers. Bank accounts containing 80,000 euros were frozen.

“Likewise, the servers of the online platforms investigated were seized and blocked. Sixteen web pages controlled by this criminal organization were also blocked, so that when their users currently try to access them, their access is prevented. It redirects them to a National Police website where a message is displayed informing them that this page has been intercepted,” the government ministry concludes.

Service Targeted Was TVMucho, Recently Rebranded as Teeveeing

Supplied by the Ministry of the Interior, the video above is much like many others depicting raids against pirate IPTV services. In this case we can confirm the target was the service formerly known as TVMucho and more recently known as Teeveeing.

Launched around 2015 and originally incorporated in London as TVMucho Ltd early 2016, the company ran for 18 months before shutting down. Company data in Spain reveals that TVMucho Sociedad Limitada began trading just under nine years ago and was registered to an address in Las Palmas.

Unless there was a lot more going on than its public image suggested, TVMucho didn’t seem to exist for the purpose of usurping traditional pay TV providers or the likes of Netflix.

The premise was simple; expats away from home with zero access to the free-to-air channels they had come to rely on, could subscribe to TVMucho and the service would pipe those channels to them over the internet for viewing in Spain.

At least as far as we’re aware, the channels on offer from TVMucho were the channels expats would receive simply by switching on a TV at home. While a TV license would be required to view them in the UK, for example, none required a subscription or payment over and above that.

Beyond a handful of free minutes as a promotion, TVMucho did cost money to view but with no official alternative, the service proved popular.

Citing ‘Insurmountable Challenges’ TVMucho Shuts Down

In a message that appeared on its homepage in October 2023, TVMucho spoke of “unsurmountable challenges” presented by a company in the U.S. and advised its customers the company had ceased trading with immediate effect.

Since the authorities have refrained from revealing the identity of the main suspect, we won’t be naming him here either. However, the paragraph that references the “often misunderstood” business model is something the Dutch owner of TVMucho has spoken about for years.

We will revisit his position on legality at a later time once the charges against him have been made clear; what we can confirm is that while he believed that the law protected his business, major rightsholders have repeatedly argued quite the opposite.

TVMucho is Dead, long Live TeeVeeing?

The sudden demise of TVMucho was matched by the equally sudden appearance of an almost identical platform called TeeVeeing.

All former subscribers of TVMucho needed to do was agree to new terms and conditions and according to reports, normal service was resumed.

The marketing material pretty much confirmed that everything would remain the same, including access to the same free-to-air content from back home (but unavailable in Spain), all laid out nicely in a glossy EPG.

For reasons that still aren’t clear, the TeeVeeing app is still available on Apple’s App Store and still free to download from Google Play. That doesn’t seem to dovetail particularly well with the emphasis being placed on “dismantled” services and blocked websites in Spain.

Yet, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment confirms that this action is indeed about TVMucho and TeeVeeing and the “125 channels, including major networks like BBC, ITV, Sky, and RTL” offered by the service(s).

The report avoids mentioning that the channels are all free-to-air but notes that due to the work of the Spanish National Police, “the access to infringed content and 15 related domains were blocked.”

Dismantled, or Just Dismantled a Bit?

When putting together this report on Friday, we had zero problems accessing the TVMucho website. We had zero problems accessing the website of TeeVeeing too, which in view of the statements about its dismantling is a bit of an issue. Through our Spanish contacts we asked if the websites were accessible in Spain and whether by pure luck or otherwise, neither were blocked.

While that’s not a particularly big deal for TVMucho’s website, the same can’t be said about that of TeeVeeing; quite obviously it’s still online and as the screenshot sent to us independently confirms, a live event that was taking place in the UK on Friday afternoon was being shown live, in browser, no complications.

Which 16 websites the Spanish government is referring to as blocked is unclear. The same seems to hold true for the dismantled services that, as least as far as we can tell, doesn’t include the main one. Other questions can be addressed in due course, including the claim that the suspects captured satellite broadcasts.

It’s possible they did just that, but there’s also information to suggest that content was more easily obtained from at least one other IPTV service.

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