THE ILLEGAL STREAMING SERVICE BITPLAY HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN

The Bitplay piracy service, which, amongst other things, unlawfully made premium sports TV channels, live sports broadcasts and selected TV series content available, has been shut down. The service was shut down following a criminal complaint lodged by the Association of Commercial Television Broadcasters (AKTV) and a subsequent investigation by the Czech Police.

The Association of Commercial Television Broadcasters identified the Bitplay piracy service in mid-2025. Given that the operator had failed to cease its activities despite receiving notices from the legitimate copyright holders, the association’s members decided to take legal action against the operator. Together with its supplier, Warezio – a company that monitors the occurrence of illegally shared television content on behalf of television broadcasters – AKTV prepared evidence on the basis of which the law enforcement authorities identified the operator as a natural person.

The Bitplay service, operating on the domains bitplay.my, starstreams.pro, starsites.fun and starlive.click, offered access to premium paid-for sports channels and broadcasts without the relevant licences from the rights holders. The service was promoted via social media and other online channels and targeted Czech, Slovak and Polish users.

“Illegal streaming harms broadcast rights holders, partners of sporting competitions, as well as the athletes and sports clubs themselves. Investment in high-quality content is only possible in an environment where copyright is respected and protected,” said Marek Singer, President of AKTV. “The action taken against the Bitplay service is a further step in our systematic approach to combating the illegal distribution of our content. We will continue to take active measures against entities that unlawfully offer and monetise protected content.”

In addition to the harm caused to rights holders by piracy, the use of illegal services also poses a security risk to users. The biggest problem may be the misuse of personal or payment details, but it could also involve the inadvertent downloading of various types of harmful software (viruses, malware, spyware and others).

In addition to actively protecting copyright through legal means, the Association of Commercial Television Stations has long focused on public awareness campaigns. As part of these activities, it runs an information website on copyright, available at NormalneLegalne.cz. Visitors will find a directory of legal resources, a glossary explaining terms relating to intellectual property protection, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) and regular news updates focusing on internet piracy.