REPORT: PAY-TV PROVIDERS LOST €5.8BN TO PIRACY IN 2025
- AAPA study estimates illicit IPTV’s reach and economic impact across 38 economies.
- An estimated 34.4 million users generated €2.6 billion for illegal providers in 2025.
- Legitimate pay-TV providers face potential annual revenue losses of €5.8 billion.
- AAPA calls for rapid enforcement, dynamic blocking and cross-sector cooperation.
Trade body the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) has released a study, Illicit IPTV in Europe and North Africa – Economic Report October 2026, which examines the scale and economic consequences of illicit IPTV across 38 economies in Europe and North Africa. By extending the analysis to public finances and employment, it demonstrates why tackling piracy matters to governments, workers and consumers, as well as to the audiovisual sector.
Across the European Union, the UK and Switzerland, an estimated 34.4 million people accessed illicit IPTV in 2025, generating €2.6 billion in annual revenue for illegal providers. Potential annual revenue losses to legitimate pay-TV providers are estimated at €5.8 billion. These figures represent resources that could otherwise support content creation, jobs and economic growth. The finding that approximately one in five young people aged 16–24 uses these services raises further concerns about the future sustainability of the market, says AAPA. According to AAPA, the European Commission’s 2023 Recommendation on combating online piracy of sports and other live events provided an important reference point for action. Its objectives must now translate into effective protection in practice. For live content, timing is decisive: a remedy delivered after an event has ended cannot recover the value lost during the broadcast.
AAPA advocates a coherent framework combining rapid removal at source, dynamic blocking and effective measures against persistently non-compliant infrastructure providers. Supported by appropriate safeguards, these complementary measures must address the ability of illegal IPTV services to change domains, move between providers and exploit jurisdictional boundaries. Cooperation across the intermediary chain is essential, alongside enforceable responsibilities when voluntary engagement fails.
“Piracy is a copyright problem that sits within a wider cybercrime infrastructure,” said AAPA. “Addressing it requires sustained cooperation between rights holders, intermediaries, policymakers and law enforcement. This study contributes an economic evidence base to that collective effort, while recognising that the wider consequences for creative opportunity, cultural diversity and sporting development cannot be fully captured in financial estimates.”
According to Miruna Herovanu, Executive Director, AAPA, the estimates presented in the report should inform both policy and action. “Our ambition is a sustainable audiovisual market in which investment is rewarded, audiences can trust the services they use, and the rights supporting creative and sporting endeavour are protected effectively,” she concluded.
Source: advanced-television.com
