French authorities launch major crackdown on illegal streaming

French communications watchdog Arcom is cracking down on illegal streaming websites, especially those broadcasting Ligue 1 football matches and other sports fixtures.

The regulatory agency has already blocked 174 domain names since the start of the season which were found to be streaming sports events illegally, particularly after the launch of the new sports broadcaster DAZN.

This service has come under fire for its perceived high prices (€39.99 per month without a subscription or €29.99 per month if paid upfront for a year), which many streamers have said they are unwilling to pay.

Many streaming services were blocked before the third day of the Ligue 1 championship last Friday (August 30), ahead of the Lyon-Strasbourg match.

A further set of sites was blocked on Sunday September 1, just before the Lille-PSG match.

The 2021 Loi Bachelot allows Arcom to block the illegal transmission of sporting events.

Read also: France ‘must crackdown on rise in illegal sports streaming sites’ 
Read also: How will France’s online safety bill protect you from scammers? 

Increased IPTV

More people than ever are turning to online streaming sites and IPTV (Internet Protocol television) boxes to watch sports. Canal+ says streaming is “its main rival”, and costs TV companies up to €500m in lost profits each year.

The sports sector as a whole is thought to lose around €1 billion in profits each year due to illegal streaming.

The association of French television companies, ACCES, met to address the problem in November.

“We have noticed that piracy via social networks is starting to decline, but at the same time it is increasing on IPTV [internet-protocol television]. We remain very vigilant,” said an internal source at Arcom to Capital, of its latest blocking campaign.

IPTV is television that uses the internet rather than traditional broadcast, TV, cable, or satellite. It is usually watched in the same way as regular TV, on a screen through a ‘top-box’. Users typically need to subscribe to an IPTV service to use it, but can also use illegal streaming services online. 

IPTV is not necessarily illegal in itself, but its internet connection means that it is a prime way for fraudsters to set up illegal streaming systems. It is illegal for websites to retransmit online streams of copyrighted content.

An increasing number of internet users are also equipped with VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). These systems are not illegal, but they do allow users to access content that is blocked in their own country but available in other countries. This is illegal.

This often happens for football matches, which may be shown for free in one country, but on a pay-per-view channel in another.

Arcom has employed six new staff members to work on this latest blocking campaign, but also relies on an automated system that has enabled more than 5,000 sites to be taken offline over the past two years. 

Yet, the effort is constant, because as soon as one site is blocked, fraudsters usually set up another one using a different domain name.

France ‘could learn much’ from UK on streaming

ACCES would like to see illegal streams taken down more quickly, with more prosecutions against site owners.

In the UK, illegal streams are often taken down within five minutes, thanks to image recognition software. In France, it can take much longer, requiring intervention by Arcep and Internet Service Providers.

ACCES says France could learn much from the UK’s model.

Much of the UK’s success against illegal streams stems from a joint effort by Sky, the Premier League, FACT, Crimestoppers and the police, which have put legal and technical measures in place to allow streams to be removed quickly.

During the 2021-22 football season, the Premier League says it stopped over 600,000 illegal streams. In February 2023, Sky won a High Court battle to force Internet Service Providers to block illegal streams containing their content.

However, France’s Ligue 1 has far more limited means than the Premier League and Sky. Ligue 1 matches are currently shown on one of two legal streaming platforms: Amazon Prime and Canal+. 

This means that France-based fans need to pay for two services to watch all the matches legally.