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In a massive international operation a week before the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Italian authorities have announced the dismantling of a global IPTV network. Dubbed “Operation Switch Off,” the action targeted key infrastructure and a hierarchy of resellers that allegedly served millions of users worldwide.
No other country in Europe generates as much noise around physical anti-piracy crackdowns as Italy, where ‘boots-on-the-ground’ operations have become a regular occurrence.
While the number of affected users doesn’t always seem to add up, it is clear that Italy can and is willing to take action, where other countries do not see IPTV as a priority.
This week, the local authorities announced another major crackdown. Led by the District Prosecutor’s Office of Catania and the Italian Postal Police, “Operation Switch Off” involved raids in 11 Italian cities and 14 countries, including the UK, India, Canada, and Romania.
Operation Switch Off
With support from Eurojust, Europol, and Interpol, the operation dismantled a global network allegedly generating between €8 million and €10 million in illicit revenue every month. Authorities say that they identified 31 key suspects and reportedly disconnected more than 125,000 users in Italy alone, with millions more affected globally.
While the police press release does not mention any names, several sources confirm that the popular IPTV services IPTVItalia, DarkTv, and migliorIPTV are affected. In addition, reseller panels and associated Telegram accounts have been taken offline.
A “Preventive” Strike for the Winter Olympics?
The timing of the raids is also worth highlighting. While the police do not mention the Olympics, this preventive strike a week before the opening ceremony certainly does not hurt.
Coincidence or not, the crackdown can also be seen as a proactive measure to secure the broadcasting market. Italy’s Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, directly connected the operation to the Olympics.
“I thank the State Police, the Catania Prosecutor’s Office, and the international authorities for the results achieved by this raid, which is particularly significant less than ten days before the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics,” Abodi said.
While this week’s actions are new, the evidence is not. According to Italian tech outlet DDay.it, the investigation was fueled by forensic analysis from “Operation Taken Down” in November 2024.
Investigators spent over a year mining data from the seized devices, tracking cryptocurrency flows, and monitoring communication channels. This eventually resulted in a good overview of the broader organization, which led to the crackdown and arrests throughout this week.
International Tentacles
In addition to hardware in Italy, including a SIM farm in Naples that was used to create Telegram bots, the operation also relied on servers elsewhere. This reportedly included six servers strategically placed across Eastern Europe and an unnamed African country to evade law enforcement.
In Kosovo, a local report from Telegrafi confirms that raids also hit Pristina and the village of Zaplluxhë, where police seized computers and hard drives belonging to a suspect identified only as “P.B.”
All in all, Operation Switch Off is yet another successful Italian crackdown. Understandably, the actions received praise from local and international rightsholder groups, including ACE, which sees it as evidence that sustained cross-border cooperation in the fight against piracy pays off.
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Update: After publication, Sky Italia shared the following response from its CEO, Andrea Duilio, with us.
“I would like to thank the Catania District Prosecutor’s Office and the Postal Police for Operation ‘Switch Off’, which once again confirms how piracy is an integral part of organized criminal systems on an international scale,” Duilio says.
“This investigation clearly shows how users of these illegal services, in addition to risking identification and sanctions, fuel criminal businesses and expose themselves to cybersecurity threats of which they are often unaware.”
