Police have dismantled a popular illicit streaming service that broadcast Premier League matches to 900,000 people worldwide, including those in the UK and Europe. Operated from Hanoi, the service, known as BestBuy IPTV, offered access to all televised Premier League matches for as little as £40 per year.
BestBuy IPTV also bundled around 10,000 paid-for channels from across the globe, featuring blockbuster films and TV shows. Internet Protocol Television, or IPTV, enables television to be distributed over the internet instead of traditional formats. Legal services like BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and Sky Glass use IPTV technology. However, illegal streamers often co-opt the term to offer premium content from services like Sky TV, HBO, Disney+, and Netflix at lower prices without paying royalties.
Vietnamese law enforcement shut down BestBuy IPTV, cutting off 900,000 customers who illicitly watched Premier League fixtures. The owner, Le Hai Nam, received a suspended 30-month prison sentence and fines totaling over £21,000. According to a US Trade Representative report, BestBuy IPTV offered illicit channels globally, compatible with most platforms.
Subscribers paid £40 annually for access to 10,000 channels from 38 countries, including Premier League matches. Le Hai Nam’s operation spanned 12,000 resellers and required 2,000 re-streamers to serve 900,000 customers, potentially bringing in £36 million per year. The service used a modified version of Extreme Code, and due to vulnerabilities in the source code, the police were able to track their IPs and crack their operation.
Detective Chief Inspector Emma Warbey of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police warned: “Illegal streaming funds other serious criminal activity and exposes users to data theft, fraud, and malware. Targeting grassroots sellers sends a clear message that this will not be tolerated.”
The closure of BestBuy IPTV marked Vietnam’s first criminal sentence for online copyright infringement.
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“The defendant violated copyright laws protecting the Motion Picture Association and the Premier League,” said Judge Le Hai Yen of the Hanoi People’s Court. “[Such crimes are] a danger to society and needed strict enforcement to deter others.” Premier League General Counsel Kevin Plumb stated: “This result should serve as a stark warning to anyone involved in the illegal supply of Premier League streams in Vietnam.”
