Piracy: Spanish authorities close main illegal streaming channel

The Guardia Civil (the Spanish gendarmerie) has "deactivated the most important illegal streaming channel in Spain," it announced on 15/11/2024. Without naming it, the Spanish authority is referring to the instant messaging application "Cristal Azul" on which matches (mainly football) were being streamed illegally.

"More than 78,000 members of the community on the various channels of this instant messaging application benefited from the broadcasts, causing a loss of earnings of €42m to two well-known companies in Spain," added the Guardia Civil, which opened an investigation after a joint complaint was lodged by LALIGA and Telefonica, which owns the Movistar group, co-broadcaster of LALIGA EA Sports.

"All the channels have been blocked and removed, and the programming code used illegally has been withdrawn. The developer of the software has been indicted."

LALIGA Sector: Spanish professional football league Exclusive commercial agency (for global deals): IMG (since 2018-19) Title Sponsor: • EA Sports (video games publisher): since 2023-24, €30m per… /Latin America: the…