Laois 'dodgy box' blackout as illegal operator targeted

Laois households who rely on illegal dodgy boxes are at risk of a TV blackout or have already lost their services this year after the issuing of legal notice to an illegal TV streaming operator in Laois to shut down the service.

The Laois operator received a written warning in recent months to switch off the system immediately or face the risk of legal proceedings including a criminal prosecution that could lead to jail time.

A total of 13 legal notices were served across Dublin, Cork, Donegal, Offaly, Limerick, Louth, Clare, Westmeath and Laois in December.

They were delivered in person, by post and through email in December and it is claimed that they have resulted in services being shut down, deleted social media profiles, subscriptions being terminated and paid settlements agreed.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) announced the actions against the operators.

"The action is having an impact on the piracy landscape in Ireland, with more operators being identified than ever before, with more illegal services being disrupted impacting tens of thousands of end-users who would have watched the streams," FACT said.

"They are breaking the law, making criminal profits and putting consumers at real risk of malware, data loss and identity theft."

FACT's Chairman Kieron Sharp told RTÉ that the focus at the moment remains on the providers for now.

"We want to protect consumers from these risks and operations such as this ensure the message goes out. It is not scaremongering, these are real criminal actions which consumers and their families are exposed to," Mr Sharp said.

Mr Sharp said that it could be lucrative for operators.

"For some of those who have developed big businesses, one of those I just spoke about had over €900,000 in criminal profits. It can be very lucrative and there’s often organised crime involved because they can create a lot of criminal money in their actions. Fortunately, the majority of people that we do approach, they do comply with the instructions," he added.

Mr Sharp said consumers are not immune to being on the end of legal proceedings.

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"Our interest is on the providers because they create the network of people to use the stolen content. We can’t really say that consumers will not get swept up in these operations in the future, but our focus is certainly on the providers," he said.

FACT said that its investigations and operations will continue in 2025.

In 2025, a Kildare man was convicted of laundering more than €900,000 from the operation of an illegal “dodgy box” television streaming subscription service. He was sentenced to one year and four months in prison.

In 2023 a Dublin man who sold 81 Android TV boxes was given an 18-month suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. 

Seperately, a Kerry pub using a 'dodgy box’ to show Premier League soccer was ordered to pay damages of €20,000 to the Sky broadcasting company.