Use of pirate IPTV services plunges in Finland, with no clear explanation

The number of Finnish households using illegal IPTV services has fallen by 41 percent, according to a new Mediavision study. About 215,000 households used an illegal service in spring 2025, compared with 126,000 this spring.

Spending has fallen less sharply. Finnish households paid an estimated €36 million for illegal IPTV services this year, down from €45 million last year. At the same time, the average monthly price rose from €18 to €24.

Illegal IPTV services offer unauthorized packages of television channels and streaming content. Direct sports broadcasts remain a major draw. About a quarter of users in studies have cited live sports as their main reason for subscribing, while more than 80 percent of users watched sports through illegal IPTV services in Mediavision’s 2022 research.

Finland differs from the other Nordic countries because households use paid television and streaming services less often, both legal and illegal. Mediavision chief analyst Adrian Grande said the fact that only 5 percent of Finnish households have an illegal IPTV service should not be seen solely as evidence that efforts against piracy are working. It also reflects lower overall use of paid TV and streaming services in Finland. However, he said that structural difference does not explain this year’s decline, which was statistically significant and the largest in the Nordic region.

The latest study does not identify the cause of the drop. Increased attention on illegal IPTV is one possible explanation, but the findings cannot establish a causal link. Europol says organized crime operates behind the services and uses their proceeds to finance activities including money laundering, drug and human trafficking, and arms smuggling. In Europol’s Kratos 2 operation, authorities made 29 arrests and removed more than 27,000 streaming URLs. The operation took place around the same time as the Mediavision survey.

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Therefore, the fact that only five percent of households have an illegal IPTV service should not be interpreted solely as a success in combating the piracy market; it also reflects that fewer households in Finland pay for television and streaming services in general. This structural difference does not explain away this year’s decline, however. The 41 percent reduction is statistically significant and the largest in the Nordic countries.