The 16-year-old owner of a site that allegedly provided pirated access to TV channels in France has been arrested after a joint operation by an anti-piracy group and the police.
In a statement released on Monday, December 11, the Association against Audiovisual Piracy (ALPA) announced that in a joint operation with Bordeaux police it shut down the ‘artv.watch’ website and arrested its owner.
The site offered live access to 176 free and paid for French TV channels that are members of ALPA. These include Canal + Group, M6 Group, TF1 Group, France Télévision Group, Paramount, Disney and Fox, according to the statement.
Created in April 2017, this site also offered the option to download a mobile application to view TV programmes on mobiles and tablets.
It had 800,000 registered users in total.
The site now leads to a message which says: “RTV is now closed for legal reasons. Thank you for your understanding! The site was indeed illegal.”
ALPA estimated the owner generated €3,000 ($3,500) a month in advertising revenues.
TV piracy, arrested, France, Disney, Fox, mobile application, online streaming
