Legal IPTV Providers

Johnboy1951

Is there a comprehensive list somewhere of IPTV providers for the various countries in Europe (including Ireland)?

Speaking to some friends in other EU countries it seems there are not many LEGAL sources of IPTV streams that, for instance, cater for fans of specific sports, or even sports fans generally.

For instance I have one friend in Sweden, who uses Linux, and the only providers he has come across so far do not serve Sweden, and even if he did they require Microsoft Silverlight to view the streams which is not an option for him.

I have not found a listing, but maybe someone can help out by linking to a listing of EU legal IPTV providers?

Thanks.

Johnboy1951

I was hopeful someone would have something that might help.

It is no wonder people use illegal means to view media if there is no listing that would help them stay on the legal side.

Kristopherus

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I was hopeful someone would have something that might help.

It is no wonder people use illegal means to view media if there is no listing that would help them stay on the legal side.

I'm sure you know about the usual big suspects. VM & BT in the UK, BEIN Sports in the Middle East. And VM are in mainland Europe as well.

Johnboy1951

Kristopherus wrote: »

I'm sure you know about the usual big suspects. VM & BT in the UK, BEIN Sports in the Middle East. And VM are in mainland Europe as well.

BEIN seems to be available only in France & Spain in Europe (I think).

I understood VM to be a broadband supplier with add-on TV packages.
Do they do separate IPTV packages for non-VM broadband users?
Is BT Sport limited to UK?

The only providers I have found with good variety are all illegal apparently

icdg

VM is not IPTV, at least not on its main platform (though it does distribute some channels via IPTV in the form of Horizon Go, this is intended as a "out of home" service and not as a subscribers main method of viewing). Virgin is a traditional cable TV company (DVB-
C and analogue cable) that always provided television. Its predecessors date back to long before the Internet was available to non academic/military users. Yes you can take only TV from them, but only if you live on their network.

Vodafone and Eir both now offer IPTV services although I'd argue there's little distinction between these services and traditional cable TV from an end user point of view.

Sky used to offer a standalone IPTV option via Sky Go. This was replaced by Now TV in the UK market but this hasn't been made available here. Sky Go is now limited to Sky subscribers only and can't be subscribed to standalone any more (like Horizon go).

Other than that you've Netflix. Also, some US sports leagues make their "out of market" packages available here but some of these packages have the same restriction as the US in that you can't watch games on TV here (so NFL Sunday Ticket won't let you watch Sky's 6pm and 9:25pm games). ESPN appears to offer a package for fans of US college sports too. And that's about it.

Johnboy1951

icdg wrote: »

VM is not IPTV, at least not on its main platform (though it does distribute some channels via IPTV in the form of Horizon Go, this is intended as a "out of home" service and not as a subscribers main method of viewing). Virgin is a traditional cable TV company (DVB-
C and analogue cable) that always provided television. Its predecessors date back to long before the Internet was available to non academic/military users. Yes you can take only TV from them, but only if you live on their network.

Vodafone and Eir both now offer IPTV services although I'd argue there's little distinction between these services and traditional cable TV from an end user point of view.

Sky used to offer a standalone IPTV option via Sky Go. This was replaced by Now TV in the UK market but this hasn't been made available here. Sky Go is now limited to Sky subscribers only and can't be subscribed to standalone any more (like Horizon go).

Other than that you've Netflix. Also, some US sports leagues make their "out of market" packages available here but some of these packages have the same restriction as the US in that you can't watch games on TV here (so NFL Sunday Ticket won't let you watch Sky's 6pm and 9:25pm games). ESPN appears to offer a package for fans of US college sports too. And that's about it.

Thanks for that breakdown.
Based on the above, and what little I have found myself, it is no wonder that people are using illegal services, as the legal ones do not provide what is wanted.

Looks like it is a repeat of the audio media situation starting with the likes of Napster.

I thought I might be able to come up with something for my friend in Sweden that would not be illegal, but it seems not.

He will be best served by some illegal provider, regardless the risks involved.

Fr Tod Umptious

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Thanks for that breakdown.
Based on the above, and what little I have found myself, it is no wonder that people are using illegal services, as the legal ones do not provide what is wanted.

Looks like it is a repeat of the audio media situation starting with the likes of Napster.

I thought I might be able to come up with something for my friend in Sweden that would not be illegal, but it seems not.

He will be best served by some illegal provider, regardless the risks involved.

But the reason that IPTV services are thin on the ground, especially in sports, is because TV companies already own the rights.

There is not going to be an offical online service for Premiership soccer in the markets that BT and Sky already operate in, it would seriously devalue their product offering.

Johnboy1951

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

But the reason that IPTV services are thin on the ground, especially in sports, is because TV companies already own the rights.

There is not going to be an offical online service for Premiership soccer in the markets that BT and Sky already operate in, it would seriously devalue their product offering.

I'm not disputing what you say at all ..... but I doubt the end user cares about that. All he wants is for the media he wants to view to be provided to him by means of his connection.
In fact in the case that prompted me to post, English soccer (as an example) is not available by any legal means that I am aware of.

That is what drives people to use illegal means to get what they want ..... even paying dodgy providers for the privilege.

Fr Tod Umptious

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I'm not disputing what you say at all ..... but I doubt the end user cares about that. All he wants is for the media he wants to view to be provided to him by means of his connection.
In fact in the case that prompted me to post, English soccer (as an example) is not available by any legal means that I am aware of.

That is what drives people to use illegal means to get what they want ..... even paying dodgy providers for the privilege.

And the reason that English soccer is not available is because the owners of the product have never offered an online rights package to be bid for.
If they did then the value of, and the bids for, their television rights packages would decrease.

Competing media (TV/IP) offerings for the exact same product (sports event) could never co-exist IMO.

Johnboy1951

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

And the reason that English soccer is not available is because the owners of the product have never offered an online rights package to be bid for.
If they did then the value of, and the bids for, their television rights packages would decrease.

Competing media (TV/IP) offerings for the exact same product (sports event) could never co-exist IMO.

As I pointed out, such reasons are meaningless to the end user, who resorts to illegal means to view what they want to see, thus depriving the rights holders of further income.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

As I pointed out, such reasons are meaningless to the end user, who resorts to illegal means to view what they want to see, thus depriving the rights holders of further income.

I wouldnt say that it's the main reason people resort to illegal style boxes that stream or decrypt satellite systems. The main reason i see people illegally viewing English football is because:

(A) The match you want to see isn't always on Tv due to the way the rights are distributed. (for 3pm kickoffs especially)

(B) The different channels these matches are now being shown on. We no longer just need a Sky sports package to view, we need a BT one, a premier sports one, an eir one, we need to make sure we've a bloody Irish version of sky sports 5! I'm not clued in exactly on whays in yhe sports pack these days.

(C) The absolute EXTORTIONATE price charged for such packages.

People are sick of being ripped off by sky...

bluestrattos

Would filmon.com fits the IPTV category you're looking for?
There're a lot of channels that combined don't make one decent, but overall you get a lot of channels with good quality.
In the past I even paid for the premium version. Their apps are decent, but using merely a web browser will do the trick as well, and it' s legal (I think).

icdg

Mod note: I am not convinced that the site above is acting within the law, and seemingly they have had legal action taken against them in at least two jurisidictions. For that reason I'd rather there was no discussion of them at all.

I'm also worried that this thread is effectively turning into an attempt by the OP to not only justify but encourage breaking the law. I think his original question has been answred at this stage, so it's time to close this thread