Police have seized more than £1.2 million worth of equipment after shutting down a large illegal streaming data centre in Farnborough.

The operation, led by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at the City of London Police, disrupted thousands of illegal streams across the UK. Two people have also been arrested in connection with the investigation, while £700,000 was seized from one of the individuals.

The investigation began after PIPCU received a report of suspicious activity, which ultimately led officers to what has been described as a large-scale pirate streaming operation. During the raid, PIPCU worked alongside Sky to dismantle the infrastructure being used to supply illegal IPTV streams to customers across the country.

According to police, the site hosted clusters of high-bandwidth servers used to distribute the illicit streams. The seized equipment, estimated to be worth more than £1.2 million, will now be forensically examined.

Detective Sergeant Ben Hobbs, from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at the City of London Police, said, “The size of this operation shows how widespread illegal streaming has become in the UK and our commitment to bringing the criminals behind it to justice.

“If you plan to stream, ensure you only use official and not pirated sources to protect yourself from the risks.

“We will continue to work closely with industry partners like Sky to disrupt these illegal streaming networks and protect consumers.”

Matt Hibbert, Group Director of Anti-Piracy at Sky, added, “We welcome the action taken by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit to shut down this major nationwide illegal streaming operation that stretched across the nation and exposed the wider criminal network. Illegal streaming is part of organised criminality that undermines the creative industries and causes harm to consumers.

“Continued partnership between police and industry is essential to disrupt these operations, protect our content, and keep consumers safe from the harmful risks it poses.”

The two people arrested in connection with the operation have since been released under investigation.