IPTV: European report challenges France’s blocking strategy

The study finds that the growing toolkit — ISP blocking, DNS restrictions, pressure on CDNs, and more recently VPN targeting — delivers only short-lived results. Users quickly bypass restrictions using widely available tools, while pirate services rapidly reappear elsewhere.

More critically, the report highlights significant collateral damage. In Spain, action led by LaLiga resulted in thousands of legitimate services being disrupted after shared infrastructure from Cloudflare was blocked. According to the report, this kind of overblocking is not accidental but inherent to IP-based measures.

It also points to an imbalance in accountability: rightsholders request blocks but do not bear the technical costs or consequences of errors, which fall on intermediaries. In response, the Centre for European Policy Studies calls for a shift toward more targeted measures and a greater focus on improving legal content offerings rather than expanding technical enforcement.