When it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
Vader, an IPTV service that seemingly offered live access to 1,000+ TV channels for just $15 a month, announced that the service is officially shutting down. The announcement came in an email sent to customers, with the company stating that it has “no choice but to close down Vader. We can’t reveal much publically, but by now some of you should know through the other means what happened. We tried everything in our power to avoid this, to avoid any outage, but enough people worked against us.”
Although Vader doesn’t give many details into the reason for the service closing, TorrentFreak wrote that it had received unconfirmed reports that Vader is currently under investigation for an anti-piracy probe, which comes at a time when content owners are trying to crack down on these so-called IPTV services. IPTV companies like Vader grant access to hundreds and often thousands of live channels at a fraction of the official cost for viewers to get their TV on the cheap. However, few, if any, of these IPTV services have the necessary licensing in place to conduct their business legally, hence why Vader is shutting down.
For those who had subscribed to Vader, the company did say that it plans to protect the data of users: “We’re going to make sure, no Email, IP, account + reseller name goes to the wrong hands. Everything will be wiped clean and that’s all.”
Although IPTV services like Vader offer a bargain for users to stream content for a cheap alternative, because of the legality issues, many can shutdown at any moment, meaning any customers should accept the personal risk of using an illegal service. A good rule of thumb is that if the service offers substantially more channels, for less many than the legitimate services from AT&T like DIRECTV NOW or Dish Network like Sling TV — it is likely not legal.