Police raid Sydney 'pirate pay TV outfit offering 1000 channels for $90 a month'

The police brief alleges that the Hurstville shop, trading as L&D LED Signs, is part of a global piracy operation worth $150 million a year and with 100,000 customers.

Michael Speck, former head of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), was contracted to lead the investigation into the operation and says customers would be targeted as offenders or witnesses. He said there was no doubt that "consumers often directly aid and abet these large scale pirate operations".

The raid – during which one man was arrested - was sparked by TVB Group, a Chinese language content giant that hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on the alleged piracy operation.

But while some of the channels on offer were Asian language, the police brief and forensics report, seen by this website, allege that many of the 1000 channels offered Western content from providers including MTV, Discovery, ESPN, HBO, Fox, CNN and BBC.

The brief says the television programs offered include Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Superman and Family Guy, while movies include Hangover II, Mr Popper's Penguins and Pirates of the Carribean.

NSW Police said its Hurstville local area command proactive crime team executed a search warrant at a business on Forrest Road in Hurstville about 10:45am yesterday.

Police said the raid was in relation to the business "allegedly selling cable television decoders and fraudulent access to Chinese television networks".

"They seized a number [of] set-top boxes, other electronics equipment and documents," a police spokeswoman said.

"A 56-year-old Hurstville man was arrested at the premise[s] and taken to Hurstville Police Station. He was released pending further inquiries."

A forensics report compiled by analyst Craig Wright allegedly found that the set-top box was a "standard embedded PC system" that used peer-to-peer video streaming service Vatata to grab content from a server in China.

This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses