Is IPTV Legal in Australia? Here’s How It Works

IPTV stands for Internet Protocol Television: live channels and on-demand video sent over an internet connection instead of a cable or satellite signal. In Australia, Foxtel and Fetch TV both use internet delivery, and nothing about the method is restricted.

What decides the question is permission. Channels belong to networks, studios and leagues, which license them to distributors. A service streaming channels it hasn’t licensed is infringing, however polished its app looks.

Australian copyright comes from the Copyright Act 1968. Since 2015, section 115A has let rights holders ask the Federal Court to order internet providers to block overseas sites whose primary purpose is infringing copyright or helping others do it.

Those orders have reached IPTV. Orders in 2018 covered an app called HD Subs by blocking the addresses it used for logins, updates and the guide, and a 2025 order made major internet providers block 35 piracy sites. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Australian commentators say that using an unauthorised app to watch copyrighted content will generally infringe copyright, although action against individual viewers has been uncommon. Rights holders have mostly gone after distributors and the services themselves. Creative Content Australia, an anti-piracy group, also warns that illegal streaming exposes people to hacking and financial fraud.