Denmark at a glance
- The technology
- Legal; used by broadband providers, DR and other broadcasters
- Selling and distributing
- A crime without the rights; organisers have been convicted
- Watching
- 22 viewers of pirate TV were fined DKK 15,000–20,000 each
- Blocking
- In December 2025 a court ruled that 25 illegal streaming services must be blocked
- VPN
- Legal; the proposal to ban VPNs for getting around blocks was dropped in December 2025
- Time vs UK
- One hour ahead all year
Checked October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.
Is IPTV legal in Denmark?
IPTV is just a way of delivering television. Broadband providers’ TV packages, DR’s streaming service and player apps such as TiviMate are entirely legal. The legal question is about the service: does it have the right to show the channels it sells? A subscription with thousands of channels, including premium sport and film, for a few hundred kroner a year almost certainly doesn’t.
For the checks that apply to any provider, see is IPTV legal?.
Selling and distributing is a crime
Selling or passing on TV channels without the rights holders’ permission breaches Danish copyright law, and the courts have convicted organisers:
- 2015: the court in Aalborg gave a man a 60-day suspended sentence and ordered DKK 100,000 in compensation for a website that streamed around 80 TV channels without permission, according to the Danish prosecution service.
- 2022: Denmark’s National Special Crime Unit reported that a 51-year-old man had been convicted of complicity in illegally distributing IPTV from Spain’s Costa del Sol.
Watching can be punished too
Viewers have been fined. In a case at the court in Sønderborg, 22 people were fined DKK 15,000 to 20,000 each, plus compensation to the rights holders, for receiving pirate TV through access to an illegal server. The prosecution service reported the case in January 2020.
EU law points the same way. In the Filmspeler case (2017), the Court of Justice of the European Union held that streaming from an obviously illegal source isn’t covered by the exception for temporary copies.
The VPN proposal that was dropped
In December 2025 the government proposed changes to the Copyright Act that would, among other things, have banned using a VPN to watch content not otherwise available in Denmark or to get around blocks on illegal sites. After criticism, the culture minister, Jakob Engel-Schmidt, said the VPN section would be removed. VPNs remain legal, but a VPN doesn’t make an unlicensed service legal. See IPTV and VPNs.
Blocking
The rights-holder organisation RettighedsAlliancen took the most popular illegal IPTV services to court in June 2025. On 19 December 2025 it reported that the court had ruled that 25 illegal streaming services offering film, TV and live sport must be blocked, with Danish internet providers carrying out the blocks. For viewers, that means a service can stop working overnight with nothing wrong at your end. See ISP blocking and IPTV.
How common is illegal IPTV in Denmark?
According to RettighedsAlliancen, citing the research firm Mediavision, 360,000 Danish households (14%) had an illegal IPTV subscription in 2025, up from 5% in 2022.
Licensed ways to watch TV in Denmark
| Option | What you get | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DR’s streaming service | DR channels live and on demand | No licence fee: the media licence was phased out, and public service has been funded through taxation since 1 January 2022 |
| Broadband TV packages | Live channels over fibre, with a box or app | Sold by the main broadband and TV providers |
| Commercial streaming | Channels, sport, films and series from Nordic broadcasters | Subscriptions, some with free tiers |
| British programmes | BritBox (BBC Studios) | Available in Denmark since 28 April 2022 |
These apps run on the same devices used for IPTV. See our guides to Apple TV, Android TV, Google TV and smart TVs.
UK TV in Denmark
- BritBox is the licensed route for many British programmes in Denmark.
- BBC iPlayer only works in the UK.
- Time: Denmark is one hour ahead of the UK all year, because both change their clocks on the same dates. If UK guide listings are an hour out in your player, use our EPG offset calculator.
Before you pay for any service
- Check who runs it: a registered company with a CVR number, an address and terms.
- Be wary of prices that are too good to be true, lifetime subscriptions, and payment only by cryptocurrency, gift cards or a transfer to a private person.
- Remember the Sønderborg case: when authorities obtain a service’s records, its customers can be identified.
The guide is also available in Danish: er IPTV lovligt i Danmark?