Adrian Weckler: Can Sky really use its broadband to find out who is actually using a dodgy box?

The UK has used tech tricks to find dodgy boxes – but in Ireland, detection is usually down to informers

About one million people in Ireland use illegal streaming. Posed picture: Getty

Adrian Weckler

Every year, authorities say they’re taking action against dodgy boxes, which are used by around 400,000 households in Ireland – up to 1m people.

But ordinary dodgy-box users never get raided. Gardaí are reluctant to institute a criminal crackdown on individual users, other than to help arrest commercial operators and criminal gangs running illegal streaming setups. (Pubs and large venues using the devices do get prosecuted, however.)