The National Police has arrested 85 people so far in a nationwide operation against audiovisual piracy.
The detainees, who include hotel owners and managers of local cable networks around the country, are charged with offences against intellectual property and telecommunications fraud.
In Málaga, Sevilla, Cantabria, León, Granada and Alicante, local cable network operators were illegally transmitting TV channels via WiFi. Decoders were installed in various buildings and locations and then TV channels were illegally broadcast to subscribers, thousands of them in some cases.
Also detected were several TV channels who were fraudulently rebroadcasting programmes over the airwaves, some having set up a small cabin at the base of their antenna. These were in Guadalajara, Alicante, Cáceres and Salamanca provinces.
Fifteen hotels in Valladolid (6), Palencia (3), Pontevedra (3), León, Soria and Almería were found to be illegally rebroadcasting programmes to their individual hotel rooms.
There were also cases when communities had installed one central decoder for a pay-TV system using a genuine subscription but were then, through a series of relays and other devices, transmitting the signal to decoders in numerous homes in the area.