Digital marketing offers a diverse toolkit for enhancing the visibility, engagement, and sales of products online. This paper investigates the unique landscape of illegal IPTV services, focusing on the challenges and strategies within their digital marketing efforts. Through a mixed-methods approach, analyzing responses from 100 individuals via SPSS, we've uncovered distinct obstacles these services face, particularly in promotion and payment processes. Notably, the study finds that while traditional paid media channels often prove problematic for illicit products due to regulatory hurdles, illegal IPTV providers gravitate towards earned and owned media. These channels circumvent the limitations encountered with paid media, enabling more effective dissemination and promotion of their services. This preference highlights the adaptability required in digital marketing strategies when navigating the legalities and constraints of the digital market space. The insights from this research not only shed light on the operational dynamics of illegal IPTV services but also underscore the broader implications for digital marketing practices in contested or regulated sectors.