Satellite TV Piracy

Satellite TV piracy is very widespread in the U.S. Some estimate that there are somewhere around 1 to 3 million households enjoying pirated satellite broadcasts.

There are different levels of theft. In its most comprehensive form, all the channels are left unpaid.

Another level are people who buy the basic channels and then get their decoders reprogrammed to get premium and pay-per-view channels for free.

Because some industry sources put the cost of this piracy at some $1 billion, the satellite companies have now moved strongly to prevent such piracy.

The War Against Satellite TV Piracy

Perhaps the fiercest company to battle satellite television piracy is DirecTV that has been active in taking people to courts over selling and buying equipment capable of satellite TV signal theft.

Suprisingly, Canada was for a long time big market for DirecTV and Echostar piracy.

This was because the country’s own satellite TV industry was so slow to start. Lately, the Canadian satellite TV companies have been active in taking part in the war against satellite television piracy.

Some of the measures against piracy don’t involve courts, but rather technology.

One of the technologies against piracy is ECM (Electronic Countermeasure), which is a signal designed to corrupt unauthorized smart cards. Another way is to design better smart cards that can better withstand piracy.

Hollywood is also taking notice. Although battling pirated CDs is their no. 1 concern, they take the battle against satellite piracy very seriously.