Broadcasters, distributors unite to fight piracy; producers expected to jump on board too

A coalition of broadcasters and distributors has begun working together to fight piracy of broadcast signals in the country. That coalition will eventually likely be expanded to include producers, according to Chris Frank, Bell ExpressVu LP’s VP of regulatory and government affairs. "Piracy affects distributors, broadcasters, and producers, whose work is devalued if people are watching it without paying, and we are working together to curb the problem," Frank told CCR at the Canadian Satellite Users Association (CSUA) conference on February 18. The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), Star Choice Communications Inc., Bell ExpressVu, and copyright collectives met in February to develop a strategy to tackle the problem. The producers will also be brought into the equation, according to industry experts. The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) had not returned CCR’s phone calls for comment at press time. The Supreme Court of Canada will soon rule on the legality of grey market satellite TV (CCR, Nov. 22/01), while the black market is also cutting into the businesses of Canadian distributors. Following the meeting, the CCTA used its February 19 appearance before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage studying the Broadcasting Act to bring the issue of piracy to the government’s attention. About 600,000 grey market and black market dishes in Canada are pulling about $400 million away from Canadian distributors, programmers and producers, the CCTA said in its presentation before the standing committee. "There are real victims in this crime," CCTA president and CEO Janet Yale told reporters in a briefing the day before appearing before the committee. She noted that the Canadian Television Fund and specialty channels lose out because they are not getting a portion of the subscription fees that should be paid by people using grey market dishes or customers getting programming for which they haven’t paid. Yale called for the government to crack down on satellite "thievery" at the earliest stage because, she said, it is hard to track and find people once they have gotten their hands on a grey market satellite using an U.S. address, or black market encoder cards that allow them to access programming without paying. Some Star Choice participants at the CSUA conference pointed out that Star Choice technology was harder to crack and as a result it has less of a problem with black market customers than Bell ExpressVu. However, others noted that it had nothing to do with technology and everything to do with economies of scale. Bell ExpressVu uses technology similar to that used by satellite distributors in the U.S., and the encoder cards or the know-how to produce the cards that enable customers to get programming without paying ExpressVu are imported into Canada. Hackers have spent the time to crack the technology used by the U.S. distributors because of the increased numbers of customers to whom they can sell, some analysts state. Piracy was one element of the CCTA’s presentation to the standing committee, which also included a call for more transparency at the CRTC, fewer CRTC commissioners, and relaxed foreign ownership rules (CCR Update, Feb. 18/02).

Broadcasters, distributors unite to fight piracy; producers expected to jump on board too

Broadcast | March 1, 2002

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