Tweet
This was posted on another site...
Pay-Per-View Piracy and The Internet
By Thomas Hauser
There was a time not long ago when boxing's pay-per-view industry was undermined by illegal "black boxes". Authorized cable boxes contain filters that impede the flow of unauthorized signals to a subscriber's home. Black boxes negate the filter. Thus, a subscriber could install a black box and, for the price of basic cable, illegally receive premium channels, pay-per-view events, and everything else that was available from the local cable company.
At one point, it was estimated that as many as half of all viewers who watched pay-per-view fights on television did so with the aid of illegal black boxes. Satellite signals were also compromised but on a lesser scale because satellite companies scramble their signals and send consumers new software to descramble them every few months.
The pay-per-view industry fought back on several fronts. First, it conducted a largely-ineffective advertising campaign with print and television ads that advised users of the black boxes that they were breaking the law. Next, it took legal action against the manufacturers and sellers of black boxes. But given the need to prove criminal intent, these efforts involved repeated warnings, time-consuming sting operations, and extensive legal costs.
There were also technological undertakings such as the random inclusion in transmission signals of "silver bullets" that theoretically disabled boxes that were improperly receiving signals. One particularly creative industry foray involved a message that was filtered out by legal cable boxes but made its way through to fight fans who were watching on illegal boxes. Viewers were advised to call a toll-free number during the telecast to receive a free T-shirt. Anyone who called was presumed to have received the message via a stolen signal.
Through it all, the lawbreakers remained one step ahead of the enforcers. Then, with the development of digital cable, the landscape changed. The integrity of digital signal delivery has remained largely in tact. To avoid piracy, many cable companies no longer even offer pay-per-view events to analog customers.
Cable piracy is now under control. But a burgeoning threat to the economics of pay-per-view exists today in the form of Internet piracy. Within an hour of a fight ending, fans around the world can download a file and watch the fight for free. In some instances, entire pay-per-view cards can be viewed without charge in realtime. This practice is spreading rapidly. It's only a matter of time before it impacts significantly upon pay-per-view buys.
Internet piracy transpires as follows. One person buys a pay-per-view fight, video-tapes it, and transfers the tape to digital format on his computer. Windows Movie Maker (which is designed to edit home movies) is one software program commonly used for this purpose. Alternatively, the person can plug his cable-TV line directly into an inexpensive piece of equipment that connects directly to his computer and converts the TV signal into a digital format that his computer can read. This is faster than video-taping the fight and then transferring it to the computer.
Pay-Per-View Piracy and The Internet
By Thomas Hauser
There was a time not long ago when boxing's pay-per-view industry was undermined by illegal "black boxes". Authorized cable boxes contain filters that impede the flow of unauthorized signals to a subscriber's home. Black boxes negate the filter. Thus, a subscriber could install a black box and, for the price of basic cable, illegally receive premium channels, pay-per-view events, and everything else that was available from the local cable company.
At one point, it was estimated that as many as half of all viewers who watched pay-per-view fights on television did so with the aid of illegal black boxes. Satellite signals were also compromised but on a lesser scale because satellite companies scramble their signals and send consumers new software to descramble them every few months.
The pay-per-view industry fought back on several fronts. First, it conducted a largely-ineffective advertising campaign with print and television ads that advised users of the black boxes that they were breaking the law. Next, it took legal action against the manufacturers and sellers of black boxes. But given the need to prove criminal intent, these efforts involved repeated warnings, time-consuming sting operations, and extensive legal costs.
There were also technological undertakings such as the random inclusion in transmission signals of "silver bullets" that theoretically disabled boxes that were improperly receiving signals. One particularly creative industry foray involved a message that was filtered out by legal cable boxes but made its way through to fight fans who were watching on illegal boxes. Viewers were advised to call a toll-free number during the telecast to receive a free T-shirt. Anyone who called was presumed to have received the message via a stolen signal.
Through it all, the lawbreakers remained one step ahead of the enforcers. Then, with the development of digital cable, the landscape changed. The integrity of digital signal delivery has remained largely in tact. To avoid piracy, many cable companies no longer even offer pay-per-view events to analog customers.
Cable piracy is now under control. But a burgeoning threat to the economics of pay-per-view exists today in the form of Internet piracy. Within an hour of a fight ending, fans around the world can download a file and watch the fight for free. In some instances, entire pay-per-view cards can be viewed without charge in realtime. This practice is spreading rapidly. It's only a matter of time before it impacts significantly upon pay-per-view buys.
Internet piracy transpires as follows. One person buys a pay-per-view fight, video-tapes it, and transfers the tape to digital format on his computer. Windows Movie Maker (which is designed to edit home movies) is one software program commonly used for this purpose. Alternatively, the person can plug his cable-TV line directly into an inexpensive piece of equipment that connects directly to his computer and converts the TV signal into a digital format that his computer can read. This is faster than video-taping the fight and then transferring it to the computer.
Comment