Pirate satellite TV to cause $1B loss (HONG KONG)

[cablewithaview]

HONG KONG - Asian pirate cable and satellite television operators are expected to cost the industry US$1.06 billion this year, up 11 percent from 2004, an industry association said yesterday.

“There are more markets showing negative development than those having success in counteracting pay-TV piracy,” said Simon Twiston Davies, chief executive of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa), which represents 110 TV companies in the region.

“That’s why combating pay-TV piracy remains the industry’s top priority,” he said.

Biggest loss

Casbaa’s annual report, that studied TV markets across 10 Asian countries, said India will see the biggest loss of revenues in Asia with $670 million in 2005, up 19 percent from last year.

Losses in Thailand will be up 15 percent to $160 million.

Losses in the Philippines will rise 16 percent this year to $81.7 million, as the number of illegal connections by individuals and by rogue cable operators continue to increase.

It is estimated that there are now almost the same number of pirate connections as legitimate paid subscriptions in the Philippines, the report said.

Taxes

Specific cost to governments in 2005 through lost taxes, license fees and other revenues is estimated at $155 million by the end of this year.

Davies described the piracy problem as “far from under control” and said it has discouraged investment and further development in the industry.

For that, he partly blamed the lack of government regulations.

“We are very worried that we have not seen enough protection in the region,” Davies said. (AFP)

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2005/10/27/bus/pirate.satellite.tv.to.cause.$1b.loss..html

 

[Purogamer]

I'm so sick of hearing how piracy hurts. NO ONE makes more money than entertainment providers. Look at how fast AOL grew into this huge monster that it is today. It's the most blatant example of how overcharging, and lying about it, can pay off.

Comcast isn't hurting either. Should you steal? No, but don't preach about it, it's boring...If they offered a good product at a fair price no one would need to steal it...

 

[Van]

I'm so sick of hearing how piracy hurts. NO ONE makes more money than entertainment providers. Look at how fast AOL grew into this huge monster that it is today. It's the most blatant example of how overcharging, and lying about it, can pay off.

Comcast isn't hurting either. Should you steal? No, but don't preach about it, it's boring...If they offered a good product at a fair price no one would need to steal it...

I agrea with your first part mostly but your last part is straw grasping puro. People will steal cable and satellite regardless of how cheap it is because they can and because they dont want to pay for something that they have the ability to get for free, and most of what these pirates steal are ppv's and of those most are porn followed by sports.

 

[cablewithaview]

Comcast among other providers hurt when these thiefs tear up taps, amps, peds, locks, underground (digging it up and tieing into it), power supplies among other equipment, So yes it does cost the cable company. Plus when you still cable you are not paying franchises which goes for police, fire among other services your community may provide to you and others. If one of these services was cut back or out altogether that may effect you and your stealing cable then you have no one to blame but yourself. Go before a judge with that arguement and see how much longer your sentence and bigger your fines are for being a smart ass.

 

[Van]

Let me make it clear as to what I agrea on here, its that comcast makes a huge profit over its break even line and over all other cable companies nationwide, outside of that I dont have anything further to agrea on.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Stealing is wrong, but I dont know where they come up with these numbers. Do they go around and ask "do you pirate tv?" Also, in North America at least, a large chunk of Dish piracy is from north of the boarder, where they cant even legally subscribe if they wanted to, thus, no lost revenue.

 

[charper1]

just like the riaa and the mpaa they make it all up based on some stupid formula.

 

[Purogamer]

My family stole cable on/off for 20 years (Thanks uncle tommy), they don't even care. They just turn it off if they find it, so they clearly aren't that concerned.

Yes people will steal no matter how cheap it is, but they could lower prices to entice people to stay legal. I realize white trash with 6 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment are more likely to steal, but i'm sure if it was cheap enough they'd manage it.

Plus it's usually been pretty easy to steal. It's nowhere near as easy as it used to be, but it's still out there...

Porn and PPV could be drastically reduced to thwart stealing too. Why are movies 4bucks or more when it's just a signal? It's already coming into the house, why do we have to pay the same price as renting a physical disc when the signal is already present. I never order PPV because it's such a ripoff. If movies were 1.50 i'd order some...

 

[Van]

Maybe in the past cable and satellite didnt care but times have changed since miami vice was all the rage. Directv agressively persues hackers, comcast cable actively persues and charges cable pirates, dishnetwork and bellvue are also spending millions to try and curb piracy though not very effectively it seems.

Its more than just how cheap it is, people steal if they can, people will do something wrong if they are given the chance regardless of theyr social and economic standing in life. I have had customers that used hacked dish and directv box's to steal horse racing, others have used it for theyr little basement sport bars and all of these pirates lived in $200g homes or higher and had all the toys in the world.

The price of ppv ofcourse will go up because costs go up for the providers to bring it to you and you do have a choices when it comes to renting, pay per view, or buying the movie outright. I myself have only purchased one ppv event in my satellite / cable customer life span not because of the cost so much as I just dont want to see anything thats on.

I would like to see the prices lower but it wont happen, same thing for a movie ticket and pop and popcorn at the theater, tickets to go see the tigers play or tickets to cedar point or for that matter for gas to go back to 89 cent a gallon before Bush senior went to Iraq.

Regardless though the cost for pay television does not justify one to steal a service that the rest of us ( or most ) pay for and we should not have to bare the burden by paying higher costs because of people such as your uncle tommy who aparently did not have the moral fortitude to pay for something that he should have.

 

[CJPC]

Porn and PPV could be drastically reduced to thwart stealing too. Why are movies 4bucks or more when it's just a signal? It's already coming into the house, why do we have to pay the same price as renting a physical disc when the signal is already present. I never order PPV because it's such a ripoff. If movies were 1.50 i'd order some...

You got a good point, if PPV's were $1-2, id think many more people would order em ("Whats $1, 4 quarters") and people would be more able imho to watch 4-5 movies, x your customer base (11M) so say 1 *5 * 10 , talking ~50 million a month, all because ur ppv's are cheap (all saying everyone buys one ppv, but at $1, who can go wrong , vs renting a dvd for $5!)

 

[h0m3rs1mps0n]

My family stole cable on/off for 20 years (Thanks uncle tommy), they don't even care. They just turn it off if they find it, so they clearly aren't that concerned.

Yes people will steal no matter how cheap it is, but they could lower prices to entice people to stay legal. I realize white trash with 6 kids in a 2 bedroom apartment are more likely to steal, but i'm sure if it was cheap enough they'd manage it.

Plus it's usually been pretty easy to steal. It's nowhere near as easy as it used to be, but it's still out there...

Porn and PPV could be drastically reduced to thwart stealing too. Why are movies 4bucks or more when it's just a signal? It's already coming into the house, why do we have to pay the same price as renting a physical disc when the signal is already present. I never order PPV because it's such a ripoff. If movies were 1.50 i'd order some...

Milk went up to $3.65 a gallon? Well thats outrageous, we should just steal it. If they were concerned about milk sales, they would prosecute shoplifters more. Gas went up to $3.00 a gallon? Well thats outrageous, we should just steal it. If they were concerned baout gas sales, they would just prosecute the theives more. Etc, etc, etc.

Stealing is still stealing no matter how you look at it. Trying to justify it only shows your guilt on the subject. If it was ok to do, they wouldn't have laws against stealing stuff, would they?

What make-believe world do you live in where companies go into business for nothing other than to give people happiness? In my world (aka the real world) businesses go into business for money.