StarHub has displayed its resolve to stamp out illegal set-top boxes that provide free access to its cable TV channels.
Yesterday, the local telco destroyed more than 300 of these devices using a bulldozer at a scrap-metal site in Kranji. The event was overseen by assistant vice-president for pay TV services, Ms Andrea Tay.
The illegal set-top boxes were seized by Singapore Customs last year and handed to StarHub last month.
These gadgets work by decoding StarHub’s encrypted broadcast signals, allowing users to view more than 100 channels without having to pay a cent for subscription.
StarHub has 538,000 cable TV subscribers, with a basic plan comprising of three groups of channels like news, kids and education costing S$25.68 per month.
According to a local media report, illegal decoders, with names like Blackbox 888, DM500C and CD3, cost between S$150 and S$300 each. Some people get them through dealers they meet via referrals, while others buy their devices from overseas sellers.
StarHub estimated that there were 5,400 illegal users last year, which works out to a S$2.6 million loss for the company.
Caitlin Fua, spokesperson for StarHub, said the company and its content partners have primarily targeted distributors of these devices. She did not reveal how many have been confiscated in raids to date.
Ms Fua added that users, who are also breaking the law and undermining intellectual property rights, can be tracked down through “tip-offs and other high-tech methods”.
This pay-TV piracy appears to only affect StarHub’s service. A spokesman for SingTel told The Straits Times it has not found any evidence that its mio TV content has been accessed illegally.
Users found guilty of using these illegal gadgets face the same punishments as sellers. They can be fined a maximum of S$40,000 and jailed for up to three years. So far, StarHub has not pursued the matter with users in court, but has sent them warning letters instead.
However, the telco has come down hard on sellers. Last year, it took two unauthorised sellers, Liew Kuam Pow and Lin De Xiu, to court separately, where they were fined between S$4,000 and S$15,000 each.
In 2009, Vision Your Gadget Station apologised to StarHub via local media and had an out-of-court settlement.
In September 2008, StarHub took legal action against Chong Kim Siong, who pleaded guilty to three charges of selling unauthorised set-top boxes at Sim Lim Tower. He was fined S$60,000.
StarHub said that it gives sellers verbal and written warnings before resorting to any legal action.
Word is going around in online forums that if users were to get a more expensive decoder, a basic subscription to StarHub would not even be necessary.
One viewer by the name of Gregory, 35, said he paid S$250 for an illegal set-top box because he wanted to watch movies that did not come with his his basic plan. However, after four months, he discovered that the decoder was unable to give him access to more channels than what he was getting from the StarHub set-top box. “So I switched back,” he said.
Mr Bryan Tan, director of law firm Keystone Law Corporation, cautioned users that they open themselves up to a civil action suit.
Revisions were made to the Broadcasting Act in 2005, making users of these illegal boxes liable as well. Previously, the maximum fine of S$40,000 and up to three-years’ jail applied only to sellers.
This deterrent appears to have been effective in stopping consumers. According to StarHub, the number of users have fallen from 10,000, costing the telco S$5 million in losses, in 2004, to 5,400, and S$2.6 million in losses, last year.
【Via Yahoo! News】
