Austar, Foxtel to combat TV piracy

net1

Australian pay TV players Austar and Foxtel have teamed up to introduce new smartcards to combat satellite TV piracy. According to the industry estimates, the initiative is an effort to claw back as much as $40 million a year that the sector loses to fraudulent activity. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers recently estimated that up to $300 million a year was being lost by the Australian entertainment industry to piracy. "The new smartcards that we are deploying use a globally-proven technology that pirates cannot break into. Piracy undermines the sustainability of our businesses and services, and the jobs and investment that we provide. We are deploying fresh technology that will stop satellite piracy," said Kim Williams, chief executive officer, Kim Williams of Foxtel. The new smartcards will be rolled out progressively over the next several months across Australia. They will replace the existing smartcard installed in set-top boxes. The new version of the card has been not been compromised by pirates anywhere in the world, according to the two companies.
Under the new pay-TV smartcard rollout, which starts this week across Australia, more than 800,000 Foxtel and Austar satellite subscribers will be issued with new Irdeto V4 smartcards, first deployed internationally in May 2003.

V4 is an advanced version of the Irdeto V2 smartcard that is still secure after three years in the global pay TV market, despite attempts by hackers to break it. "Piracy for a business like ours is a scourge and we are determined to stamp it out," Williams told The Australian Financial Review.

Austar added that its investment in the smartcard upgrade had contributed to the increased capital expenditure recorded over the past two quarters