Piracy - ITV Digital to be made "foolproof"
Speaking on BBC's Newsnight, ITV Digital's Stuart Peebles said the heavily hacked digital terrestrial pay-TV provider would be altered to be made "foolproof" by the end of the year. Stuart Peebles was speaking openly about ITV Digital's piracy problems, after Canal Plus, part of the Vivendi media empire, alleged that NDS, part of the Murdoch empire, spent massive sums trying to crack the code on its rivals smart cards, and then made its findings widely available via the internet. ITV Digital execs were appalled recently by comments made by Sky's chief executive, Tony Ball, during an address to the company's US investors. "ITV Digital/DTT is completely pirated, a joke. For $7 you can buy a card for all channels," he is reported to have said. It remains to be seen what "foolproof" measures ITV Digital will take, although it now seems highly unlikely they'll choose encryption software developed by NDS.