Spain’s first pay DTT channel Gol TV is launching a full-frontal assault on TV piracy with its decision to cut its TV signal in almost 10,000 public places (most of them, bars, restaurants, hotels) where its broadcasts are allegedly being hacked.

Mediapro, owner of Gol TV, has reported the case to the police and urged them to step in to put an end to the massive piracy of its signal mainly from public places.

Piracy cost pay TV operators millions of Euros in lost business. A few months ago, Spanish police dismantled an international network of digital TV pirates that offered access to all channels in Europe, with 27 people arrested in the country and 77 facing charges. The arrested, who were accused of crimes against intellectual property and telecommunications fraud, were using a system commonly called “cardsharing”, by which TV signals are illegally redistributed from a single legitimate subscription via the internet, and enabling the systems users to freely watch scrambled channels.

Categories: Broadcast, Content, Headline, Pay TV, Piracy