The monopoly on cable television has historically been enforced by local governments. Cable maintains thousands of such de facto monopolies. In order to provide service to individual homes, a cable provider must place its cable wiring along and across local streets or other rights-of-way. To do so, the provider must get permission from the local government(s) that own those streets via rights-of-way permits.
Freitag, 12. September 2008
Consumer Issues
The cable industry spends millions of dollars annually on government relationships. Regularly this industry employs the spouses, sons and daughters of influential mayors, councilmen, commissioners, and other officials to assure its continued local monopoly and preferred market allocations, many of which have been questioned as unethical.
Operational permission comes in the form of a document called a local franchise agreement. Most of local government(s) chose to grant permission to only one company, however, recently states have developed broader franchising laws to drive more investment and competition. Changes in the federal law in 1992 had forced local governments to grant permission to other companies to provide service, however the U.S. Government found in 2006 that only 2% of U.S. households had a competitive choice. In some cases Comcast, with municipal government approval, had entered into market allocation schemes. By agreeing to not compete head to head, consumers thus are perpetually locked into a single monopoly cable provider with annual price escalations reaching 93% in the past decade
Types of cable theft
Cable companies in general identify three major types of cable piracy:
- Passive cable theft, such as when a family moves into a home where the cable line has not been disconnected.
- People tampering with a converter box or buying an illegal set-top box.
- People making an illegal connection to the cable line, which would include splitting a cable modem that provides an Internet connection.
Cable companies say that splitting a line to obtain basic or premium cable is punishable by state cable-theft laws, with fines up to $10,000.
To prevent piracy, cable companies typically put filters at the cable box to prevent access to video signals or additional premium channels that aren't on a subscription order. The filters are supposed to stop subscribers from viewing channels they didn't pay for. In the case of a consumer subscribing to only a cable modem line, the provider might place a filter on that line to stop the video signal for cable TV.
But a hacker can obtain analog cable access to a television through a computer's cable modem by splitting the line with something like a TV tuner--widely available at electronics stores--at the filter's source. In addition, filters often aren't installed with the cable modem line, so it takes little effort on the part of an experienced hacker.
This is possible because the cable modem line contains the spectrum of signals needed to view analog cable and get high-speed data service. If the filter comes off or is not installed, the Internet access subscriber can run the cable modem line into the television and receive basic cable.
If hackers want digital channels or premium stations such as HBO, they must buy a digital scrambler or converter. Such devices are easy to find. For example, roughly 1,200 cable-box de-scramblers and converters are selling on eBay, priced at $80 and up.
Large scale cable theft
Drawing on old-school methods to splice cable TV lines for unauthorized use, hackers say they can buy a splitter at the local electronics store and easily run an additional line from the cable modem line for the computer into the television. Without a set-top box, the result is free, basic, analog cable; with an illegal converter or set-top, hackers say they have access to premium channels such as HBO and Showtime.
"I only get (basic) cable. I don't subscribe; it just comes to my house along with the cable modem signal," said Noah, who wished to keep his last name anonymous. He saves roughly $40 a month on cable but spends about $42 a month on Internet access.
"Lots of people do this if all you want is analog cable," he said. "All cable services are run through the same line; they can't just cut power to analog cable and still give you a cable modem."
Cable operators have battled this form of piracy for years, but it's taking on new urgency in the race to build high-speed Internet service. Broadband providers are struggling with costs, with AT&T just last week instituting a price increase for cable modem customers.
In this environment, piracy is just one more headache for cable providers. The advent of digital cable and broadband Internet access is seen as a mixed blessing for operators, bringing advancements to both deter theft and increase it.
Siphoning TV access from cable modem lines is just one wrinkle to widespread cable piracy, but companies such as AT&T Broadband, Cox Communications and Comcast Cable Communications are starting to crack down. All providers say they are aware of this specific kind of theft and are taking various measures to stop it.
Massive growth shows the bright future of online TV
In the land of the free and home to Hollywood, having the largest consumer market in the world, free cable and satellite TV over the internet has doubled within 2 years. Almost 20% of all american homes are watching online-broadcasts.
In the survey, the US Conference Board and TNS asked 10000 american homes. The most popular streaming site visited is youtube.
The big advantage of free cable and satellite tv over the internet is that its not time dependent. The viewer can choose when he wants to watch his favourite show. Over 70% of the people watch on a daily basis their shows online.
“Most consumers are pressed for time and require flexibility in their daily schedules and TV viewing habits,” said Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “Being able to watch broadcasts on their own time and at their convenience are clearly reasons why we are seeing a greater number turning to the Internet. And, it is the reason why we would expect to see this trend continue.”
The most popular shows are from the news, drama, comedy and reality genre. Sports are also pretty big online. Closely behind this top-shows, user created videos on youtube follow. Then comes the usual stuff: trailers, previews, goodies from hit shows and the like.
“The shift from appointment TV to content on demand is well underway,” said Michael Saxon, Senior Vice President of TNS Brand and Communications. “Fundamentally, consumers expect content to be available when they want it, and on the screen of their choice TV,PC, or mobile. For consumers, PCs enhance content on demand from simply time-shifting to place-shifting. Online content can be viewed in any room in the house, or at work or school.”
Free satellite and cable TV on your PC
Out there are countless offers that promise you free cable and satellite TV on your PC which sound too good to be true.
The problem is: it is too good to be true. Every single website out there offers a mix of the following methods:
The problem is: it is too good to be true. Every single website out there offers a mix of the following methods:
- the use of a peer-to-peer software. You can get this one for free, without buying an eBook telling you about it.
- the usage of a software package full of hundreds or thousands of channels - all of them are free internetstreams. You could find them yourself, and guess why they are fre... Yeah, they are crap.
- sometimes you get a list of free cable tv internet pages. Nothing you cant find through Google... The majority of these sites doesnt charge you for watching their streams or youtube rips.
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