Illicit streaming highlights cost of legal viewing
WHEN hundreds of television sets in Cyprus went blank, people first wondered what it was that went wrong. Perhaps they checked their innocuous device that so cheaply allowed them to view hundreds of channels they technically hadn’t paid for.
Others had already seen the news on January 9 that combined efforts between authorities in Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria and the Netherlands had shut down an illegal IPTV (internet protocol television) stream and realised the game was up.
This concerns none other than the infamous set-top TV boxes ‘unlocked’ to stream subscription content at almost no cost, that have now been rendered useless.
Although initial reports outlined this was a Dreambox network that had been clamped down on, police specified that the majority of cases in Cyprus concern android boxes.
“The Dreambox is an older technology that uses satellite, whereas android boxes use internet,” deputy police spokesman Stelios Stylianou told the Sunday Mail.
Providers illegally transmitted over 1,000 cable channels such as Nova, Sky Cinema, Sky Sports and Bein Sports, to more than half a million subscribers in Europe by preloading all the channels on the device.
Prices ranged from as little as €10 to €20 per month, a far cry from Cyta’s package for instance, which offers just over 80 channels for €45 or €54 per month for personal use, depending if someone uses the telecoms internet service or not.
In Cyprus, Cyta has located around 500 persons who have been using illegal devices that will be called to provide statements to police, Stylianou said.
It is still not clear how many of these were using the boxes for personal use in their homes and how many for commercial, in cafes and bars, he added.
Those who run businesses such as pubs, cafeterias or bars who stream TV – primary football games, for their customers have to dig much deeper in their pocket to pay a legal subscription.
Cyta, for instance charges €178 per month for one set top box for commercial use. Two devices push up the cost to €275 per month and three costs €317 monthly.
In addition to this, a number of telecoms companies on the island have exclusive broadcasting rights to different football team matches, costing firms millions of euro per year, that are then passed on to consumers through subscriptions, director at Cyprus’ telecommunications regulatory authority Neophytos Papadopoulos told the Sunday Mail.
This means establishments must pay a hefty sum of money to different companies such as Cyta and Primetel if they want to showcase all local games.
Read more:-
http://cyprus-mail.com/2018/01/21/illicit-streaming-highlights-cost-legal-viewing-cypriot-consumers/