Pay-TV firm boosts piracy efforts

The largest pay-TV operator in the Middle East is boosting its anti-piracy technology in preparation for the FIFA World Cup next year.

Arab Media Corporation, the parent company of ART, has paid $220 million for the right to broadcast the FIFA World Cup.

Arab Radio and Television Network, the largest pay-TV operator in the Middle East, is boosting its anti-piracy technology in preparation for its regional broadcast of the FIFA World Cup next year. ART's holding company, Arab Media Corporation, which reportedly paid US$220 million (Dh808m) for the right to broadcast the World Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2014, is protecting its investment by introducing a new generation of anti-hacker technology in ART's set-top boxes.

Steve Bjuvgard, the head of ART's anti-piracy unit, said Arab Media Corporation (AMC) "decided a few years ago, after the last World Cup, that piracy was definitely an issue, and that we would do everything that we could to make sure that it is not such an issue this time." Earlier this month, ART signed a joint agreement with the French company Viaccess and Opentech, a Korean company that produces digital set-top box technology, to roll out new set-top boxes that contain a so-called "Praha" card ("proactive against hacker attacks"), which combats illegal card sharing and enables the analysis of hacker attacks.

Viaccess has been a partner of ART in North Africa for more than a decade, and the deal is part of the spread of its technology across the region. The widening of anti-piracy efforts mirrors the spread of piracy, which, despite increased efforts to fight pirates in countries such as the UAE, Jordan and Egypt, is on the rise. In December, the Arabian Anti-Piracy Alliance said pirating satellite television had become difficult to counter, while one of the region's largest pay-TV providers estimated that the number of illegal television-signal decoders in the Middle East could be as high as one million.

Mr Bjuvgard said the piracy was becoming an increasingly well-organised and well-funded global business, with links to many other black markets. Globally, internationally traded piracy generated about $250 billion a year, he said. One of the biggest contributions to this underground economy in the Middle East is the brisk market in DreamBoxes, set-top boxes produced by a German company that can be installed with software that allows them to receive pay-TV signals free.

Dream Multimedia, the producer of DreamBoxes, has an array of services on its website intended to combat the illegal usage of its set-top boxes, but Mr Bjuvgard still regards the device as his personal nemesis. "My goal in life is to make the dream a nightmare," he said. ART's pay-TV rivals, Showtime Arabia and Orbit, merged this summer, and the new company put anti-piracy efforts near the top of its agenda. Market analysts estimate that as many as half of Egyptian households receive Showtime and Orbit through piracy.

Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, the chief executive of Orbit Showtime, said at the announcement of the merger in July: "There's a segment of the market, which has broadened the last few years, that uses pirated cards to receive pay-TV. The new company will be very clearly addressing the issues of piracy with that as its number one priority." [e-mail]