TORONTO – The Canadian television industry is again setting its sights on those Canadians who aren’t paying for their satellite or cable television.
As Cartt.ca first reported in October, the Coalition Against Signal Theft (formerly the Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft) has been reborn, said Chris Frank, vice-president of programming at Bell Video Group at the Canadian Broadcast Distribution Association (formerly the CSUA) annual digital broadcasting conference.
The new moniker was chosen because “more than satellite is losing money to signal theft,” said the man who is in charge of programming for Bell ExpressVu.
“Theft is a very large problem.”
CASST was formed earlier this decade by Canadian and American satellite companies along with programmers and cablers when faced by the costly threat of easily hack-able DirecTV systems. However, DirecTV was able to secure its signal and cable pulled out of the group, causing CASST to go dormant for a number of years.
Frank said the new group, “risen phoenix-like from the ashes of the previous association,” is made up of cable, satellite and programmers and wants government action on this file. To get it, CAST is about to embark on a round of new research.
A study he saw a few months ago, said Frank, says there could be as many three million “illegal satellite receiving devices in Canada.” Doing the math on that suggests a whole lot of money lost to the broadcast system in Canada.
“There is a need for government action,” added Frank. “We need tougher laws and tougher penalties.”
Right now, except for Quebec – whose law enforcement agencies take signal theft seriously and who have made many arrests – those caught selling illegal gear and who have made scads of money off of it, normally are fined or receive community service, said Frank, if they are even arrested.
“There really isn`t a legal deterrent,” he added, saying that retailers and others from the industry bring evidence forward to authorities, “and nothing happens,” except in Quebec, which Frank called “a shining example,” to the rest of the country.
So, the new CAST will attempt to re-cast the battle this year – to quantify the losses, what it means to the industry, and then create an effective communications strategy to show what it means to Canadians themselves.
“We`re going to have to be well financed and have a broad coalition of interests,” said Frank, who envisions putting draft legislation in front of MPs and committees so the feds can see what the industry needs and why – complete with new legislation and penalties.
“We want to put a few bad guys in jail,” he added.
– Greg O’Brien
