Clampdown on TV 'Dodgy Boxes'

A programme based approach based on what people want to watch. At the moment, the market is highly fragmented and the solution would have to work in multiple jurisdictions.

Much, much longer than that. But the Irish media would be largely unaware of that.

Why would an ISP do that?

We would just switch to starlink or something else that untethers us from Irish suppliers.

Why would a company start making their hardware less compatible with unauthorized apps?

Again people would just buy off somebody else.

There will always be workarounds. Just look at escooters, they are limited to 20kph when you buy in the shop but you just go on YouTube to see how to map the limit out.

What are you on about inexperienced users messing up?

I've had many ISP's over the years and it's always just been plug and play. I've never really heard of anybody ringing ISP's for support other than basic troubleshooting.

I'm sure if Amazon or Google get too precious some other trusted brand will just sell an unblocked device.

You seem to be dreaming up some sort of scenario here which would require a lot of buyin from legitamite parties.

I don't recall explaining it to you. I simply said that it was programme based.

This is a good podcast on proper dodgy boxes. Stick to reputable manufacturers!

SuperBox – Darknet Diaries

Possibly. It was early after a long night (Windows recovery and a failed harddrive) and I thought you were replying to my post about a technical solution that applied at a programme level rather than at a channel/tier level.

Sky has distribution contracts and a considerable investment in hardware. Some of it is due to Sky's legacy position as the gatekeeper for Irish and UK satellite TV. If any service wanted to broadcast to the Irish and UK market via satellite, the only realistic option was Sky's playform because that's where the customers were. RTE being RTE decided on an incompatible system on another slot. If anyone wanted Saorsat, they needed more hardware. It theoretically gave them more control but I think that there is an RTE/Virgin feed on Astra and it probably has more viewers than Saorsat.

Cpmpared to satellite broadcasts, IP data is much more problematic because the location (country) of an IP address can esaily be changed. If there is a VPN involved, the location is a bit more difficult to resolve. Embedding a watermark with the subscription identifier is one approach that might work. The problem is in identifying the feeds and subscriptions used.

The main problem for broadcasters and cable companies has been packaging channels in tiers. Many of the programmes won't get watched. A programme approach (almost Pay Per View or more precisely Pay Per Programme) would be a better approach but it would completely up-end the current market. Apart from the legal issues (multiple jurisdictions and rights areas), it would require rights holders to cooperate. Standardising the platform would be tricky. (I had some arguments with the people championing DVB back in the day because there was one potentially lethal vulnerability in the approach.) the replacement version was supposed to be more hardware focusted to make the Conditional Access Modules (CAM) less likely to be emulated in software.

You are less likely to get any serious coverage in the non-specialist media because most of those writing about it have no expertise or background in Conditional Access Systems. It is a specialised subject.