DirecTV Will Sue Illicit Consumers
In Bid to Stem Tide of Signal Piracy
By ANDY PASZTOR
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV unit has adopted a new tactic to combat escalating problems with illicit viewers: For the first time, it is preparing to sue and seek punitive damages from individuals who illegally receive satellite-broadcast programming.
Until now, DirecTV has concentrated almost exclusively on filing several multimillion-dollar civil claims and cooperating with a handful of government criminal cases against a relatively small number of alleged middlemen, or members of underground rings, suspected of masterminding such signal piracy. A few groups have been accused by DirecTV and the government of peddling unauthorized access cards and other equipment capable of tapping DirecTV's wide array of programs free of charge, but the effort overall has shown only spotty success.
Now, the El Segundo, Calif., broadcaster is taking a more grass-roots approach, aiming at what it estimates may be as many as one million residences throughout the country receiving DirecTV without paying for it. "We've gone after the developers and major distributors, and believe it's also important to identify and target users" of illicit equipment, said Larry Rissler, the DirecTV vice president in charge of the initiative. "It's necessary to do that" to convince average viewers they face potentially stiff penalties, he added in an interview Monday.
The new crackdown, which is already being implemented, is "a sea change for us" in terms of enforcement, said another DirecTV official. The service has about 10 million paying subscribers, but its growth has slowed down sharply, and the turnover rate of subscribers has increased significantly in recent quarters. Analysts believe rival satellite broadcasters also suffer from piracy, though to a smaller extent. Cable-television operators face a comparable theft problem.
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