Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
British Isles, a large aerial antenna carefully sited will ensure you can receive BBC broad-
casts well outside the boundaries of the United Kingdom.
The European viewers tuning into the UK transmissions are watching the BBC con-
tent illegally because they don't have a TV license. If they are watching BBC services that
are delivered through a redistribution arrangement with their local broadcaster then
everything is cleared. Such arrangements are made from time to time but may be limited
to certain regional variants of the BBC services. There are some BBC services that are
broadcast outside the United Kingdom that are intended for non-UK viewers and these
are not made available within the country.
Constraining the viewing territory is very easy to do with cable systems. It is a lit-
tle harder with terrestrial transmissions but it is almost impossible with satellite
broadcasts.
18.14.3
Conditional Access
If you meet other conditional criteria that are embodied in an access card or conditional-
access account that is keyed to the receiver, then there is at least some physical access
control.
The Sky Satellite systems enable the unique identification of users who pay for sub-
scriptions to keep an account running. In the case of default, transmitting a secret code in
the broadcasting service will disable an account.
People buying access cards and exporting them to territories where they are not mar-
keted compromise these card-based models. Other people attempt to break open
the access control mechanisms and neutralize them. They then sell cards that provide free
access with no revenue return to the service provider. At least with a card that has been
legitimately purchased and exported there is some revenue stream going back to where it
should be.
18.14.4
Subscription Models
Subscription models based around a regular fee seem to be attractive to a large proportion
of the population. Bearing in mind that UK residents must pay for a TV license in the first
place, somewhere around 10 million of them are also prepared to pay a subscription in
order to receive premium content such as soccer matches and first-run movies. These used
to be available free to air but the rights go to the highest bidder, therefore the pay-TV serv-
ices could afford to outbid the free-to-air channels.
The access control provided by a subscription service also gives access to T-com-
merce (television commerce) and interactive services that may yield additional revenue to
the service provider. Indeed, you will often hear the term ARPU being used. This is a con-
traction of “additional revenue per unit” and service providers set target levels for this
number and base their business plans on it.
Finding that your access control has been compromised is a serious problem when
you have built a business model around the concept of secure and reliable identification of
your consumers. Anyone using a purposely compromised access card on a pay-per-view
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