Rapid TV News reports that there are about 1.5 million illegal decoder boxes in the Gulf. At least 60% of the UAE’s large south Asian community is illegally subscribing to the Indian satellite broadcaster Dish TV, which does not have licenses to broadcast in the Middle East. Last July Showtime Arabia merged with arch-rival Orbit in an attempt to start making progress and profits out of pay-TV through swapping hundreds of thousands of set-top boxes for new ones with proprietary encryption technology that will better protect its investment in the region’s first portfolio of high-definition satellite channels.

According to The National, OSN has also been working with the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority to block the IP addresses of servers that store and disseminate hacked passwords for its set-top boxes.

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