Illegally receiving cable television is a crime that could cost up to $10,000 in fines and jail time. The use of unauthorized or modified converter boxes is a federal law violation.

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How Cable Theft Affects You

If you think stealing cable television only impacts NPG Cable, Inc., CableVision, think again. It's a crime everyone pays for including your family, friends, and neighbors. Theft of cable means poorer picture quality, increased service failure, and higher service fees for paying customers due to increased maintenance costs.

Cable Theft Facts

Cable television theft is the illegal interception of cable programming services without the express authorization of, or payment to, a cable television system. There are two types of cable theft, passive and active. Passive theft occurs when a consumer receives services due to faulty cable operator procedures. Active theft occurs when someone knowingly and willfully makes an illegal physical connection to the cable system and/or attaches or tampers with equipment to allow the receipt of unauthorized services. Active theft can occur at both a consumer or commercial level. Commercial theft usually happens in an environment where the proprietor receives financial gains from the illegal services (i.e. a bar or restaurant).

Commercial theft also occurs when individuals or companies develop, tamper with, manufacture or otherwise provide equipment which provides unauthorized access to cable or Internet services and receives compensation for that equipment. The devices used to receive the unauthorized services are called descramblers, decoders or black boxes. The cable industry works in concert with law enforcement authorities around the country to stop the unauthorized sales of cable descramblers to consumers.

Based on NCTA's cable piracy survey conducted in 1999, the industry loses an estimated $6,584,603,760 ($6.6 billion) in unrealized basic and premium revenue annually.

The $6.6 billion loss does not incorporate unauthorized reception of pay-per-view programming. Engineering analysis of pirate product seized by law enforcement agencies in 1996 (more than 500,000 devices) substantiates that 80% of the units were capable of circumventing addressable technology and allow the illegal reception of pay-per-view services. If pay-per-view revenues were included in the loss estimates, the dollar value would easily exceed six billion dollars.

It is illegal to own or be in possession of an unauthorized cable descrambler in 32 states.

The Federal Communications Commission released a Public Notice in November, 1994 stating that the use of cable descramblers not authorized by cable systems is a violation of federal law.

Piracy affects the picture quality of the system by weakening the signal. In some systems poor picture quality is the reason for service calls and other system maintenance which increases system costs and puts pressure on cable rates.