Pirate television

For the Free Speech TV television program, see Pirate Television (television program). For the act of illegally decrypting a TV signal that would usually require payment, see Pirate decryption.

A pirate television station is a broadcast television station that operates without a broadcast license. Like its counterpart pirate radio, the term pirate TV lacks a specific universal interpretation. It implies a form of broadcasting that is unwelcome by the licensing authorities within the territory where its signals are received, especially when the country of transmission is the same as the country of reception. When the area of transmission is not a country, or when it is a country and the transmissions are not illegal, those same broadcast signals may be deemed illegal in the country of reception. Therefore, "pirate TV" can mean many things to many people. Pirate television stations may also be known as "bootleg TV", or confused with licensed low-power broadcasting (LPTV) or amateur television ATV services.

History

Pirate Television stations are not as abundant in the USA or UK as pirate radio stations are. Only since 2004 has the technology for pirate television stations become easier to obtain and construct, due to advances in technologies and the availability of equipment.

The first pirate TV station in the US was Lanesville TV, launched in 1972, the broadcast station of video pioneers, the Videofreex.^[1]

In April 1978, a weekend broadcast on Channel 7 in Syracuse, NY called "Lucky 7" captured headlines across the nation. "Lucky 7" broadcast episodes of Star Trek and the pornographic movie Deep Throat. The source of the transmission was not identified, but it was speculated in an article in the New York Times that the signal may have been transmitted from the area of Syracuse University, as the signal was strongest in that area.^[2]

Techniques

There are several techniques for pirate TV broadcasting, most of which have been made very difficult, or obsolete, by better security measures and the move to digital television.

Relay hijack (analogue)

Many analogue relay transmitters would "listen" to a more powerful main transmitter and relay the signal verbatim. If the main transmitter ceases broadcasting (for example, if a channel closes down overnight) then a pirate signal on the same frequency as the main transmitter could cause the relay to "wake up" and relay unauthorized programming instead. Typically this would be done by outputting a very weak RF signal within the immediate vicinity of the relay: for example, a video cassette recorder (such as a 12v system designed for use in trucks) sending its signal to a home-made antenna pointed at the relay. As the pirate signal is relatively weak, the source can be difficult to locate if it is well hidden.

A significant benefit of this attack is that the potential viewers do not have to re-tune their televisions to view the content. The content simply appears on an existing channel, after close-down.

This attack is generally now prevented by the channels broadcasting 24 hours per day (e.g. showing test cards instead of closing down), by using satellite feeds instead of repeating terrestrial signals, by electronic security to lock the relay to the authorised source, or by the switch to digital television.

Unsecured analogue satellite transponders have also been reported to have been hijacked in a similar manner.

Source hijack (analogue or digital)

In this scenario, a man-in-the-middle attack is performed upon the source material, such that authorized official transmissions are fed with unauthorized programming from the central studio or play-out facility. For example, a link feed (e.g. outside broadcast) is hijacked by a stronger pirate signal, or pre-recorded media (such as videotapes or hard drives) are swapped over for unauthorised content. This attack would generally have to be performed by an insider or by gaining access to studio facilities by social engineering.

Unauthorized transmitter (analogue)

As with most pirate radio stations, reasonably powerful VHF/UHF transmitters can be built relatively easily by any sufficiently experienced electronics hobbyist, or imported from a less strict country. The primary challenge to this technique is finding a suitable yet inconspicuous vantage point for the transmission antenna, and the risk of getting caught. If the pirate signal is strong enough to be received directly, it will also be strong enough to be tracked down.

Unauthorized multiplex (digital)

The advent of digital television makes pirate television broadcasting more difficult. Channels are broadcast as part of a multiplex that carries several channels in one signal, and it is almost impossible to insert an unauthorized channel into an authorized multiplex, or to re-activate an off-air channel. In order to broadcast an unauthorized digital TV channel, not only must the perpetrator build or obtain a VHF/UHF transmitter, he must also build or obtain, and configure, the equipment and software to digitally encode the signal and then create a stand-alone multiplex to carry it.

In Spain, in major provincial capital cities, usually operates one or more than one pirate TV digital multiplex. Some multiplexes started to operate after digital switch-over migrating pirate channels from analogue pirate television to DVB-T digital multiplexes.

Since shortly after digital switch-over and still today in secondary cities, some channels broadcast by means of a DVB-T transmitter with four analog input sources (in this case, four tuned satellite receivers connected by composite video cable) and then to amplifier, and digital signal is feed to antenna or tower. This method is the one used by most pirate TV channels. However, over the years and due to economic returns, some have begun broadcasting almost professionally. New equipment that they have been installing since three years ago allows remultiplexing of DVB-S programs into DVB-T multiplexes and most parameters can be configured at will.^[3]

Since 2010, its number has been increasing in Madrid and in Valencia,^[4] for example, and, as of March 2016, there are more than ten DVB-T pirate multiplex in Madrid metropolitan area^[5] transmitting without authorization with programming ranging from divinatory, esoteric and occult tarot ^[6] or fundamentalist Christian to community television^[7] (which isn't regulated in Spain as of 2016).

In other countries, there are reports of pirate TV digital multiplexes, but they are very rare and usually suspected to have been false reports, mistaking overspill from authorized multiplexes in neighboring regions or nearby foreign countries. Viewing numbers may be much smaller than analogue pirate TV since re-tuning a digital television may be an entirely automated process which may ignore unauthorized multiplexes, or place such channels in an obscure section of the electronic program guide.

Stations

Known stations

ABD TV - Pirate Children's TV station broadcasting on UHF 32 in Chatswood Sydney Australia in 1996. They later changed to UHF 34 in 1997 and ceased transmission in 1999 after claiming that they received a warning by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.
BB See - Sligo, Ireland. Operated during 2005 and 2006 broadcasting local events.
Channel D - Dublin, Ireland (c. 1981)
Hello Jonny - Rome, Italy. Italian pirate TV closed in 2003 by the Police.
iStreetTV! - Palmers Cross, Jamaica, a project of !Mediengruppe Bitnik (2008) ^[8]
Kanal X - Leipzig, Germany. Operated during the final days of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).^[9]^[10]
Lanesville TV - Lanesville, New York, USA. Operated on VHF channel 3 by the video collective Videofreex and broadcast on Saturdays from 1972 to 1977 (a total of 258 broadcasts). The collective and its station is detailed in Parry D. Teasdale's book Videofreex: America's First Pirate TV Station & the Catskills Collective That Turned It On.^[11]^[12]
LATELE - Barcelona, Spain - Operated on UHF channel 52.
Lucky 7 - Syracuse, New York, USA. Operated during the evenings of April 14–16, 1978 on VHF channel 7^[13]
NeTWork 21 - London, England - Broadcast for around 30 minutes on Friday evenings in 1986^[14]
New Stations Broadcasting Network - New York City, New York, USA. Intermittent series of broadcasts in Brooklyn, NY beginning in 2007 created by artist James Case Leal. In New York operates on UHF channel 17, but is also responsible for television programming in other cities including Havana, Cuba (April 20, 2009 - May 22, 2009 Ch 16), Minneapolis, MN during the RNC 2008 (Ch 15), and Piedras Negras, Mexico (July 2008 Ch 23).^[15]
Northern Access Network - Canada, various locations in the late 1970s
Nova TV Dublin, Ireland (c. 1985)
Odelia TV - Operated briefly in 1981 on UHF channel 58, offshore of Israel.^[16]
Pirate Cat TV - Operated on VHF channel 13 by Pirate Cat Radio of San Francisco, California, USA^[17]^[18]
Star Ray TV - Broadcasting on UHF channel 15 in the Beaches neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
SBT - A Serbian language TV station broadcasting on analogue channel 7 in Vienna, Austria. (YouTube videos showing broadcasts are dated as late as 2011.)
Telefis na Gaeltacht (c. 1987) Connemara, Ireland (not to be confused with its similarly named legal successor). Several Irish deflector systems (normally used for relaying British television signals on UHF) occasionally carried local programming.
Telstar TV (c. 1984) Birmingham, United Kingdom. Broadcast for about eight weeks on the BBC2 transmitter in the Northfield and Rubery areas of Birmingham. Showed a mixture of films and pop videos after BBC2 closed at weekends and went unnoticed by the authorities for several weeks much to their embarrassment.^[19]
Telestreet - Italy - Movement that set up pirate TV micro-stations
Thameside TV^[20] - London, England - A very early pirate TV station set up by Thameside Radio. There were only two known broadcasts in December 1987.^[21]
TV Noordzee - A 1964 TV station on VHF channel 11 which, along with Radio Noordzee (not to be confused with the later Radio North Sea International), broadcast from "REM Island", an artificial platform 6 miles offshore of Noordwijk in the Netherlands. Both of the stations were knocked off the air by a sea and air raid by the armed forces of the Netherlands.^[22]
TV Syd - A short-lived offshore TV station that broadcast on UHF channel 41. It was the sister station of Radio Syd and broadcast from the MV Cheeta 2 anchored off the Swedish coast.^[23]
WGUN - Mentioned in an article by Shannon Huniwell in Popular Communications magazine, this was a short-lived pirate station in the Lynchburg, Virginia area that broadcast on channel 45 during the late 1970s. The sole broadcast consisted of a water pistol with "WGUN 45 TV" in cut out letters mounted on a phonograph turntable with audio from "an unmercifully scratchy Baja Marimba Band album". The station was located by radio station technicians after being informed by the mother of a young viewer who found the station while tuning the UHF TV band. When asked, the young unnamed pirate stated he purchased the transmitter, an EMC Model TXRU-100 UHF transmitter, at a rummage sale from a church that had intended to start a UHF-TV station. Upon being informed that his broadcasts were illegal, the station was shut down. The transmitter was reportedly re-sold at a yard sale.^[24]
W10BM - Morehead, Kentucky, USA - Originally a licensed LPTV station on VHF channel 10, it is presently operating on a canceled license, making it a pirate broadcaster.

During the 1980s, large numbers of pirate TV stations operated in Italy, Greece, Spain and Israel. Subsequent legislation lead to the licensing of many of these stations and the closure of (most of) the remainder.

Proposed stations

Caroline TV - Advertised in 1970, this was to have been a project related to Radio Caroline, which at the time was off the air. Artwork showing the proposed station's identification graphics were released, but the station, which was to be broadcast from an airplane (similar to Stratovision), never materialized, although there is a website called www.radiocarolinetv.co.uk.^[25]^[26]
City TV - Was to have broadcast from a decommissioned minesweeper offshore of England. Plans for the station were announced on 8 June 1965, and was to have broadcast on VHF channel 3, but the station never materialized.^[23] It is not to be confused with the later CityTV in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, which began operation in 1972 and are fully licensed and legal full-power stations.
Sealand Television - Was to have broadcast on Channel 28 from the Principality of Sealand, a micronation established on a World War Two gunnery platform off the coast of Essex, England. The station, which was announced to start in September 1987, was to have been financed by Wallace Kemper, who was facing fraud and conspiracy charges.^[27]^[28]
Tower TV - Was to have broadcast from Sunk Head Fort, 14 miles offshore of Essex, England. Reportedly held a test transmission at 4:20 AM on Tuesday 9 November 1965.^[29] If this station had gone on air it would have probably caused interference with a legitimate transmitter at Peterborough on the same frequency.