Broadcasters lobby for partial encryption of Freeview signal

Freeview TV operators want to stop the mass unauthorised copying of HD content by demanding that set-top box and PVR manufacturers accept new DRM standards.

Expressing the concerns of Freeview shareholders including Channel 4 and ITV, the BBC wrote to Ofcom asking it to consider whether the digital television HD signal could be encrypted via a so-called "broadcast flag" so that only selected PVRs will be able to record over Freeview, as EFF.org points out.

The actual audio and video won't be scrambled, but the standard EPG data tables that set top boxes use - freely available via the Digital TV Group - would be encrypted so that only manufacturers that sign up to a new licence will have access to the right code, which is needed for recording.

Ofcom launched a consultation (pdf) on 3 September and says it is "minded to amend" the Freeview multiplex licence allowing for the "protection of intellectual property rights in HDTV services".

The deadline for public submissions is Wednesday. BBC distribution controller Alix Pryde wrote in a letter to Ofcom: "As broadband speeds are increasing, facilitating the unauthorised redistribution of HD content, HD content rights holders have begun to expect a degree of content management on the Freeview HD platform … Whilst no system provides a complete deterrent to determined hackers, content management applied in the receiver after reception helps to prevent mass piracy."

Like all content owners, even terrestrial public service broadcasters are understandably worried about piracy - but there are fears this could hurt ordinary folk more than tech-savvy P2P nerds.

As MP and former communications minister Tom Watson writes: "In an attempt to satisfy the fears of powerful rightsholders, the BBC will prohibit millions of people from programming their existing STBs ... Where's the consumer interest in that settlement?" EFF.org speculates that the real motivation is not to halt piracy but "creating a rightsholder veto over new consumer technologies in DTV".

However, the BBC told us in a statement: "No existing Freeview boxes will be affected by this what so ever. We are committed to ensuring that public service content remains free to
air, ie unencrypted. However, HD content holders have begun to expect a degree of content management on the Freeview HD platform and therefore broadcasters have recognised that a form of copy protection is needed."

Also, this process may have set a modern-day record for the shortest policy consultation period: Ofcom's consultation document was sent out on 3 September and submissions are due today, just 10 working days later. The BBC wrote to Ofcom to make its Freeview DRM case on 27 August - so it's taken just 21 days to go from broadcaster request to the end of a public consultation.

A similar broadcast flag policy in the US, pushed by Hollywood Studios and the FCC, was rejected by a federal appeals court in 2005. The court there ruled that the FCC has no authority to interfere in the manufacture of TV recording hardware.