Market impact on traditional television services The convergence of content, technology, and broadband access allows consumers to stream television shows and movies to their high-definition televisions in competition with
pay television providers. The research company SNL Kagan expects 12 million households, roughly 10%, to go without cable, satellite or telco video service by 2015 using
Over The Top services. This represents a new trend in the broadcast television industry, as the list of options for watching movies and TV over the Internet grows at a rapid pace. Research also shows that even as traditional television service providers are trimming their customer base, they are adding
Broadband Internet customers. Nearly 76.6 million U.S. households get broadband from leading cable and telephone companies, although only a portion have sufficient speeds to support quality video steaming. Convergence devices for home entertainment will likely play a much larger role in the future of broadcast television, effectively shifting traditional revenue streams while providing consumers with more options.
Use for illegal streaming Since at least 2015, dealers have marketed digital media players, often running the Android operating system and branded as being "
fully-loaded", that are promoted as offering free streaming access to copyrighted media content, including films and television programs, as well as
live feeds of television channels. These players are commonly bundled with the open source media player software
Kodi, which is in turn pre-loaded with
plug-ins enabling access to services streaming this content without the permission of their respective copyright holders. These "fully-loaded" set-top boxes are often sold through online marketplaces such as
Amazon.com and
eBay, as well as local retailers. "Fully-loaded" set-top boxes have been subject to legal controversies, especially noting that their user experiences made them accessible to end-users who may not always realize that they are actually streaming pirated content. In March 2017, the
High Court of Justice ruled that
BT Group,
Sky plc,
TalkTalk, and
Virgin Media must block servers that had been used on such set-top boxes to illegally stream
Premier League football games. Later in the month,
Amazon UK banned the sale of "certain media players" that had been pre-loaded with software to illegally stream copyrighted content. On 26 April 2017, the
European Court of Justice ruled that the distribution of set-top boxes with access to unauthorized streams of copyrighted works violated the exclusive rights to communicate them to the public. In Canada, it was initially believed that these set-top boxes fell within a legal grey area, as the transient nature of streaming content did not necessarily mean that the content was being downloaded in violation of
Canadian copyright law. 11 additional defendants were subsequently added to the suit. The lawyer of one of the defendants argued that retailers should not be responsible for the actions of their users, as any type of computing device could theoretically be used for legal or illegal purposes. In April 2017, the
Federal Court of Appeal blocked an appeal requesting that the injunction be lifted pending the outcome of the case. Although the software is free to use, the developers of Kodi have not endorsed any add-on or Kodi-powered device intended for facilitating copyright infringement. Nathan Betzen, president of the XBMC Foundation (the non-profit organization which oversees the development of the Kodi software), argued that the reputation of Kodi had been harmed by third-party retailers who "make a quick buck modifying Kodi, installing broken piracy add-ons, advertising that Kodi lets you watch free movies and TV, and then vanishing when the user buys the box and finds out that the add-on they were sold on was a crummy, constantly breaking mess." Betzen stated that the XBMC Foundation was willing to enforce its
trademarks against those who use them to promote Kodi-based products which facilitate copyright infringement. In June, the service's operator was also sued by the Bell/Rogers/Videotron consortium for inducing copyright infringement. In June 2017,
Televisa was granted a court order banning the sale of all
Roku products in Mexico, as it was alleged that third parties had been operating subscription television services for the devices that contain unlicensed content. The content is streamed through unofficial apps that are added to the devices through hacking. Roku objected to the allegations, stating that these services were not certified by the company or part of its official Channels platform, whose terms of service require that they have rights to stream the content that they offer. Roku also stated that it actively cooperates with reports of channels that infringe copyrights. The ruling was overturned in October 2018 after Roku took additional steps to remove channels with unauthorized content from the platform. In May 2018, the
Federal Communications Commission sent letters to the CEOs of
Amazon.com and
eBay, asking for their help in removing such devices from their marketplaces. The letter cited
malware risks, fraudulent use of FCC certification marks, and how their distribution through major online marketplaces may incorrectly suggest that they are legal and legitimate products. In Saudi Arabia, the practice of using digital media players for pirated television content first became popular during the
Qatar diplomatic crisis, after Qatari pay television network
beIN Sports was banned from doing business in the country. The pirate subscription television service
BeoutQ operated a
satellite television service featuring repackaged versions of the beIN Sports channels, but its Android-based satellite boxes also included a pre-loaded app store offering apps for multiple streaming and subscription services dealing primarily in copyrighted media. In the United States, resellers sell Chinese-made
Android TV IPTV set-top boxes under the brands SuperBox and vSeeBox. ==See also==