DISH, TVB & CCTV File Piracy Lawsuit Against HTV International

ENGLEWOOD/NORWALK/LOS ANGELES: DISH and the Chinese-language programmers TVB and CCTV have filed a lawsuit to stop the illegal streaming of content via the “h.TV” set-top box from HTV International (HTVI).

TVB is among the largest producers of Cantonese-language TV programming in the world, and CCTV is one of the leading broadcasters in mainland China. DISH owns exclusive rights to retransmit TVB and CCTV channels and programs via satellite in the U.S., as well as exclusive rights to retransmit TVB content via OTT in the U.S.

The filing, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleges that HTVI has set up a pirate broadcasting network that captures entire channels of TVB and CCTV television programming and streams that programming over the internet to users of the h.TV device in the U.S.

“The h.TV Retransmission Service accomplishes this massive piracy in part through a peer-to-peer network—like Napster, Grokster and BitTorrent, but designed to stream video content rather than to download media files,” the plaintiffs stated in the complaint. “Through this peer-to-peer network, some h.TV users not only receive unauthorized streams of CCTV and TVB programming in the United States, but also simultaneously retransmit that programming to other h.TV users in the United States.”

“Not only are consumers being scammed when they buy the h.TV device, which relies on content obtained illegally, they are being exploited to help facilitate this scheme through a peer-to-peer network that retransmits unauthorized programming from one user to another,” said Samuel Tsang, the VP of operations for TVB USA. “We work with providers like DISH to offer our content legally to consumers and won’t stand for pirates who seek to profit from our content without our authorization.”

“HTVI has built its entire business around blatant copyright infringement, brazenly advertising and promoting the capability of the h.TV device to provide users with infringing streams of CCTV and TVB television programming,” the plaintiffs said.