Dish Sues Over Online Streaming Device

The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) Monday praised member company Dish for joining China Central Television and others for filing a lawsuit in a New York District court against the h.TV device for streaming TV content.

“This lawsuit is important as it’s critical for content providers like TVB and CCTV to protect their works,” said Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. “We stand with Dish, TVB and CCTV as they fight this unlawful activity in court."

The suit alleges that h.TV runs a pirate broadcasting network that "captures" TV programming and streams it over the Internet 24/7.

"Each h.TV device includes a software interface that provides to h.TV users, free of charge, software applications or “apps” that enable users to access, view, and share infringing streams of television programming in the United States, including programming from CCTV and others," the complaint reads.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.