TATT wants to regulate Android boxes

[Musical Doc]

Pirates of the Caribbean be here warned–the days of free content streaming via Android boxes may soon be ending.

The Telecommunications Authority (TATT) will begin consultations for the regulation of Android boxes next week, after lobbying by subscription television providers.

Among the suggestions will be the certification of Android boxes for a certain scope of use, as well as possibly banning the importation of the devices under the Copyright Act.

The popular devices are used to stream content–sometimes illegally– from online, to the user's television. Revenue for subscription TV providers has been dwindling in the last few years, with TATT estimating a drop from $183 million in the last quarter of 2016, to $164 million in the same period for 2017.

Among the major contributors, the industry believes, is the proliferation of Android boxes. One executive suggested the loss in just value added tax (VAT) to the government is at least $30 million, not including losses from licensing fees and royalty payments.

http://newsday.co.tt/2018/06/12/tatt-lo ... oid-boxes/

Now if these idiot television providers was giving us reliable service at a reasonable cost then we never would've had to go to android boxes.... When customers find something better they always try to shut it down smh

[sMASH]

Would that apply to arrangements like Netflix, Amazon prime, and other content facilitators that are NOT available through the local cable providers?

[cryotec]

raspberry pi + kodi + plugins. problem solved.

[sMASH]

I had used the soft ware on my tabs.

[Soundwave]

Would that apply to arrangements like Netflix, Amazon prime, and other content facilitators that are NOT available through the local cable providers?

doesn't look so, they're just intent on crushing the market for the android boxes, little old android boxes pissed off two big players, the government and big business...

[The_Honourable]

If is not criminals that want to rob you, is the state that want to tax you.

Can't have nice things in T&T.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

If is not criminals that want to rob you, is the state that want to tax you.

Can't have nice things in T&T.

The said the state loses $30 million in taxes from the loss in business for the cable TV providers.

however they should check the amount of VAT and Duty the Gov't gets from Android box sales as well as the VAT they receive from Broadband subscriptions

[pugboy]

Most ppl amazon fire stick now though

[*KRONIK*]

If is not criminals that want to rob you, is the state that want to tax you.

Can't have nice things in T&T.

The said the state loses $30 million in taxes from the loss in business for the cable TV providers.

however they should check the amount of VAT and Duty the Gov't gets from Android box sales as well as the VAT they receive from Broadband subscriptions

This!

They just greedy and myopic

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Most ppl amazon fire stick now though

well all Android based devices can run the same software needed to access these pirated streaming channels and movies.

[ProtonPowder]

Reminds me of when telecoms companies tried to regulate access to VOIP like skype and viber

Stifling the damn country

[Strugglerzinc]

Android tax now.

[VexXx Dogg]

Sell the device without an os. Sell or provide Instructions to load and mod. Or the service to do so.

Can't ban micropcs :/

[j.o.e]

Piracy is still sheit tho

[kstt]

IPTV


Loss in revenue is because they keep raising their prices every Monday morning.



F@K DEM!!

[ruffneck_12]

If is not criminals that want to rob you, is the state that want to tax you.

Can't have nice things in T&T.

The said the state loses $30 million in taxes from the loss in business for the cable TV providers.

however they should check the amount of VAT and Duty the Gov't gets from Android box sales as well as the VAT they receive from Broadband subscriptions

Then maybe they should look at the flaws in their system.
Cable TV is utter crap now. Back in the analog days it was good. Channels would change instantly and we hardly got freezes, oh and closed captioning worked well too.
And well it had the blues movies too late at night too.

Now you lucky if you get to see a tiddie on Space at 3am for more than a minute.
RIP cinemax

Android boxes have tiddies on demand. Thats the main reason people switched inno. T I D D I E S
What good are parental control settings if the content clean already?

(the music stations on flow is the bomb tho)

[kstt]

With no net neutrality (if that applies here as well) could the internet companies block streaming and that will void all boxes?

[13 GHOST]

In the early days cable Tv advertisements were pay for commercial free tv ppl paid now commercial more than shows. Direct tv came along same thing pay and no commercials now its pay more for ad free I say sod it I use kodi on almost every device I have from my TVs to PC and cell phone they make money off selling me broad band they should be good if they block streaming which I doubt they would cause that's not only kodi but YouTube Netflix's and Amazon and those of us who has CCTV. last I checked we should be a free-ish ish country unless you have a dog house or duck pond ect. So if they block streaming they can have back there dsl. My 2 cents

[13 GHOST]

Ps or I will just use a proxi

[airuma]

Sell the device without an os. Sell or provide Instructions to load and mod. Or the service to do so.

Can't ban micropcs :/

IIRC, this is why the android boxes come with legal apps only.

[RedVEVO]

^^

TATT will never succeed with this proposal .

[*$kїđž!™]

Aye we hadda vote out this govt and their need to kill everything nice in this country

[RedVEVO]

Aye we hadda vote out this govt and their need to kill everything nice in this country

TATT's Prince is PNM to the marrow.

[zoom rader]

Why did they not say 1% was to regulate the boxes

[*$kїđž!™]

So what will courts and pricesmart do witj all those boxes they have 4 sale ?

[brickman]

Chin & flow/direct TV call their favors for this because their pockets feeling light,just like a couple years ago they cracked down on the DVD stores(DVD vendors are back out on the street but the police leave them alone now,wonder why?) .Alot more difficult now as the boxes are not offered with the 'pirate software',they are user installed.Further more it's not hardware but software freely available to the public of the world for free so how would they block it?!Do like some parts of europe & britain & block ip addresses of people who use them?Then you would have to block every android/windows/apple device in trinidad from the internet which is ridiculous & they would lose even more $$ as people cancel/go for lower packages of their internet services.

[wickedtuna]

Approximately $300,000 worth of possible tax revenue to the Government is being lost on a yearly basis because customers are buying Android boxes instead of becoming paid television subscribers, DirecTV general manager Bernard Pantin says. He estimates there could be as many as 80,000 Android boxes currently in the country.

Pantin made the claim at a conference titled “Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement: Video Content Piracy” hosted by Alianza at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Android boxes allow users to stream content from the Internet and are sold with pre-installed software which sometimes allow content to be streamed illegally. And this piracy is where the problem lies. The boxes can be purchased at some retail stores around the country and their prevalence is said to be impacting the revenue for subscription television, which has been dwindling in recent times.

Annie Baldeo, of the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT), said revenue for paid television fell from $183 million in the last quarter of 2016 to $164 million in the first quarter of 2017. One of the reasons for the declining revenue was the increase in Android box usage, Baldeo said.

“There is a new free kid in town - the Android boxes, you never have to pay another monthly fee in your life, you are getting something fully loaded, all red flags if somebody is offering you that,” Pantin pointed out.

Corporate Vice President of HB Latin America Group Javier Figueras agreed with Pantin about the rise of the Android boxes and the new frontier being explored by pirates.

“People are paying for services and not knowing how long it will last. It is true there are many Android boxes, there are many people paying for that but they don’t know how long it will last and for which distributors are not even paying a penny, such as companies like Novo, in this country pushing the Android box and pushing services that are totally illegal,” Figueras said.

Figueras said piracy is a very serious topic which affects all.

“Piracy oftentimes goes hand in hand with illegal activities such as drug trafficking, weapons, money laundering that affects the country,” he said, adding piracy is not the “victimless crime” that many believe it is.

TATT’s Karel Douglas said the authority will begin consultations for the regulation of Android boxes next week.

“We have persons in the industry question the importation and the sale of these devices and how it threatens the livelihood of many providers, we have had small cable tv broadcasters indicate that Android boxes have destroyed their business and they are opting out of the subscription television market,” Douglas said.

“We have been asked time and time again what is TATT the regulator doing about these devices and why is it that we the regulator is allowing Android boxes to be openly imported and sold to the public at the expense of the industry. Well, we have heard you and the authority will soon begin the process of holding consultations on the issue of Android boxes.”

One avenue that is being proposed to address the issue is the possible banning of Android boxes being imported into the country. TATT has already drafted a consultation paper which is to be published by June 25.

[maj. tom]

so what now? 100% duties on Android boxes? Buy local and it still more expensive?
Instead of the cable business adapting to the world of the internet, they trying to punish. Great success in the history of such plans.

[timothymcdavid]

They might as well ban internet, computers and cellphones as well cause TV is for geriatrics and I am almost one myself.

Honestly I can't remember watching a TV program from start to finish even the news and I dont own an android box either. My experience trying to stream F1 via Kodi on a 15Mb connection didnt impress me at all.

Peoples tastes are changing TATT is going to have find new ways to get those revenue streams in which probably means to be ahead of the game we are going to have to VPN up in Trinidad soon.

That said Youtube channels are far more interesting than what you get on TV or even cable these days.

[fatboy slim]

people using android boxes due to the sheit direct tv and flow does show. true dictatorship in every aspect in trinidad now.