TVB joins other broadcasters in California court action against illegal streaming

Leading Chinese-language television broadcasters, including TVB, have filed a lawsuit in a US court in a bid to tackle the scourge of companies illegally streaming programmes.

China's state broadcaster CCTV, US satellite service provider Dish Network and Hong Kong's TVB last Friday accused a number of companies promoting and selling a brand of streaming media boxes targeted at receiving large amounts of pirated television broadcasts.

Wilfred Chow, senior intellectual property enforcement adviser for TVB, told the Sunday Morning Post: "Piracy and black boxes is a growing problem, a huge problem affecting the creative industries, in particular the movie and TV industries. They're badly hurt."

He said he could not comment on the current proceedings for legal reasons.

Global broadcasters and programme makers including the United States' HBO, Fox, Discovery and Britain's BBC, who are not included in this Californian court lawsuit submission, are cited in the legal document as being affected by piracy.

Chow cited the profligacy of cheap set-top boxes in British-Chinese households, which was was cited as the cause for the demise of TVB's European pay-TV business, which closed at the end of last year.