And while exact numbers are hard to come by, AAS thinks there could be up to 500,000 cards on the market. That's just the hardware. This figure reflects its estimates that between 10 and 20 percent of Europe's 35 million satellite subscribers were pirating. Actually, most pirates are paying at least something. The premium services, however, are where the providers hope to make money.
High prices increase piracy, and piracy increases prices.
CSD recently upped the cost of its basic service by a third, which caused further uproar and inspired hackers. Emili Prado, professor of audiovisual communications at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and director of Euromonitor, cites other reasons for the steep costs. The high cost of programming makes the providers reluctant to utilize better, more expensive methods of encryption. However, there is some debate about the profitability of soccer. In Spain, soccer was expected to be the killer app.