Russia’s premium broadcasters use conditional access systems to restrict viewing to paying customers and prevent piracy. These systems are reportedly very good but that’s making Russia nervous. Western anti-piracy companies dominate the market and at least in theory, could black out TV sets all over the country. A second scenario has Russia equally worried – free premium TV for all.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, French satellite broadcaster Eutelsat refused to stop Russia from using its satellites.

Russia relies on state-run TV channels to spread propaganda, and since 50% of homes have access to a satellite dish, keeping this one-way communication mechanism open is a priority. Last month Eutelsat reported that two of its satellites were being jammed by interference, in this case, a likely attempt by Iranian authorities to silence the opposition there.

But what if there was a much simpler way to black out millions of TV sets, across an entire country, without firing a shot? These are big questions for Russia right now, and according to reports, Moscow has no intention of letting that happen.

The rest of this article can be read on TorrentFreak.com

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