British Telecommunications Plc has launched a satellite management system, running on the D2MAC transmission standard, that enables broadcasters to control transmissions from other countries while combatting satellite piracy by encrypting programme signals before satellite link-up: apart from preventing piracy of entertainment services, another feature of the system – which should please Lord Rees-Mogg, who was expressing his concern on television this week about satellite broadcasts perverting English minds – is that it can black-out broadcasts in countries where the controlling boards consider the programme content unacceptable; the service, which uses either set-top decoders or smart cards, can be offered by service providers to subscribers over a set period of time and can be instantly stopped in the case of non-payment.
