Setanta, which launches its service in August on the Freeview-based Top Up TV platform, could face the same problems Sky Italia has faced, where hackers have got around the security system to avoid paying.
There are now estimated to be in excess of 3m homes in Italy accessing premium content television through illegally manufactured decoder cards.
Top Up TV uses the MediaGuard system produced by the Swiss-based Kudelski Group, whose conditional access system used in some set-top boxes in the Italian market was open to hacking as recently as 2004.
According to reports, the MediaGuard set-top boxes can be hacked into through the conditional access modules and smart cards that plug into the set-top box.
Top Up TV signed the deal to use the MediaGuard conditional access system in March 2004, choosing the manufacturer to equip all its set-top boxes.The deal to transmit Setanta content was signed in October last year and will allow viewers with a Top Up TV-compatible digital box or digital TV to be able to subscribe to Setanta Sports for a monthly fee of £10.99.
Setanta will start broadcasting live English Premiership matches and will also broadcast live US PGA Tour golf, Magners League rugby union, Scottish Premier League matches and many more live premium sports events.
Last May, Setanta won two of the Premier League football rights packages on offer in the final round of bidding, with BSkyB taking four.
Setanta, partly owned by private equity firm Benchmark Capital, paid £392m for the two packages and Sky paid £1.314bn in all for its four packages, giving the Premier League a combined £1.706bn.
Calls were directed to Top Up TV from Setanta. Top Up TV could not be reached for comment regarding the possible piracy issue.
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