Pirate site blocking - and all the frenetic debate over whether it is effective or not - is a trending topic among the world\\'s broadband providers. Many in Asia are in favour, but they aren\\'t that enamoured about going it alone without some sort of regulatory backing.In the U.K., Sky Broadband just became the latest platform to block user access to file sharing site, The Pirate Bay. Others - including BT - are expected to follow the U.K. High Court ruling that found the Swedish site facilitated copyright infringement.Announcing its decision at the end of May, Sky said it had invested billions of pounds \\"in high-quality entertainment... because we know how much our customers value it. It\\'s therefore important that companies like ours do what they can, alongside the government and the rest of the media and technology industries, to help protect their copyright\\".Asia has a scary share of countries punching well above their weight in global illegal download rankings... and the pressure is mounting all round to block sites that infringe copyright.The idea is a multi-pronged push that includes ISPs big and small, pay-TV providers and regulators, among others.Even if some of them are dragged into it kicking and screaming, regulators have to be involved to ensure all ISPs apply site-blocking measures equally, and not only those with content interests.Meanwhile, the stats remain staggering. Taiwan, where English-language content is commonly believe to be a complete loser, is nosing up to be 20th in the world by volume for downloading English-language TV titles such as <i>The Amazing Race</i>, <i>American Idol</i>, <i>Boardwalk Empire</i>, <i>Bones</i>, <i>Criminal Minds</i>, <i>CSI</i>, <i>Dexter</i>, <i>Glee</i>, <i>The Walking Dead</i>...Eleven of the top 50 countries in the world - 22% - for infringing English-language TV shows by volume are in Asia.China tops the global list, with Australia in fourth spot, Philippines in 10th, India at 11th, Malaysia at 19th and South Korea at 23rd. Singapore, a country of 1.1 million homes, is 24th in the world (and Asia\\'s top culprit on a per capita basis). Hong Kong is at 38th spot, with Indonesia in 45th place and Japan coming in at 48th.So far, regulators in Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Korea have sanctioned pirate-site blocking. This month, Korea implemented a cyber-locker registration rule. Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan haven\\'t - yet - and are in the anti-piracy lobby\\'s cross-hairs.Insiders say Singapore is an easy one, with no changes to the law required and major ISPs already behind the move to block pirate sites and protect their subscription revenues.One of Singapore\\'s major providers, StarHub says it is concerned by the growth in online piracy. Pay-TV revenues and ARPU are, however, growing (a little) despite Singapore\\'s shocking incidence of illegal downloads; StarHub earned S$95.7 million/US$74.3 million from pay-TV (5% growth over 2011) in the first quarter of this year. Pay-TV subs numbers were up by 2,000 to 544,000 and ARPU was up SS$2 to S$51 over last year. Pay-TV churn is about 1.1% - about the same as it has always been, which indicates that maybe piracy isn\\'t having a horrible impact after all.StarHub also has 440,000 broadband subscribers (up 15,000 at the end of March 2012 compared to 2011), and in the first quarter of this year earned S$614 million/US$47.7 million from broadband services (3% growth over the same quarter last year). Broadband ARPU is stable at S$46.The piracy ante just increased for StarHub, which launched its TV Anywhere platform on 7 June with full access to the UEFA Euro 2012, 12 channels and 600 hours of on-demand content and promises of a lot more once online rights are cleared. The platform will also be connected to smart-phones at some point in the \\"near future\\". From 1 November, StarHub will be charging US$4.20 a month for the Anywhere option.Iris Wee, StarHub\\'s vice president of home solutions and content, says StarHub \\"believes that site-blocking (as has been implemented in Malaysia and in several other countries) could help to address this problem,\\" says.But, she adds, \\"we believe that it is necessary for all ISPs to block the pirate sites, and that this could be implemented via a government obligation to block\\".Singapore\\'s other leading broadband provider, SingTel, says it blocks websites \\"based on regulatory requirements, which at present do not include websites hosting pirated content\\". The telco adds that \\"content piracy hurts the industry and we support our regulators and our industry acting in concert to take stricter measures such as site blocking to control piracy\\". SingTel has 545,000 broadband subscribers and 368,000 pay-TV subs.The Singapore government itself is absolutely 100% committed to IP protection and is in the midst of expanding Singapore\\'s role as an IP hub for Asia. Earlier this year, the Minister for Law spoke candidly in Parliament about the country\\'s worst ranking in online piracy, saying too that six of the top 100 sites visited from Singapore were rogue overseas sites. So what\\'s the hold up? That bit is not really clear. Or not to us at least.Most ISPs are missing-in-action when it comes to commenting on their policies towards site blocking, even in countries with regulations against pirate site. Two of Malaysia?s ISPs - Malaysia\\'sTelekom Malaysia and Maxis - haven\\'t/won\\'t/can\\'t comment. Neither will Hong Kong\\'s PCCW, which also said it will tell us what it really thinks, but hasn\\'t. They might come up with a line eventually, but it was silence all the way at press time. Hong Kong Cable declined to comment. Hong Kong Broadband Network said the ISP only provided the broadband link to residential and business internet users and it was \\"out of our control to block sites\\".One of the arguments that is being made by detractors is that site blocking doesn\\'t work for longer than the minutes it takes pirate sites to change their names and redirect their traffic.At the same time, there is ample evidence from digital measurement and research agencies that shows site blocking - whatever the debate over its long-term effectiveness - makes a difference. At least in the short term.A surprisingly small number of sites are responsible for the bulk of illegal downloads. The site-blocking lobby is using this to make the case that blocking just a few sites could bring down illegal downloads by up to 80%. Last year, Mark Monitor\\'s \\"Traffic Report: Online Piracy and Counterfeiting,\\" said there were more than 53 billion visits a year to just 43 piracy sites. Just three at that time (rapidshare, megaupload, megavideo) were responsible for about 40% of that traffic.In Singapore, 16 sites contribute to the bulk of the problem with illegal downloads, including The Pirate Bay, which is 82nd on Singapore\\'s list of top 100 sites. According to Amazon\\'s AlexaRankings, The Pirate Bay ranks higher than Golden Village movie theatre site (at 90th place) and pay-TV provider StarHub (at 92).If just these 16 were blocked, a significant percentage of the country?s problems with illegal downloading could disappear in the near term, say those in the know.The problem is by no means confined to Singapore - and it in no way will be eradicated totally by site blocking. But, in the great big overwhelming and never-ending battle being fought, it\\'s a good place to start.ContentAsia Issue Two 2012