The cable industry is using paid commercials in its anti-cable theft campaign, which is the most commonly known method of informing people of the problem. Also, technological advancements, such as the use of digital cable instead of analog cable, make theft almost impossible and are more subtle ways of preventing it.
Kathy Thornton, attorney for the N.C. Cable Telecommunications Association, said cable theft is not a victimless crime -- the victims are the paying customers whose cable bills increase. "(Cable theft) has certainly increased in the last four or five years."
Brad Phillips, Time Warner Cable's vice president of government and public affairs for the Raleigh area, including Orange County, said the campaign to stop unauthorized use of cable is not a new one and will continue. "It's an ongoing campaign," he said. "We are constantly vigilant about cable theft."
Nilda Gumbs, the assistant director in the Office of Cable Theft for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, said the demographics for cable theft could not be attributed to one population group. "(Cable theft) crosses every demographic boundary you could possibly imagine," Gumbs said.
But the college-aged population is at least one demographic partly responsible for the rise in cable theft.
A UNC student who wanted to remain anonymous said he and his suitemates in Granville Towers share one cable box between them.
He said the method they employed to steal cable was to have one person pay for the cable box and the four of them split the cost. Each obtained use of the cable by splicing wires between the activated box and other boxes that are not activated.
"We're sharing between a lot of people," he said. "I didn't really see anything wrong with it."
A 1999 study by the NCTA said the cable industry loses $6.6 billion in revenue per year. The figure does not include money lost to unauthorized viewing of pay-per-view programming. Gumbs estimated that there are 30 to 50 criminal cable theft cases pending nationally.
