As revealed by advanced-television.com, leaders in the Latin American pay-TV industry have joined forces to create the Alianza Contra la Piratería de Televisión Paga (Alliance Against Pay-TV Piracy).

The Alianza’s mission – announced at the NATPE television programming market in Miami – is to combat a form of piracy known in the industry as FTA piracy. FTA piracy involves the illegal use of ‘free-to-air’ satellite receivers to decrypt pay television audiovisual signals, illegally and without authorisation. The Alianza brings together most of the major players in the pay-TV industry and creates a framework for broader industry collaboration in the fight against FTA piracy.

The Alliance reports that although there are no formal statistics, industry research estimates that piracy accounts for up to 20 per cent of the pay-TV market in the region, with FTA piracy being one of the principal forms of piracy faced by the industry. Since 2010, over 50 brands of pirated FTAs have appeared on the market in Latin America. FTA piracy is driven by international manufacturers of FTA receivers and the organised networks that distribute and support the use of these receivers for unauthorised purposes. Its presence in Latin America is harmful to consumers as well as to industry players including programmers, operators and the companies that provide equipment and services to pay-TV programmers and operations in the region.

The Alianza’s goals will be to:

• Monitor and investigate FTA piracy;
• Conduct outreach and training with regulators and law enforcement authorities;
• Support law enforcement actions against FTA pirates;
• Enhance public awareness of FTA piracy; and
• Collaborate and support anti-FTA initiatives of country-specific pay-TV associations such as the Associação Brasileira de Televisão por Assinatura (ABTA), the Brazilian pay-TV association.

Current Alianza supporters include pay-TV operators DirecTV PanAmericana, Telefonica, Sky Brasil, VTR and Claro Peru, Claro Ecuador, Claro Colombia, and Claro Chile.

Pay-TV programmers supporting the initiative include Discovery, ESPN, FOX International Channels Latin America, Globosat, HBO Latin America Group, Telecine, Televisa, Turner Broadcasting System Latin America, and Win Sports.

Other supporters include ABTA, Media Networks Latin America, and content security specialist Nagra.

The Alianza expands upon a collaboration between DirecTV and Nagra, the pair having joined forces in 2010 to leverage each other’s anti-piracy expertise and personnel to combat FTA piracy in South America.

According to Michael Hartman, SVP of Legal and Regulatory Affairs for DirecTV Latin America, “In a show of solidarity, the Alianza represents a new model of pay-TV collaboration intended to address a serious threat to our industry, as well as to pay-TV customers throughout the region. We are excited to be a part of this initiative.”

“The creation of the Alianza marks an important milestone for the pay-TV industry in Latin America. We are proud that the collaboration, which began with DirecTV a few years ago, has now developed into an industry-wide effort. We are confident that leveraging both our technology and extensive anti-piracy capabilities will result in a strong and actionable plan with concrete objectives, metrics and deliverables to effectively lead the fight against piracy,” stated Pascal Metral, Head of Anti-Piracy Litigation and Intelligence Operations, Nagra.

Nagra is a leading member of Europe-focused AAPA (Audiovisual Anti Piracy Alliance) whose mission is to enable the fight against piracy where this involves the development, promotion, distribution, application or use of technologies resulting in the unauthorised use of protected audiovisual content, by co-ordinating intelligence and action supported by effective legislation and its implementation.

Categories: Articles, Content, Piracy