Survey: 20% of Slovaks admit to AV piracy
August 6, 2024
By Colin Mann
One in five Slovaks who watch or download audiovisual content does so illegaly, according to a public opinion poll carried out by Europea agency for the Association of Television Broadcasters of Slovakia (ATVS).
The poll showed that 47 per cent of people in Slovakia use at least one paid platform to watch movies, series or listen to music. More than 19 per cent of the respondents admitted to illegally watching or downloading content.
“We assume that the real number could be even higher, as people don’t always admit to these activities,” stated Markiza group’s legal department director Lucia Tandlich. She pointed out that the availability of pirated content on the Internet makes life difficult not only for domestic creators. “This wilful violation of copyright also makes services more expensive for paying viewers,” she said.
The survey further showed that among the 56 per cent of Slovaks who watch or download content from online platforms, more than 48 per cent do so at least once a week and over 23 per cent even daily.
ATVS noted that preventing the spread of illegal content is dealt with by legislation, via the Copyright Act and the law on media services and by the authority of the Media Services Council, the national coordinator of digital services regulated by an EU directive. However, it considers educating the public to be important.
“Pirated content should be treated like passengers without tickets on public transport. It is important to realise that with an approach like this you can ultimately harm yourself by not being able to watch similar content next time, as it might no longer be created,” stressed Tandlich.
She highlighted that more than 42 per cent of the people in the survey said that it’s important for them to support creators and the creative industry by using legal services to watch content.