November 2023 - The Association of Commercial Television

LET’S KEEP OUR FINGERS CROSSED, IT’S A STRANGE TIME, SAYS PRIMA GROUP’S CCO, VLADIMÍR POŘÍZEK

Despite the global crises and mixed expectations, the advertising market grew moderately in 2023 in all media types, says Vladimír Pořízek, FTV Prima group’s CCO. He also talks about how the warm autumn weather has affected the number of viewers in front of their screens or why tv stations have to increase the price of advertising.

How successful is 2023 for Prima in terms of business?

Initial expectations of what 2023 would look like were very unsure. Nobody knew whether there would be another crisis, how clients would behave, how people would behave and how consumption would grow. I remember that we prepared a business plan under about four scenarios – from a 20% market decline to a flat market (a period when the media market in terms of investment volume shows no signs of growth or decline, ed.). At the moment, we can say that the market is growing slightly in all media types. We are growing with it. So, I think it is a successful year.

What do you expect in the next year?

We believe that having succeeded this year, the growth will continue. I do not see any signs anywhere to the contrary. However, let’s keep our fingers crossed, it is a strange time.

It is often said that due to the warm weather this autumn, not too many viewers were sitting in front of their screens. Does the weather really have such a big impact on viewership?

The influence is enormous. Every year, the TV rating curves clearly show that the least number of viewers sit in front of the TV in the summer and the most during the winter. However, this autumn, temperatures remained well above the long-term average throughout September and half of October. It has been extremely warm, which is hugely evident in the viewing figures, which are down between 15% and 20% on last year. Combined with the significant increase in demand for advertising time, we had an insoluble problem. But all television stations are facing it.

In 2024, you are going to sell advertising time at a higher price than in previous years. Why?

Because inventory (advertising space in a given medium that can be sold to clients, ed.) is dwindling, viewers are fewer and fewer, and the cost of producing our content is rising. If we want to maintain the same margin, there has to be a price increase.

Another change you are introducing concerns strategic trading. You are now targeting adults aged 18-69, up from 15-69. Why did you decide to do this?

The main reasons for the change include social responsibility and legal constraints. Many clients cannot and do not want to target audiences under the age of 18. These are mainly producers of confectionery or alcoholic beverages. Another reason is the quality and credibility of the audience we reach, where we provide our clients with a more mature and solvent audience. And last but not least, we have more of these GRPs (Gross Rating Point or cumulative viewership – indicating the percentage of viewers from a given target group who have watched the show, ed.).

Campaign planning using artificial intelligence is also a new feature. How will it work?

Clients tell us which target group they want to focus their advertising on, and the computer software optimises the campaign planning to ensure everyone is as satisfied as possible. Our experience to date suggests that our clients’ campaign affinities could improve by up to five percent.

Another new feature is that you want to know from clients in advance how they plan to spread their investments over the year. Why?

So that we can better plan our inventory and handle client advertising campaigns more efficiently.

Do you plan to connect the online and TV worlds more?

We certainly have a lot of other projects in the pipeline. The online video-on-demand segment will continue to grow at the expense of linear TV. That’s why it’s also necessary to bridge these worlds in terms of planning and handling campaigns for clients. This is what cross-platform measurement, of which we are pioneers in the Czech Republic, is designed to do and we are therefore able to measure the reach.

What would you wish Prima for 30 years on the television market?

I wish it to do well, to flourish, to have better and better programmes and to entertain more viewers.

Source: cnn.iprima.cz

LEADING MENA PIRATE SERVICE SHUT DOWN

One of the largest piracy services in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region has been shut down in Egypt by the Egyptian police, in collaboration with the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE).

According to ACE, CimaClub enabled users to directly download or stream pirated content, offering a VOD library of nearly 50,000 movie and TV series titles in Arabic and their original versions. All ACE members were affected.

It adds that the service attracted more than 29 million monthly visits through its 65 domains. Most of the traffic originated from Egypt, France, Canada, the United States and Germany.

Egyptian police identified and confronted the operator in Giza, Egypt.

Commenting on the shut down, Natasha Matos-Hemingway, chief commercial and marketing officer at Shahid, a leading Arabic streaming platform by MBC Group and ACE member, said: “ACE remains persistent in cracking down on piracy, collaborating closely with authorities to pinpoint unlawful operators in the MENA region.

“This wouldn’t be possible without the assistance of the Egyptian authorities involved, who work diligently to prevent illegal content sharing, and we are grateful to both. It’s no secret that piracy results in tremendous losses, not only for broadcasters, but for production companies and emerging content creators as well. At MBC Group, we remain aligned with ACE in its ongoing mission to protect the intellectual property rights of our creators. We are grateful to the Alliance for their great work throughout the year, and we look forward to continuing to fight content piracy together”.

Fiona Robertson, general counsel of OSN, a member of ACE, added: “Content piracy has severe implications across the entertainment value chain.

“As one of the leading entertainment companies in the region, we are committed to protecting the rights of all content creators by working closely with law enforcement and regulatory authorities in our operational markets.”

Jan van Voorn, executive VP and chief of global content protection for the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE, said: “We applaud the Egyptian police for their swift action in identifying the operator of one of the most notorious piracy services in the MENA region.

“The sheer breadth of this illegal operation affected every ACE member, compromising the intellectual property of numerous creators and content owners. Today’s action underscores the power of a global and joint effort to protect the integrity of the creative marketplace”.

Source: mbroadbandtvnews.com

INCREASED TV FEES? I WOULD BUILD A NEW ČT1 WITH THAT MONEY, SAYS MAREK SINGER, PRIMA’S CEO

It is an incredible sum of between CZK 1.5 and 2 billion a year, says the CEO of Prima group, Marek Singer, about the new revenues for Česká televize (Czech Television) in the form of increased licence fees. And do shows like Stardance fulfil the public service role? We present an excerpt from an interview for the CNN Prima News magazine, which has been on newsstands since 13th November.

Is there still real freedom of speech in the media as we know it from the “golden 1990s”?

Compared to the 1990s, the whole society has become more regulated. If you look back today the 1990s were very specific, and not only in terms of news. It is unbelievable what was broadcast then. Remember [the politically incorrect satirical show] Česká soda. Nobody would air anything like that nowadays because they would get about 20,000 fines from the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting. And on the top of that, they would get slagged off on social media for being politically incorrect. Back then, it was absolute freedom. I am not saying it was ideal but of course we all liked it in the 1990s. It was just a new world. Now it is, let’s say, more civilised.

Is it better or worse?

I will leave that up to everyone because everyone has their background and is sensitive to something… So yes, some “protection of topics” is probably OK. But everything in moderation, which also applies to any protection and regulation.

You mentioned Česká soda. Today, satire has completely disappeared from czech TVs. It seems to me that under the weight of online hates, everything has become very serious. Have you ever thought of putting on an incorrect programme like Česká soda on Prima?

Of course. But it has to be said that Česká soda has brought together some amazingly talented people at the right time. They were responsive and incredibly creative… The whole context, the whole environment encouraged the show because making fun of everything and everybody is what we Czechs enjoy. And the best thing about it at that time was that suddenly it could be done in public.

And can’t it be done again now?

I think it definitely can. I just think that everybody is locked into their own bubble, and it is obviously related to social media. Satire is so quick to tip over into attacks and counterattacks. And into punishments and penalties. Yes, few people can distinguish right from wrong, smile, rise above it. I just happened to be listening on Spotify to an Indian woman living in Sweden who has a politically incorrect podcast. She said that she often gets into conflicts with her middle child over “racism” because the child is very, very woke – simply unable to understand the nature of politically incorrect humour anymore even though the podcast author is a dark-skinned Indian woman… But she just cannot explain the joke at home.

But it is just an internet podcast. It is hard to say if swedish tv would air the same thing – probably not. There are two worlds: TV and the internet, one highly regulated, the other hardly regulated at all. Is that fair? Should both be more controlled, or should TV be less regulated?

I cannot imagine the internet being regulated any more but on the other hand, I think it should definitely be levelled because I do not see any reason why we should be regulated more than online media. I understood it in the past, TV reach was incomparably greater. We were more dominant. It made sense. But now it is just not true anymore. Yes, online channels have started down a certain path, there has been a kind of self-regulation, everybody does it its own way – Facebook’s regulation is different from what X (or former Twitter) does. I am not saying that self-regulation of these platforms is always good, but each of them is trying to deal with it somehow. And each is also responsible for how good, trustworthy and reliable their product is. So why shouldn’t it be that way in the TV business? Why shouldn’t we get to determine how open we want to be? TV is regulated everywhere in the world. If it was intelligent regulation, why not. But there are some downright archaic moments involving completely outdated standards. For example, we are not allowed to show violence on TV until 10 pm, not a single bad word – yet people on the internet, including children, talk like that at all hours, every day, morning and night.

What else do you think you are allowed to say in public? Is there a limit to freedom of speech, or can we say anything at all, no matter how controversial?

I don’t know. When I was 20, I experienced the revolution, anything was possible then. And it affected me so much that I just think the more freedom there is, the better. And so any kind of regulation for me personally is actually like a return to the old days. On the other hand, I understand that the generations that are growing up now are set up very differently, have a different threshold of sensitivity and a limited ability to work with other opinions. Maybe they need some level of protection so that they just don’t crumble. But I really can’t judge. I have always been more of a believer that everyone should deal with the world around them on their own. But take it as the opinion of a man from the last century.

And how is the media handling this new era?

It depends. There is a general tendency for the media to broadcast opinions, whether editorial or external, instead of providing information. And I am going to go back again to what our main point was when we built CNN Prima NEWS. There are different opinions, it is a boxing match, and you as a medium are the referee. You can’t go into the ring and box for one side. You as a medium just have to supervise the match.

CNN Prima News has been on the market for over three years. How satisfied are you?

I have got the numbers right here with me. In 2020, our viewership was 0.4%. In 2021 – 0.9%. In 2022 – 1.7%. In 2023 – 2%. I think CNN Prima NEWS definitely has the ambition to outperform ČT24 over time. We are doing an attractive newscast. In a good way. Attractive content. Fast, entertaining, explanatory but also engaging enough – plasmas, Magic Walls, use of 3D graphics and other modern technologies, and of course opinions from all sides. The trend of the fast times is fast and attractive news. So we should have a better chance of reaching and influencing more people than the public media. On the other hand, it certainly won’t just be through TV anymore, especially in terms of news, it just has to be a combination of TV, internet and social media. Multi-platform broadcasting.

You have publicly spoken out against increasing the licence fees for Česká televize. Let us recall that from 2025, the fees will increase by czk 25, from czk 135 to czk 160. What’s your biggest problem with this?

What bothers me the most is that even though CZK 25 seems like a relatively small amount, it really isn’t! It is a huge amount of money for Česká televize. If you multiply it by the number of people who will pay, because all the people who have a mobile phone will now pay, you get an incredible sum of between 1.5 and 2 billion crowns a year. I would build a new ČT1 with that money! That amount of money has a major impact on the market. And my question is: Do we need it? Do the Czechs need to put so much money into public media? Petr Dvořák, the former director of ČT, said that ČT needed a maximum of half a billion a year and suddenly it is 1.5 billion. Three times as much? Really?

Some critics have reproached ČT for airing expensive programmes like Stardance, which are more commercial in nature. Does that bother you? Does stardance, for example, fulfil the public service requirements?

The question is what public service requirements and public service roles are. The world has evolved and the definition of public service as it used to be is no longer sufficient. Public service should be redefined more precisely in its entire context, in the context of the new market, and not just in the context of Czech Radio and Czech Television. The new definition may include StarDance, I don’t know. As it is now, StarDance seems to be a commercial project. And that is the problem: Unless we clearly redefine public service as such, you can justify pretty much anything as falling within the concept.

The media market was scared of the crisis, at the beginning of 2023 it was quite retracted. What is the current situation in terms of advertising?

The demand is huge. At least in our company. But again, it has to be said that the situation is opaque. In Germany, for example, the advertising market is down 10% for the second year running. We may have got through the crisis but it is hard to say what will happen next. It looks like the end of the standard cycle: there was a big crisis followed by our recovery, then there was the boom and the next big crisis… It seems to me that it has all turned into a protracted, almost permanent hard time with no significant crashes, no clear waves and no indication when and where it is coming from.

The CEO of the Prima Group talks about the transformation of media due to social networks, the Green Deal, the future of business in Europe and the high ambitions of CNN Prima NEWS. Read the full interview in the CNN Prima NEWS magazine, now on newsstands.

Source: cnn.iprima.cz

CZECH COMMERCIAL TV STATIONS HAVE TEAMED UP TO PRESENT A JOINT TV SPOT

A joint TV spot has been produced by commercial broadcasters associated in the Association of Commercial Television on the occasion of World Television Day, which falls on 21 November. AKTV members have been joining in the celebration of TV Day since 2017, but this year for the first time they are releasing their own TV spot to the world, highlighting the unique power of the TV screen. The spot will air on Tuesday, November 21 on all AKTV member stations and will also be placed online and on social media.

World Television Day has been celebrated annually by broadcasters around the world for 26 years. This year, however, the Czech commercial TV stations affiliated to AKTV have decided to take a different approach to the celebrations than in previous years and create their own programme. Together they have prepared a TV spot that will be broadcast on Tuesday 21 November on all the member companies’ stations. The spot, whose central idea is to highlight the diversity of television production and the unique power of the television screen to reach millions of viewers, is composed of the best of what the Nova, Prima and Óčko television groups currently offer.

“In previous years, we have taken inspiration from our foreign colleagues to celebrate World Television Day, but this year we decided to prepare our own Czech content. In addition to a beautiful spot, we have also prepared a unique programme for our business partners, a joint open day that will culminate in an entertaining TV show really focused only on our TV topics. I believe our guests will have a great time,”

says Klára Brachtlová, President of the Association of Commercial Television.

The main programme of the celebrations will be a spectacular entertainment show WE LOVE TV hosted by Libor Boucek, in which the teams of Nova and Prima will face each other. The CEO of the Nova group Daniel Grunt has invited famous actor Aleš Háma to help him, while the CEO of the Prima group Marek Singer will be supported by popular entertainer Jakub Prachař.

In addition to the evening show, visitors can also expect a varied all-day programme prepared by the Nova, Prima and Óčko TV groups for their partners. Visitors will be let into the TV kitchen, given a glimpse into news studios, series studios or live broadcasting.

Detailed information, photo galleries from the day and a recording of the show are available on the website – aktv.cz/weloveTV

EU STUDY: THE MORE PERMISSIVE THE ATTITUDE TOWARDS PIRACY IN A COUNTRY, THE HIGHER THE PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF PIRATED CONTENT

One of the hypotheses put forward in a study on digital piracy recently published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) looks at the relationship between attitudes towards piracy and the consumption of illegal TV, film, music, software and publishing content in EU countries and the UK. According to this hypothesis, there is a relationship between attitudes towards piracy and the amount of pirated content consumed.

The study on online copyright infringement in the European Union drew on, among other things, the Intellectual Property Perceptions Study published by the Office this summer to examine the state and evolution of digital piracy. The study is a follow-up to a previous study from 2017 and 2020. The main objective of the study was to gather insights into European consumers’ attitudes towards intellectual property (IP), the extent to which they respect IP rights and their perceptions of IP as a whole. The question “To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements? – Is it acceptable to obtain digital content illegally from the Internet or from apps if it is for my personal use?”

Attitudes towards pirated online content

Most Europeans generally find access to content from illegal online sources unacceptable. More than 7 in 10 Europeans do not think it is acceptable to use illegal sources if:

the content they are looking for is not available within their streaming subscription (74%),
they save money by doing so (73%),
the price of protected content is too high (72%).

At first glance, these figures are positive. But seen the other way round, it means that, for example, one in three Europeans still find it acceptable to buy illegal goods if the original product is too expensive. For younger consumers aged 15-24, this is the case for half of the respondents (50%). Acceptance of illegal behaviour online is significantly higher among younger Europeans compared to older ones.

Moreover, around a third (34%) of Europeans agree that it is acceptable to obtain digital content illegally if it is for personal use.

The level of acceptance varies from country to country. For example, the proportion of people who consider illegal retrieval of content from the internet (for personal consumption) to be completely or rather acceptable ranges from 24% (Denmark) to 58% (Slovakia). Apart from Slovakia, this statement has (slight) majority support in Slovenia (56%), Hungary (54%), Bulgaria (51%) and Latvia (51%). The Czech Republic is among the countries where the level of acceptance of the use of pirated content for personal consumption is relatively high at 48%.

Those who have committed infringement have a more benevolent attitude

The study also found that people who have deliberately accessed online content through illegal sources in the last 12 months are much more likely to believe there are reasons to justify this behaviour than those who have not.
The proportion of people who admit that they have consumed pirated content online in the last 12 months also varies widely between countries, ranging from 9% in Finland and Germany to 22% in Malta. The Czech Republic is roughly in the middle of the ranking with 16%.

Intentional illicit access to online sources by country; Source: EUIPO

Profile of intentional users of pirated content

According to the study, the majority of people illegally using copyrighted content are men (17%), with women doing slightly better (12%). In terms of age, younger Europeans are significantly more prevalent (15-24 year olds 33%, 25-34 year olds 25%, 35-44 year olds 19%, 45-54 year olds 10%, 55-64 year olds 6% and people over 65 only 4%).

In terms of education, illegal content is consumed most by people with low education (18%). Illegal content is consumed more in large cities and most often by students (31%) and least often by housewives (9%).

Reasons not to use illegal online sources: price and availability of content

Concerns about exposure to harmful practices such as fraud or inappropriate content for minors may also be a reason for not using illegal sources. More than 8 out of 10 Europeans (82%) agree that illegally obtaining online content carries a risk of exposure to such practices. This view is shared by a clear majority – regardless of whether or not they accessed the content through illegal sources.

Reasons to stop using online pirated content; Source: EUIPO

Price plays a major role in motivating users to use illegal sources, as does the quality of content available from legal sources. The most frequently cited reasons that would make respondents stop using illegal sources would be better affordability of content from legal sources (43%) and greater availability of content of interest to them through legal sources (37%).

Intellectual property perceptions

A clear majority of Europeans say they have a good understanding of the concept of intellectual property and agree that it is important to respect intellectual property in order to protect the rights and revenues of producers of goods and content, as well as the quality of their products.
93% of Europeans also agree that it is important that inventors, publishers, creators and performers can protect their rights and be paid for their work.

Similarly, the majority (91%) consider it important to respect intellectual property so that others cannot falsely claim to be the creators or inventors of something that is not their work.
While awareness of the importance of IP protection is high, few Europeans think that consumers such as themselves are the main beneficiaries of IP protection (8%). Conversely, more than half think that performers such as musicians (54%) and creators of artistic content (52%) are the main beneficiaries of IP protection.

For the time being, most Europeans also consider the quality and variety of content offered through legal sources to be better than that available through illegal solutions.
However, 60% of those who have deliberately accessed online content through pirate sources in the last year report that it is easier to find and access the digital content they want through illegal channels than through legal services.

Source: euipo.europa.eu

THE ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCIAL TELEVISION HAS PREPARED A SPECIAL CELEBRATION OF WORLD TELEVISION DAY

This year’s World Television Day on 21st of November, will be celebrated in style by Czech commercial TV stations. For the first time ever, they have prepared a joint programme for their business partners and collaborators, to whom Nova, Prima and Óčko will open their doors. The rich programme will culminate in an entertaining evening show WE LOVE TV, in which the teams of Nova and Prima, led by their CEOs, will compete.

World Television Day has been celebrated by broadcasters around the world every year for 26 years. This year, however, the Czech commercial television companies associated with AKTV have decided to celebrate differently than in previous years. Instead of a professional conference, they prepared a varied entertainment programme for their business partners and collaborators across the TV world.

The main programme of the celebrations will be a spectacular entertainment show WE LOVE TV hosted by Libor Boucek, in which the teams of Nova and Prima will face each other. The CEO of the Nova group Daniel Grunt has invited Aleš Háma to help him, while the CEO of the Prima group Marek Singer will be supported by Jakub Prachař. Who of them knows the TV world better? Visitors will find out on Tuesday, 21 November at 5 pm.

Nova prepared its program in its headquaters, newsrooms and ateliers.

Television group Prima will take its visitors to the less traditional backdrop of the television world as technical background, radio and dubbing studios. There will also be a wheel of fortune for valuable prizes.

TV Óčko has prepared a glimpse into the TV kitchen for those interested in the live broadcast of Mixxxer, which you can be a direct part of.

More information on aktv.cz/weloveTV

ACE TARGETS VIETNAM-BASED PIRACY

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) continues to target major Vietnam-based piracy syndicates and since June has shut down multiple piracy websites belonging to the same piracy syndicate operating out of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Among the piracy sites shut down in the past quarter are:

• 2embed, a video content hosting site that provided content for hundreds of piracy websites around the world.
• More than 300 piracy streaming sites that relied upon 2embed as their content source. These sites had a combined 2.8 billion global visits in the past two years.
• Zoro.to, one of the world’s largest illegal streaming services, which averaged more than 200 million global visits per month from January through June 2023.
• Goku.to, which averaged more than 30 million visits per month from January through June 2023.
• Cineb.net, actvid.com and showbox-movies.net, which had combined traffic of more than 129 million global visits from January through September 2023.
• Tinyzone.tv, 3388.to, freemovies360.com, and ev01.net, which had combined traffic of more than 8.78 million global visits from January through September 2023.

Commenting on the actions, Jan van Voorn, executive VP and dhief of global content protection for the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE, said:

“Piracy operators in Vietnam have run some of the world’s most egregious piracy services, which cause significant damage to the local and international economies and make Vietnam a piracy hotspot,” said. “ACE’s actions in in Vietnam mark a major step forward in the global fight against piracy. We’re confident that our ongoing collaboration with the Vietnamese government can help pave the way for the criminal prosecution of the operators behind these highly profitable and damaging piracy websites and services”.

All sites that were shut down now redirect to ACE’s “Watch Legally” page.

Source: broadbandtvnews.com

PRIMA REMAINED FIRST IN 15+ IN OCTOBER, CZECH TV GREW WITH YOUNGER VIEWERS

The Prima TV group maintained its highest viewership in the broader over-15 audience group in all-day viewing in October.

The Prima TV group achieved an aggregate share of 28.89% in October and remained the strongest group in the wider 15+ audience group in all-day viewing. It improved by 0.79 percentage points year-on-year. Czech Television and TV Nova followed close behind. This is according to the official ATO-Nielsen measurement data.

The Nova group still achieves the highest viewership in the 15-54 and 15-69 audience groups, as well as in prime time in all main viewing categories.

Czech Television has achieved higher shares in prime time compared to the same period last year and also significantly in the younger audience groups 15-54 and 15-69. For example, in prime time it improved by more than 4 percentage points in the 15-54 group. It was helped to improve year-on-year by the slight growth of the main channel CT1, in particular the inclusion of StarDance, and by the increase in the share of CT Sport (by around two percentage points year-on-year, also thanks to the Rugby World Cup).

The shares of both Nova and Prima groups decreased year-on-year in prime time in all main audience groups. This is also true for all-day broadcasting, with the exception of TV Prima in the 15+ audience group, where its share increased.

In the year-on-year comparison, the thematic stations Nova Action, Nova Fun, Nova Gold and Nova Lady performed well. The Prima Group managed to increase the share of the main channel year-on-year and Prima Love and especially Prima Krimi also performed better than last October. Prima Cool and CNN Prima News improved very slightly.

Atmedia and Televize Seznam continued to grow their share of the TV market in October.

Source: mediaguru.cz

MAJOR PIRATE SITES SHUT DOWN IN GEORGIA

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) says it has worked closely with the country of Georgia’s Ministry of Finance to shut down two of the nation’s largest illegal streaming sites, adjaranet.com and imovies.cc.

Over the past two years, adjaranet.com amassed 140 million visits, while imovies.cc has attracted nearly 64 million visits.

Both sites were among the most widely viewed in the country, often ranking in the overall top 10 most visited sites.

The action follows extended collaboration between ACE, the Georgian government, the National Communications Commission, the Investigation Service of the Ministry of Finance and Sakpatenti (The National Intellectual Property Centre of Georgia).

Commenting on the development, Jan van Voorn, executive VP and global content protection chief of the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE, said: “The global fight against piracy is a team effort, and this case underscores the immeasurable value of ACE’s collaboration with government agencies worldwide.

“ACE appreciates the hard work of the Georgian Ministry of Finance and the Anti-Piracy Centre of Georgia in the successful closure of these two criminal operations that undermine jobs and growth throughout the Georgian creative sector. Our partnership with Cavea Plus, a key member of ACE in the Caucasus region, has helped ensure a coordinated approach to protecting copyright”.

Zurab Bezhashvili, executive director of the Anti-Piracy Centre of Georgia, added: “I’d like to thank ACE for defending the intellectual property rights of content owners throughout Eastern Europe and beyond.

“Over the years, AdjaraNet and imovies were motivated by commercial financial gain. They hindered the success of many Georgian films, limiting the Georgian film sector’s potential growth and its job market. ACE and the Anti-Piracy Centre share a common mission to fight digital piracy. Together, we have achieved an important milestone and showed the world that a joint effort truly makes a difference”.

Bezhashvili confirmed that the two websites are completely offline.

Source: broadbandtvnews.com

DIGITAL PIRACY IS HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS, ACCORDING TO A STUDY ON ONLINE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The internet – as a virtually infinite space for sharing personal opinions and visions, corporate products and copyrighted works of all kinds – carries a high risk of illegal activities. This is partly due to the certain anonymity of the environment, and partly due to the highly developed technologies to which virtually everyone has access. Illegal activities in the digital environment include, but are not limited to, copyright infringement. According to the EUIPO study on online copyright infringement in the European Union, socio-economic factors also have a significant impact on the illegal use of copyright content.

Drivers of pirated content consumption

This year’s study Online Copyright Infringement in the European Union conducted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) examined data on online piracy at the national level from 27 Member States. The aim of the research was to uncover the factors that cause differences between countries. The study is based on a large dataset on accesses to sites providing copyright-infringing content for the period 2017-2022.

The results of the study show that various factors have a significant impact on digital piracy:

Socio-economic variables: income level, education, inequality, unemployment
Demographic variables: population structure, proportion of young people in the population
Market-related characteristics: overall market size, extent of internet infrastructure, number of legal offers for different types of content, perception of intellectual property rights and societal attitudes towards infringement

Socio-economic factors

In terms of socio-economic factors, the biggest influence on the consumption of pirated content seems to be the level of per capita income and the level of inequality. That is, high per capita income and low levels of income inequality are associated with lower levels of illegal consumption.

It is often assumed that individual consumption of pirated content is related to household income, as households with higher income can afford to pay for legal content. In addition, this could be supported by the fact that richer countries tend to have more efficient IP protection systems and that consumers in these countries have more resources available to consume all goods, including legal digital content.

Income inequality can have a negative impact on the consumption of pirated content as music, films and TV programmes consumed by higher income earners are also of interest to lower income earners for whom knowledge of this content is a factor of social interaction. Thus, low-income individuals who are not in a position to pay for legal content may seek illegal ways to access digital products that they cannot afford or are unwilling to pay for. Moreover, in societies where there is strong pressure to own expensive digital products, there may be a greater temptation to use pirated content as a way to present oneself in the best light in one’s social bubble.

Another manifestation of economic inequality is the youth unemployment rate. It is therefore one of the factors that can have an impact on the level of digital piracy.

Demographic factors

According to the 2023 EUIPO Intellectual Property Perception Study, 33% of respondents aged 15-24 admitted having access to pirated content. This is much higher than for older age groups and more than double the total EU average of 14%. These results suggest that younger consumers are more likely to deliberately access pirated content. This suggests that countries with a higher proportion of younger people may also have a higher per capita consumption of illegal content.

Attitude to piracy

Culture and social norms in different societies can influence the way digital piracy is perceived. In some societies, piracy may be considered normal, while in others it may be unacceptable. According to an EUIPO study on IP perceptions, consumers in some countries have a more tolerant attitude towards IP infringement than in others, regardless of income level or other socio-economic variables. The study showed that there are significant differences in attitudes towards piracy between Member States. Consequently, countries with more benevolent attitudes towards illegal consumption of copyright content have a higher per capita consumption of pirated content.

Market size

Earlier studies of software piracy (Gopal & Sanders, 1998) and music piracy (Ki et al., 2006) found a negative relationship between market size and piracy rates. The exact nature of the mechanism is not clear. The 2006 study reported that in countries with large music markets, people tend to recognise music as a social value, leading to greater copyright compliance. Based on these findings, it can therefore be concluded that the larger the market, the lower the per capita consumption of pirated content.

Legal offer of copyrighted content

It is generally considered that the availability of legal content offers has the effect of reducing piracy. In the EUIPO study on perceptions of intellectual property, 26% of respondents indicated that they considered it acceptable to resort to online pirated content when no legal alternative was available. This suggests that the wider the legal supply of content, the lower the per capita consumption of pirated content.

Measures need to be implemented at all levels

It is therefore clear that digital piracy is a complex problem that is influenced by a combination of social and economic factors. Sub-social factors may also play a role:

Low perceived risk: some people may perceive digital piracy as harmless because they do not consider it likely that they will be caught and punished. If they perceive low risk, they may be willing to take the risk and download illegal content.
Collective behaviour: sometimes digital piracy can be considered normal or common behaviour in society. If people around an individual practice piracy, the individual may feel less guilty and be inclined to engage in the same behaviour.
Social interaction: social media and online community platforms can also play a role in the spread of pirated content.
Lack of knowledge about copyright: Low awareness of copyright and the legal implications of digital piracy can lead to people not being sufficiently informed that their activities are illegal.

Successfully reducing piracy requires action at all levels, including improving the availability of legal content, pricing policy, consumer awareness of copyright and the legal framework for combating piracy.

In this respect, it is necessary to keep pace with technological progress. The rapid development of technology makes it easier for pirates to carry out their illegal online activities by making it easier to share and distribute illegal content. It is therefore necessary not to fall behind and to make the most of cutting-edge technology to better protect copyright – both by protecting digital content against illegal copying and distribution and by monitoring possible pirate activities.

No doubt the legal framework and related enforcement and effective (preferably widely publicised) penalties for digital piracy are also crucial in the fight against piracy and can deter pirates from illegal practices.

Source: euipo.europa.eu

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