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”.

27. 11. 2023

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

21. 11. 2023

PIRACY CRACKDOWN IN THAILAND

Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has shut down tt-torrent.com, a torrent website that was operated out of Thailand.

According to ACE, the infringing site had been in operation since 2006, initially under the domain name Thailandtorrent.com and subsequently tt-square.com. TT-torrent.com was ranked the 156th most popular website in Thailand, according to Similarweb, and drew 26.3 million visits between January and September 2023.

Commenting on the shutdown, Sompan Charumilinda, executive VP of True Visions, said: “We would like to extend our gratitude to the Economic Crime Suppression Division and ACE for their invaluable help in the fight against content piracy.

“Piracy is a persistent problem around the globe, but the cooperation we have received from the Thai authorities and international organizations like ACE have led to some of the most successful enforcement actions in Asia. It is a fight that we will, and must, continue. Closing down sites like this reduces the damage done to Thai society, especially our youth, and benefits the creative economy, and the country as a whole”.

Jan van Voorn, executive VP and chief of global content protection at the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE, added; “The shutdown of tt.torrent.com marks another successful ACE enforcement action and another warning to illegal piracy operators everywhere that their days are numbered,” said. “This site put consumers at risk of egregious malware, undermined investment in the Thai content industry, and reduced tax contributions to the local government. The closure of tt-torrent.com is a win-win for all”.

Source: broadbandtvnews.com

21. 11. 2023

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 main objective of this study was to gather insights into European consumers’ attitudes towards intellectual property (IP), the extent to which they respect it 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?”

Key findings to perception of intellectual property

A clear majority of Europeans report 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.

A full 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, a majority (91%) consider it important to respect intellectual property so that others cannot wrongly 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 the main beneficiaries of IP protection are consumers such as themselves (8%). Conversely, more than half think that those who benefit most from IP protection are performers such as musicians (54%) and creators of artistic content (52%).

A majority of Europeans also consider the quality and diversity 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

18. 11. 2023

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

16. 11. 2023

ANTI-PIRACY CAMPAIGN CONTINUES IN GREECE

An intense anti-piracy campaign has been conducted in Greece in recent months by several authorities with the main operators to combat illegal connections. This, along with premium content, may well have helped the incumbent telco OTE, which in its latest results says that it ended the third quarter with 665,261 TV subscribers. This was 3.3% (+21,484) more than a yar earlier, with 17,364 added in Q3 alone.

OTE also had 2,345,916 (+2.1% y-o-y) fixed broadband subscribers at the end of Q3, of whom 1,525,878 (+6.7%) were FTTx and 215,710 (+96.1%) FTTH. Its FTTH footprint reached 1,148,000 homes passed at the end of September and should exceed 1.3 million by the end of the year.

OTE’s consolidated revenues in Q3 were €881 million (-2.6%) and adjusted EBITDA €352.6 million (-1.5%). Its net profit was €150 million (-6.4%).

As previously reported by Broadband TV News, the pirating of pay-TV content in Greece has been estimated to be worth up to €160 million a year.

Source: broadbandtvnews.com

10. 11. 2023

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

7. 11. 2023

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

7. 11. 2023

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

4. 11. 2023
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