The 9th MENA Broadcast Anti-Piracy Coalition meeting took place in early September gathering stakeholders from the satellite broadcast (Eutelsat, Arabsat, Gulfsat) and content production and distribution industry (MBC, OSN, Rotana, ART, CNE and the MPA) to take stock of the state-of-play of piracy in the region. They agreed that continued effort between all the members remains a key priority to reduce the numbers of infringements and to prevent notoriously rogue pirate channel operators from infringing members’ rights. The coalition members also discussed statistics which clearly indicate that pirate channels are operated by a handful of individuals and agreed on how better to identify and take actions against them.
“Satellite TV piracy has relied upon everyone ignoring or being ignorant of the rules, of the individuals behind the pirate channels and of the major companies who profit by selling services to the pirates. Our coalition is step by step removing the cloak from this murky sector,” stated Sam Barnett, MBC Group CEO.
TV piracy remains an important problem in the region. Statistics show that over the past six months a total of almost 200 Western content infringements and over 4,000 Arabic content infringements occurred.
“We are very encouraged by the progress made so far by this important coalition but it is equally clear that a lot still needs to be done. It has been our experience that progress in this area can only be made when stakeholders constructively work with each other. Curbing TV piracy is essential to keep growing legitimate TV channels thereby enhancing the consumers’ viewing experience, reinvesting money into the creation of new high-quality content and securing millions of jobs worldwide.” stated Okke Delfos Visser, Head of the Legal Department of the MPA in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The Broadcast Satellite Anti-Piracy Coalition members include Noorsat, Gulfsat, Viewsat, STN, JMC, Etisalat, Du, Nilesat, Arabsat, Eutelsat, Rotana, Art, OSN, MediaGates, Motion Picture Association (MPA members include Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLC; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.), WWE, TNA, Spot2000, Cedars Art, Egyptian Media Production City, Egyptian Chamber of Cinema, Cable Network Egypt, Eagle Films, IAA, Almassa Art Production, Miser International Film, Misr for Sound and Light, and MBC.
The Coalition was formed in March 2014. As major stakeholders in the Middle East Satellite TV industry, the members share information and align strategies to prevent copyright infringement in the Middle East.
(Source: MBC press release)