Colombia. NexTV Series was the perfect space for the National Television Authority, ANTV, headed by its director Ángela María Mora Soto, to convene the allied institutions and officially communicate the creation of the Inter-institutional Table against Piracy.
The Director of the ANTV convened the Attorney General's Office, the National Directorate of Copyright (DNDA), the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (DIAN), the National Police, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), and FOX for the launch of the Inter-institutional Table against Television Piracy to combat the illegal provision of the service in any modality, the marketing and distribution without authorization of protected TV signals, the under-reporting of users and the sale of unauthorized devices to decrypt signals protected by their owners.
This new agreement was made to work for the legality of the Industry and the ANTV seeks to counteract the illegal practices of both clandestine operators, as well as concessionaires and suppliers of unauthorized devices for the commercialization of protected audiovisual signals. Likewise, by linking the National Directorate of Copyright and the National Police, new fronts in the digital environment will be attacked, such as the piracy of signals on the Internet.
The results of this joint management will be reflected in future industry events, such as the next Working Group to be held with the Industry within the framework of the ANDICOM 2018 event.
For some years now, the ANTV has been carrying out several actions against Pay-TV piracy, which include different training, preventive and confiscation days throughout the country, and campaigns aimed at raising awareness among operators and users of the service, among others.
According to its own figures, the ANTV has fined 150 illegal pay-TV operators since the anti-piracy strategy was approved in 2016. Likewise, 130 technical inspections have been carried out, 150 local pay-TV providers have been fined for breaching copyright legislation and equipment has been confiscated in 20 broadcast stations; numbers that have been made public in sessions and trainings with some industry players such as Andinalink, ASOTIC, among others.
Following the action plan launched in April 2016, the ANTV had already strengthened its efforts, mainly with the Prosecutor's Office, and allocated more resources to the coordination in charge of these issues. The strategy and alliances with entities involved were made after learning that almost three million (3,000,000) households received a pay-TV signal through illegal suppliers, resulting in losses in tax revenues of more than one hundred million pesos (\100,000,000).
It is expected that later the ANTV can link other authorities and of course the industry itself, all this to achieve the construction and defense of a healthy audiovisual market, in which fair competition prevails for the benefit of all consumers and formal companies that provide services.
The objective of the ANTV and this new alliance will be the articulation of the public and private sector, seeking joint mechanisms to discourage and repress the illicit activities of pay television piracy.
