TV giants vow joint action on piracy
By : Anna Kocinska
Delegates from the country's three digital platforms pledged to work together to combat piracy last week at the industry's annual meeting in Mikolajki in the Mazurian lake region.
The three broadcasters, Wizja TV, Cyfra+ and Polsat Cyfrowy, teamed up with U.S.-based Home Box Office (HBO) to set up a coalition to fight piracy, which is starting to make huge inroads into the profits of all industry players.
Cyfra+, a subsidiary of Canal+Polska, and one of the coalition's four signatories, released statistics at the conference showing the extent of the problem.
"If it wasn't for the pirates, we (Canal+/Cyfra+) would have 600,000 subscribers," said Christian Kozar, the chief executive officer of Canal+. "Instead, Cyfra+ and Canal+ have about 400,000 subscribers,"
Last year, police around the country seized illegal video tapes, computer software and CDs, worth zl. 100 million ($24.4 million), while in Gdansk police arrested several people who were distributing illegally produced digital-platform cards. Meanwhile, earlier this year, Canal+ reported cases of broadcast piracy at four cable networks, which decoded and transmitted Cyfra+'s signal to 20,000 subscribers. The most recent piracy case was discovered last week in Lodz where counterfeit decoders for pay-TV stations were distributed among 3,000 viewers, Kozar said.
Broadcasters admit the struggle against piracy is a difficult one as pirates are often one step ahead of the technological changes introduced by TV stations. Advertisements, for instance, informing where, when and for how much pirated cards for decoders can be purchased are available in the press and on the Internet. The Lodz pirates had a Web site advertising their decoders.
In response to the growing number of pirates, Canal+ has recently raised the price of decoders, hoping to discourage the illegal production of decoder cards. The company has also decided to block the platform's signal to those subscribers who have not paid their subscription fee for three months or more. "This month we are cutting off 25,000 subscribers," Kozar said. "I will be trying to persuade other members of the coalition to take the same steps."
Wizja TV also recently introduced special software that enables the broadcaster to cut off subscribers who are not paying or who have discontinued their service but haven't yet returned their decoders.
HBO's director, Alek Kutela, wants to increase the pressure on pirates by focusing on the illegal producers of decoder filters. The company was one of the first stations in Poland to declare war on broadcasting piracy last June when it publicized the illegal distribution of fake filters used for decoding its signal. Kutela said he also wants to look at public information campaigns that have so far been neglected. "We need to tell people that piracy is a crime," he said.
Pawel Biedziak, a police spokesman, said preventing piracy is almost as important as prosecuting the criminals. "Stations should tell people that piracy is an issue," he said. "Why not put slogans on billboards with something like: 'When buying pirated equipment you're becoming a thief,' " he said.
Canal+'s PR manager, Malgorzata Babik, said the coalition is the first coordinated action of its kind against broadcast pirates in Europe. But some market insiders said Canal+ is trying to shift everyone's attention to piracy because the company has recently lost ground to its main competitor, Wizja TV, owned by the Netherlands-based United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC).
"Ask competitors that claim we are losing subscribers how many paying subscribers they have in their portfolio," said Jakub Brzeczkowski, chief operations officer at Canal+. "Simply put, piracy is an issue. It's true we are losing subscribers, but it's normal. This is part of the business and all stations face the same problem." Wizja TV has more than 400,000 subscribers, but the platform wouldn't release data regarding the number of subscribers who aren't paying.
UPC Polska's Marek Sowa, representing Wizja TV in the coalition, wouldn't reveal any estimates about the number of the pirates using the platform, but he admitted, "it's significant."
Meanwhile, during a panel discussion in Mikolajki, leaders of the media again speculated on the possibility of a merger between Cyfra+ and Wizja TV. "Every year at Mikolajki those two platforms tend to get married (and nothing comes of it)," said Andrzej Zarebski, a media consultant and former member of the National Television and Radio Council. But Lew Rywin, president of Canal+ Polska's supervisory board, said this time the negotiations between Canal+ and UPC are significantly advanced.
