In this evolving internet age, illicit broadcasting is on the rise and continues to pose major concern for content creators who invest a lot of money in sports and entertainment-related content.
Antoine Salvage and Edouard Bloch are international lawyers who have dedicated their practice in anti-piracy of TV contents ranging from sports content and motion pictures to TV shows, music and so forth.
They work for different sports organisers like UEFA, FA PL (United Kingdom) and La Liga (Spain), TV broadcasters like Canal+ as well as TV editors, Disney channels and Canal+ channels and BeIn Sports channels.
The duo are working throughout the world, mostly in Africa, Europe and Asia where they dedicate the better part of their time in the fight against piracy which, they say, is a huge concern not only in Rwanda or Africa, but internationally, with cases associated with the surge in internet access.
"We’ve been facing huge piracy in Europe, United States and Asia for the last ten years and piracy is more and more active in Africa. The more the fibre networks and other networks are built, the more piracy you can face,” said Bloch.
There are TV broadcasters like Star Times and Canal+ with around 100 channels but Bloch is concerned by the huge loss that the TV channels are incurring to illicit broadcast platforms with around 5000 to 6000 channels contents so far available on the internet.
He claims the proportion between legal media and illegal media is crazy because the price you pay for Canal+ or Star Times is much higher than the price you pay for illegal content.
He said it’s time for people to know that whoever wants to access the content needs to pay for it.
"If you want people to access the Premier League, La Liga or the Champions League, you have to pay for it, because it’s the money that broadcasters are paying the clubs and it’s the same money that clubs are paying players,” he said.
"So, attractive content is not free. Illicit broadcasting is free because they’re not paying anybody. They are not paying rights owners, they’re not paying the administration here and they don’t pay taxes. Legal content is a bit more expensive because they pay everyone at every level.
The case of Rwanda
The magnitude of content piracy is not that high but Salvage said Internet Protocol Television (IP TV) and local TV channel Victory TV, remain major threats for licit broadcast in Rwanda that could be putting Pay-TV companies like Canal+ fall into losses.
He said the online broadcast application has also reach Rwanda and some users are already using content illegally through it.
"The IP TV piracy broadcasting is already in Rwanda. It’s not that much popular compared to other countries, but it’s becoming a major concern,” explains Salvage.
For the case of Victory TV, Bloch said the local TV has been stealing the [UEFA] Champions League, Europa League, and the Premier League games for three years, despite bringing the case before the court.
The TV owner lost the case twice but appealed and the final decision will be announced on July 2 this year.
"The last two decisions from the courts here in Rwanda show that Victory TV has no right to broadcast the Premier League and UEFA competitions. Now the matter is still pending in the court because Victory TV has filed the second appeal and we are supposed to hear the final decision by July 2nd,” said Bloch.
Bloch and Salvage travelled to Rwanda not just to hear the final decision of the court but to also work closely with all different actors and the governments to educate people to let them know that illegal content is illegal.
"The purpose of our mission is to talk about piracy to let people know that it exists here in Rwanda. It’s not that much developed here but it’s becoming a major concern for legal actors like Canal+, Star Times, Premier League, La Liga or UEFA,” he said.
According to French Regulatory Authority of Internet, illicit broadcasters steal revenues from content worth Euros 1 billion from licit operators every year.
The Premier League organizers have developed technological tools whereby, as soon as they identify illicit content on internet, they are able to shut them down within 40 seconds which is crucial and critical for live contents and this is something that has since spread all around the world.
There are a lot of countries in Europe, Asian, and in Africa now using that system to prevent illicit broadcasting through the internet.
"Antoine [Salvage] and I have been working with authorities in Madagascar, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Northern countries to duplicate what the PL has been doing in England…and we’ve been quite successful,” Bloch said.