Piracy costs Colombia $100MN annually


Details

Juan Fernandez Gonzalez

| 09 November 2015





Over $100 million a year is lost by Colombia's state due to piracy, according to figures from the country's TV authority and industry agents.


According to the figures presented during the Anti-Piracy Summit in Bogotá, nearly 7.9 million homes are connected to cable or satellite TV service, but only 5.03 million are properly registered by the Asociación Nacional de Televisión (ANTV).

"Piracy affects the whole TV chain, from customers to the state," said Sergio Valdes, regulation manager, DirecTV, Latin America. "If the capacity to fight piracy is reinforced, then piracy will decrease, although it's unlikely to disappear."

"Underground TV services cause copyright violations, affect the market and competition as they don't pay taxes, reduce quality and don't respect the telecoms infrastructure," explained an ANTV representative during the event.

ANTV director, Ángela María Mora, said Colombians face a criminal penalty if they commit this kind of fraud: "Sanctions can include confiscation of equipment, fines up to a thousand times the country's minimum wage at the time and 6,000 times if there is a repeat offence, or even prison penalties."