Televisa, Roku conflict escalates in Mexico
Details
Juan Fernandez Gonzalez
| 04 July 2017

As a new court order has once again prohibited the commercialisation of Roku in Mexico, Televisa’s Cablevisión is celebrating the decision as a victory against piracy.

A federal court in Mexico City has stated that imports and sales of Roku over-the-top (OTT) and streaming boxes are forbidden in the country as the devices are used by pirates to distribute copyrighted content without a licence.

The court’s decision revokes the temporary suspension of a former ruling that banned Roku sales in both physical stores and Mexican e-commerce platforms two weeks ago.

However, Roku has made its opinion clear. “Roku does not agree with the court’s decision and intends to keep working to retain the legal right to distribute its products in Mexico,” the company told local media.

“We hope Roku modifies its software, as other online distribution platforms have done, to avoid becoming the preferred device by copyright pirates,” said Televisa in a statement. “We also hope the court’s decision places sellers on the right side of the law.”

According to Roku, the OTT devices are just a distribution channel. The platform has its own tools to find and report pirate streaming signals and Roku says it is working to fight piracy alongside content and rights owners.