MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
LaLiga and ‘Movistar+’ made clear this Thursday the need for legal mechanisms to be able to act “with agility” and “immediately” to combat the scourge of audiovisual piracy, “a crime” for which there is also a need for “awareness and education”, especially with the youngest.
Guillermo Rodríguez, director of Content Operations of LaLiga, Enric Rojas, director of Contents of ‘Movistar+’, the president of the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC), José Luis López Cerrón, and Carmen Páez, general director of Cultural Industries, Property Intellectual and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, talked about how to fight this problem in the ‘Sports Breakfast’ of Europa Press, sponsored by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, DAZN, Vithas and Unicaja Banco.
Rodríguez recalled that LaLiga has invested “to develop a series of tools” that are “a key pillar”, although they have “other avenues” such as “legal actions, institutional collaboration or operations to pursue these pirates together with the State Security Forces and Bodies”.
The manager considers the use of technology to counteract “live piracy” as “key” and does not forget that the content they offer is “perishable.” “What we need is a legislative framework so that the measures are as effective as possible in the shortest possible time,” he stressed, adding that it is necessary to remove a ‘pirate’ domain “almost immediately.” “We understand that there are termination processes, but the time should be less than 30 minutes for the live broadcast. We must continue working towards immediacy,” he added.
“LaLiga has a very effective strategy where it puts a lot of emphasis on the focus against piracy in HORECA environments and it is true that sometimes pirates do not like to be discovered, but what is happening is theft,” he continued. Rodríguez, who referred to criticism of the prices to watch football. “Sometimes a slightly distorted reading is made because they talk about the price without taking into account everything that is included such as fiber, lines or other types of content,” he tried to clarify.
For the director of Content Operations at LaLiga, “piracy affects both vertically and horizontally” and its “impact reaches grassroots sport” and “affects the State as a whole, with more than 550 million euros being lost” and that it could be used for “many other services.”
Regarding the ruling of July 25, 2022 in relation to the dynamic blocking of domains without the need to report it again, LaLiga “will work day and night if necessary” to extend that ruling because “it is a useful and forceful tool.” “We will continue to strengthen to be able to block more thanks to this ruling and the EU Digital Services Directive that will come into force at the beginning of next year,” he stressed.
The manager explained that LaLiga collaborates with many institutions such as the Ministry of Culture and Sports, sporting events such as the MotoGP World Cup or the F League or a leisure program such as ‘La Voz’ and stated that “at a technological level these users can be identified. “, requesting sanctioning regulations like those in Italy “with fines of up to 5,000 euros.” “I hope something similar is done in Spain and there are fines for people who are stealing from us,” he hoped.
“Piracy affects us all and we need to be agile because it is a highly dynamic problem and for which we must continually innovate and invest. We need a legislative point of view focused on acting with agility and promptness,” concluded Rodríguez.
ENRIC ROJAS: “AWARENESS, LAWS AND IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NECESSARY”
The Sports Director of Movistar+, Enric Rojas, stressed that “the data and damages of piracy are many” and that for their platform “it is a very serious problem.” “We are managing to make the content as attractive as possible every day, to to grow and be seen more, but the subscribers and subscribers are not growing as we would like,” he noted.
“The consequences are also for LaLiga, the ACB, the Euroleague or the RFEF and those of us who dedicate ourselves to entertaining with sport. Piracy is a crime, there is little education and little awareness. Would it occur to us to enter a video store and steal a tape? The Police would chase us. Piracy is the same, but digitally, and nothing happens. Awareness, legislation and immediate action are needed,” he demanded.
For this reason, it requests the Government, represented in the debate by Carmen Páez, general director of Cultural Industries, Intellectual Property and Cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, to “legislate” to help them act “immediately.” “Because if there are no mechanisms that allow us to do so within 20 minutes of it happening, we are wasting time and it is a very serious problem,” he indicated, insisting on the need for “education and awareness among young people because piracy is stealing and it’s a crime”. “The pirates of tomorrow are the young people of today,” she warned.
“If there were no piracy or it was greatly minimized, we could grow much more and benefit the end customer, lowering prices or buying more content. Because of piracy, you invest less in prices and content, you cannot make the leading strategy. The problem of piracy is not “If the package is more expensive or cheaper, it is an endogamous problem that affects the final price of whatever platform,” the manager continued.
Rojas did not hide that “one of the most important arguments for a bar to subscribe legally is the Classic” and hopes that in the face of events such as the Euro Cup or the World Cup “there will be progress.” “Many steps are being taken and many things can be prevented ahead of time. The Euro Cup is this summer and I hope that with the help of LaLiga and the Government we will be much better in June,” he said.
LÓPEZ CERRON: “I AM A PESIMIST, THIEVES ALWAYS GO AHEAD”
Finally, the president of the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC), José Luis López Cerrón, highlighted that “anything that involves stealing affects everyone.” “When there is piracy, advertisers also know it and they advertise less because they say they steal the images. It happens in La Vuelta, if they gave it closed and there was no piracy, they would offer us more money,” he admitted.
The leader did not want to be “as optimistic” as the rest of the round table “because the thieves are always ahead” due to the existence of “so many technological means there are” and “many hackers.” “That’s why I’m not so optimistic. Now sports content is stolen, which is also the most expensive, the situation is complicated. We have to continue fighting because it is counterproductive for everyone, but, based on experience, I am not so optimistic. I am a pessimist. because it is innate in us to deceive others,” he said.
López Cerrón, who thanked LaLiga for its support “with significant money from football revenues”, believes that “if the platforms did not have these thefts they would earn more money and it would have an impact on the entire sport in general.” “But I think it’s difficult. I’ve been the devil’s advocate a bit, but we have to continue, I would really like there to be no piracy, we would all benefit,” he said.