Fight Against Audiovisual Piracy: African Union of Broadcasting and Canal+ intensify collaboration

During a meeting in Paris, the two organizations confirmed their will to combat TV Channel piracy in Africa.

-Paris, 16 December 2021- (CANAL+ International)

Main stakeholders for the broadcast of Radio and TV Channels as well as the acquisition of sports rights, the AUB and Canal + International intend to firmly fight against any unauthorized distribution of any content for which they hold audiovisual rights.

According to Grégoire NDJAKA, Chief Executive Officer of the AUB, special attention will be paid during the next Africa Cup of Nations TotalEnergies, Cameroon 2021, broadcast in sub-Saharan Africa in French on CANAL + Sport Pay TV channels and for which the AUB markets the rights "Free-to-air" in the region.

Specifically, the AUB will be uncompromising vis-à-vis unauthorized broadcasters.

Canal + International's Content Protection Department estimates that piracy costs the sector in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa more than 120 billion CFA francs each year. On one hand, there are broadcasters who steal channels and programs by selling low-cost offers because they do not pay any charge (copyright, broadcasting rights, taxes, royalties etc.) and on the other, broadcasters in good standing who invest in audiovisual production. It is therefore an entire value chain that suffers from piracy, from the distributor, to the publisher, the producer, to up to the artists and technicians. Piracy constitutes both an infringement of intellectual property and unfair competition.

An expanding form of piracy, Internet counterfeiting is growing with the development of fiber and the fall in the cost of data. It is disseminated on all media (streaming or download sites, social networks, IPTV applications, etc.). Illicit Internet services pose a real threat to families as they lack safeguards like parental controls and therefore expose younger children to inappropriate images.

The AUB and Canal + International will work together for healthy and fair audiovisual competition in Africa.

About the AUB

The African Union of Broadcasting is dedicated to the design and marketing of projects, partnerships, negotiations, training of professionals in the audiovisual industry and coverage of African sporting and cultural events.

About Canal + International

CANAL + INTERNATIONAL, a subsidiary of the CANAL + Group, is the operator of the CANAL + Offers, bouquets of pay television channels around the world in more than 40 countries on the African continent, in Central Europe, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Vietnam and Myanmar.