beIN SPORTS: Piracy affects SVOD and advertising

Educating on the damage piracy generates in the broadcast of sports events, the need for the entire industry to work and collaborate as a whole in the prevention and detection, were some of the conclusions of the panel “How to combat piracy in live sports,” celebrated during Sportv Series Latin America in the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.

The panel, comprised by Javier Arnau Ávila, Director of Ad Value from Imagen TV; Antonio Briceño, Deputy Managing Director for North America at beIN SPORTS and Chris Le Maitre, Operational Security Director at Synamedia, highlighted that in Latin America (and even in the US) there is little support from the authorities to punish and persecute offenders.

“For companies like us, to persecute those illegals is very complicated. Now, they are more sophisticated. It affects the cost of the prices of sports rights. We need to deal with this more urgently,” expressed Briceño and added that for advertisers it is also a problem. He said that it affects both subscription and advertising.

According to Arnau, live sports piracy in Mexico is not combated. “People watch very large events wherever they want to. We have not become aware of the damage it causes, particularly in Mexico,” he points out.