euro news_news 26/02/2015 10:22 Page 6
A
report compiled by
Incopro,
commissioned by the
Motion Picture Association the international trade
association for the film
industry in the UK - has
revealed that copyright
infringing websites subject
to site blocking Court
Orders by the main ISPs
have lost nearly threequarters (73.2%) of their
traffic.
Stan McCoy, president and
managing director of the
Motion Picture Association,
said the findings were further
proof that the Association's
requests for courts to block
infringing sites had been
effective. “The sites submitted
by rights holders to the
courts are overwhelmingly
dedicated to facilitating and
promoting online copyright
infringement, generating
substantial revenues on the
back of other people’s
content which they
contributed nothing to help
create. Seeking Court Orders
to block access to infringing
sites is one part of the wider
strategy for tackling online
infringement which also
includes educating consumers
about the range of legal
content sources available,
cutting off the revenues to
illegal sites and persuading
search engines to stop
Freeview rebrands for
connected future
UK DTT platform Freeview
has undergone a major
rebrand in preparation for a
new product launch that will
introduce a mass- market
connected TV offer. The
company says the Freeview
logo and visual identity have
been refreshed to reflect the
platform’s evolving service
and will be introduced
across Freeview’s product
portfolio and brand
marketing.
Freeview Play, which is set
Court Orders cut pirate traffic
featuring infringing sites
prominently in listings,” he
advised.
The MPA notes that in
recent years, the number of
legal online services, such as
blinkbox [recently acquired by
TalkTalk], Netflix and
LOVEFiLM [now Amazon Prime
Video], has increased
significantly. There are also
services helping consumers
navigate the legal service
landscape such as
findanyfilm.com and new
technologies such as
UltraViolet which enable
consumers to watch content
in new ways on their choice
of device. Consumer
education, another vital
component in the fight
against intellectual property
theft, has also been stepped
up. For example, the recently
announced Creative Content
UK initiative will commence in
early 2015.
The Incopro report also
demonstrates the broader
effect that blocking infringing
sites has on the wider piracy
landscape. While the top 250
pirate sites have seen their
overall global usage grow by
7.8% overall, they have
suffered an overall decrease
of 22.9% in the UK. This
demonstrates that site
blocking Court Orders have
had an overall effect in
decreasing the growth of
pirate sites in the UK in
comparison with the rest of
the world. The study assesses
the impact of the site
blocking Court Orders
obtained prior to March 2014
and uses data up to 31st
August 2014.
The report follows a study
from KPMG which found 86%
of the most popular and
highest quality film and
television content is now
available across legal digital
platforms. The report
demonstrates that the film
and television sectors are
meeting consumer demand
for digital content, providing
a safe alternative to pirate
websites via legal sources.
to launch later in 2015, will
give viewers the freedom to
choose the programmes they
want, when they want.
Freeview Play combines catchup TV (initially BBC iPlayer, ITV
Player and 4oD), on demand
identity of participating STB
and TV set vendors and
additional catch-up partners
will be revealed in the run-up
to the launch.
According to Guy North,
Freeview managing director,
and live television.
Freeview Play will be free
from subscription, available on
a range of new TVs and boxes
and enabled with any existing
broadband service. The
the new brand identity will
stand out in what is a very
crowded TV market, and that
in the same way that Freeview
took the UK from analogue to
digital, Freeview Play is the
next step in that vision,
putting the viewer in control.
“Integrated TV sets are the
future,” declared Ilse Howling,
managing director, conn