The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) today announced its expansion into protecting Polish language content distributed within the United States.
Top channels produced by Polish Public Television (PPT) include TVP Info, and TVP Wilno. The expansion includes also Republica Television and leading 4Fun channels: 4Fun TV, 4Fun Dance. As a result, the number of channels now under IBCAP protection totals more than 160.
Also now within the IBCAP’s protection is TVP Polonia, which includes channels owed by PPT, a Polish state media corporation and the largest television network in Poland: TVP Info – Polish news channel broadcasts all over Poland, TVP Polonia – the international channel targeted at Polish-speaking audiences outside of Poland, that carries many of the shows broadcast by TVP’s domestic channels, as well as news from Polish communities around the world, and TVP Wilno – Polish Television channel addressed to Polish Lithuanians. The 4Fun channels include popular music videos and music programs.
Why it matters
IBCAP has had steady success against piracy of internationally-produced programming distributed within the United States, using a methodology of evidence collection, followed by support to legal cases filed by rightsholders and distributors against pirate entities. The goal is to win judgments against pirates and to compensate the rightsholders.
“Joining IBCAP is an important and effective strategy in shutting down unauthorized providers of Polish content,” said Rafal Stykowski, president of Radar-Sat, Inc. which represents the channels in the U.S. “Pirates of Polish content have been allowed to flourish for far too long, and we are proud to work with IBCAP in leading the way in the fight against these illegal providers. By leveraging IBCAP’s state-of-the-art anti-piracy lab, automated scanning technology and successful track record with other international channels, we will see a significant reduction in piracy of Polish content.”
“With the addition of IBCAP’s coverage of PPT’s and 4Fun’s international channels, we continue to welcome these and other channels into our coalition as a testament to our continued success in bringing content protection and business value to our members,” said Chris Kuelling, executive director of IBCAP. “Piracy of Polish content has been a persistent challenge for content owners and we are confident that IBCAP’s actions will have a major impact. As illegal services are shut down, Polish consumers will appreciate the benefits of subscribing to legal services and we expect that they will migrate toward those providers.”
