With more than 40 media and entertainment member companies from around the world, and reinforced by the content protection operations of the Motion Picture Association, the anti-piracy organization ACE welcomed two new members during November 2022.
Cavea Plus, the only legal streaming service in the Republic of Georgia, was recently launched by the Cavea Cinemas theater chain. ACE and Cavea have a long history of working together in Georgia to address local piracy concerns and protect intellectual property rights.
Piracy websites in Georgia, a country of 4 million people, have drawn more than 500,000 users since they started operating. Data shows the biggest piracy website drew about 11 million monthly visits. Piracy websites represent a majority of the top 10 Georgian websites overall, based on total traffic.
MBC GROUP, the largest and leading media company in the Middle East – North Africa region, is the latest member to join the growing coalition dedicated to combating piracy around the world.
According to insights shared by MBC GROUP, hundreds of websites pirate MBC GROUP content daily, including but not limited to Arabic-language and locally produced films, series, and programs, as well as international content including English-language titles from North America, anime, and Korean series. Pirates commonly aggregate content from multiple Pay-TV operators and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms in the region through so-called “IPTV” offerings that can cost as little as $15 annually.
Piracy is not limited to IPTVs, however, as piracy via social media is also widespread, with many full-length titles shared on platforms including Telegram, for example.
Further information
Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment welcomes CAVEA Plus as newest member: Georgian streaming platform has history of working with ACE to combat piracy, ACE, Nov 21 2022
Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment adds new member to Global Anti-Piracy Campaign: MENA’s MBC Group joins ACE’s Growing Effort to protect creative ecosystem, ACE, Nov 14, 2022
Why it matters
ACE has already made significant progress combating piracy operations in the MENA region. Earlier this year, the coalition also recently took down four illegal piracy operations in Egypt in coordination with beIN Sports, which joined the coalition in April. Last year, the coalition shut down the popular, illegal streaming services Electro TV Sat in Morocco and 123movies.la in Tunisia. In 2020, ACE shuttered Algeria-based IPTV subscription service Akfasat, which provided access to over 3,500 live channels and over 26,000 movies and TV shows.
The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman of ACE and the Motion Picture Association.
