Hong Kong, November 9, 2006 – The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) today congratulated the Royal Thai Police for recent high-profile raids on three Bangkok-based cable TV operators found distributing unlicensed movies and other pay-TV content.
The 30-strong anti-piracy Task Force made arrests and seized broadcasting equipment, shutting down pirated pay-TV channels distributed without authorisation by Thai Soon Cable TV, Golden Channel Cable TV and Sunshine Entertainment Cable TV.
The October 31st raids in metropolitan Bangkok resulted in charges of “unauthorised broadcasting of copyrightable content” with further arrests expected.
“The recent raids on pirate cable TV operators in Thailand reaffirm the determination of the global video content industry to tackle pay-TV signal theft head-on,” said Marcel Fenez, the Chairman of CASBAA. “We applaud the Thai authorities and the Motion Picture Association (which helped to coordinate the Bangkok raids) for taking such a firm stand.”
This year’s CASBAA study on the impact of pay-TV piracy across the Asia Pacific, which was undertaken in association with the Standard Chartered Bank, estimates that signal theft in Thailand will cost content owners and legitimate pay-TV operators an estimated US$160 million in 2006.
“In an economy such as Thailand’s this kind of revenue leakage is seriously affecting the ability of the local creative industries to grow,” said Mr Fenez. “This is about the development of a thriving domestic pay-TV industry and promoting Thailand as a media centre.”
A further indication of the global industry’s concerns with regards to pay-TV piracy in Thailand is CASBAA’s support for a two-day ASEAN workshop in Bangkok next week on “intellectual property rights in broadcasting” to be attended by officials of nine governments.
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ABOUT CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia is an industry-based advocacy group dedicated to the promotion of multi-channel TV via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific. CASBAA represents some 110 Asia-based corporations, which in turn serve more than three billion people. Members include Asia Broadcast Satellite, Australia Network, ABN AMRO, Asia Broadcast Network, AETN International (History Channel), AsiaSat, Astro (Malaysia), Bloomberg Television, Comverse, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia, Granada, EMC, HBO Asia, IBM, Macquarie Bank, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Sun Microsystems, Turner International Asia Pacific, UBC True, Walt Disney Television International, Zonemedia, Anytime, BBC Global Channels, BBC World, ESPN STAR Sports, Eurosports, Hallmark Channel, Indovision, Intelsat, Irdeto, Kabelvision, Harmonic, Lovells, Mabuhay, Motorola, National Geographic, Paul Weiss, Seagate, Shin Satellite, Standard Chartered Bank, Synovate and TimeWarner.
CONTACTS:
Rebecca Kennedy / Katie Wong
CASBAA
Tel : +852 2854 9913
Fax: +852 2854 9530
Email: pr@casbaa.com