Russia takes fight to pirates

Russia’s Channel One has decided to take a proactive approach in its fight with piracy.

Kommersant reports that the country’s most popular station has prepared letters to Apple and Google, along with the smart TV manufacturers Samsung and LG, requiring them to remove applications that illegally distribute its signal.

It is now asking OTT services to only distribute Channel One on legal platforms developed with the participation of members of the NSK (National Advertising Alliance, NRA) and SPB TV.

The latter, along with Channel One, have developed a technological solution and OTT services have to apply through the Channel One website by February 10 in order to continue distributing the service.

Significantly, several other broadcasters have also signed up to the same solution operated by Channel One.

They include Rossiya 1 and Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) and Pyatnitsa.

The solution is already being used by OTT services such as Megogo and Videomore, along with the pay-TV operators Rostelecom, MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Tricolor TV and NTV-Plus.

First Channel "decided to move to an active fight against piracy on the Internet: the company prepared letters to Apple and Google and Smart TV manufacturers Samsung and LG with the requirement to remove applications that illegally distribute the channel signal. Online cinemas are now invited to take the "First" broadcast only from a legal platform developed with the participation of the partner of the National Advertising Alliance - the New Service Company - and the developer of SPB TV. Channels "Russia 1", "Russia 24" and "The Fifth" were also connected to it.

"The First Channel" has prepared official letters to Samsung, LG, Apple and Google with a list of applications in which its signal is distributed illegally, a spokesperson for the technology developer SPB TV told Kommersant and Larissa Krymova of the First Channel confirmed. She did not specify what the application meant the company. "Previously, First Channel" did not block the pirated distribution of its air signal in OTT-environments (over-the-top; online services operating on operator networks.- "Kommersant") in the interests of its viewers, as the technology for replacing the pirated signal on legal and integration procedures were not debugged, "- explained on the" First. "

Now Channel One offers partners to use a technological solution developed jointly with the NSC (partner of the National Advertising Alliance, NRA) and SPB TV. "In order to avoid deletion of their applications, OTT-operators must submit an application for organizing the broadcast of the legitimate OTT-version through the" First Channel "website before February 10 and begin work on the integration of the proposed solution," says Mrs. Krymova.

OTT operators will receive free versions of the signals provided by TV channels (including Full HD) for broadcasting on the Internet by the "one-stop-shop" principle, and TV channels - access to audience data on OTT platforms, control over the distribution of content, reduce its illegal distribution, as well as opportunities for monetization, told "b" on the "First", in the NSC and SPB TV. According to the partners, the decision is already being applied by the First Channel, Russia 1 and Russia 24 channels (included in the VGTRK), Channel Five, and the integration of the Mir package. A source in the VGTRK confirmed that the holding company is working with this technology. According to Ms. Krymova, the solution is used by OTT operators - Megogo, Videomore, Peers.TV and others, as well as telecommunications and satellite companies, including Rostelecom, MTS, MegaFon, VimpelCom, Tricolor TV, NTV-plus ".

According to the assessment of the analytical center of the NSC, only the exclusive (not overlapping with TV) Internet audience, interested in television viewing, is 7.4 million people. At the same time, the audience is growing, which prefers watching TV through OTT-resources, without giving up traditional watching on the air. In 2016, 37% of the total reception of the TV signal was accounted for by OTT, IP-TV and satellite TV, by 2020 this share will increase to 50%, NSC predicts. As previously reported to Kommersant, the revenues of legal online video services for 2017 increased by 20%, to 13.6 billion rubles., According to InterMedia. Proceeds of sites with illegal video content increased from 2.6 billion rubles. up to 2.8 billion rubles.

The issue of legalizing the broadcasting of federal channels in the OTT environment has been acute for several years - since the beginning of explosive growth in the consumption of linear TV on the Internet, the general director of the Internet Video Association (the online cinemas ivi.ru, Megogo, TVZavr, Amediateka and TV1000Play) Alexey Byrdin. "If the issue of clearing the rights to broadcast in this environment was in the hands of the television channels themselves, then the solution to the problem of monetization had to be found. Apparently, the NRA found such a solution. The success of the project can be measured in the number of participating TV channels and connected services, "he concludes.