Dace Kotzeva, Head of the Latvian organization fighting against illegal content, in her interview with reporters from the edition “Diena” stated that out of 760 thousand families enjoying TV broadcasting services, 140 thousand watch pirate TV.
According to LETA, these are quite provisional figures. The staff of the Riga Higher School of Economy, namely Arnis Sauke, is planning to hold a study that would result in showing the disastrous magnitude of pirate video content extent in the Latvian TV broadcasting.
The fight against illegal TV in Latvia is carried out by the organization “No to piracy in Latvia”, set up by the companies Baltcom, Forum Cinemas, Lattelecom, the First Baltic Channel and the Latvian branch of Viasat. The organization is headed by Mrs. Kotzeva, who emphasizes that illegal TV operators just incur maintenance costs, without paying for TV product creation and royalty fees to right holders. In her opinion, such TV companies operate in the “gray” zone of the Latvian shadow economy.
The Latvian anti-piracy organization works in the legislative environment, calling for passing amendments that would oblige Internet service providers to block resources with illegal video and audio content.
The representative of Viasat Lina Karklina, in her interview with the agency BNS, informed that the use of pirate TV products is estimated at several million euros of tax potentialities lost by the Latvian budget. The organization fighting against illegal content in the Latvian media space sets one of its goals to cooperate with various services and to conduct a public awareness campaign. The country’s residents should understand themselves that by using pirate websites and torrent trackers they undermine the country’s economy.
