Audiovisual piracy on the decline after the pandemic

The pandemic represented a condition of exceptionality for all sectors, also with regard to audiovisual piracy, a phenomenon still important in our country but which, one year after the lockdown, is returning to the ranks of "normality", with an overall incidence of 38 % in the last 12 months and a decrease in illicit acts to 57 million, a lower number compared to an average two-month period in 2019. This is the photograph returned by the latest data processed by the Ipsos company on behalf of FAPAV - Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual Content and Multimedia.

Held between 7 and 12 May on a sample of 1000 interviewees and presented by Nando Pagnoncelli, CEO of Ipsos, and Federico Bagnoli Rossi, FAPAV Secretary General, the research reveals that after the anomaly recorded in full pandemic, with 243 million of illegal acts during the first lockdown and a loss for the industry of 591 million euros, in the last year the decrease (incidence and number of acts) mainly concerns physical and indirect piracy, while digital piracy is growing by 4% compared to 2019, with a decline only in its download and streaming components, but not IPTV. As for products, piracy of live sports events is recovering strongly after the forced stop of the lockdown (14% in the last 12 months, up from 10% in 2019).Films remain the most pirated content (25% vs 31%) followed by series / fiction (20% vs 23%). On the other hand, almost 11 million Italians have used illicit IPTV at least once (21% in the last 12 months vs 19% during the first lockdown), and of these 2 million have declared that they have an illegal subscription, while the awareness of the illegality of these platforms (only 37% are fully aware of committing a crime). Finally, a figure also on the desire of Italians to rediscover their "old" lifestyle and attention to new audiovisual content: 39% declared they want to return to the cinema as soon as possible and 30% of the interviewees signed up in the last year a new subscription to legal platforms of audiovisual content.These numbers appear comforting, also in relation to the great effort made in these difficult months by the audiovisual industry by renewing the offer of quality products and business models.

If the effect of the pandemic was therefore a limited phenomenon and the data are therefore less dramatic, it is more than ever necessary to "support the audiovisual industry as much as possible in this restart phase, with the aim of strengthening protection actions, to guarantee a solid basis of certain rules to support the entire supply chain ", said Federico Bagnoli Rossi. Underlining the need for an increasingly strong fight against piracy and the timely removal of illegal content, also in consideration of the criminal realities that lie behind illicit IPTV, the Secretary General added that there are several issues present on national and European institutional tables. : "on the national front, the utmost attention must be paid toimplementation of the Copyright Directive in our legal system and it is also necessary that the process relating to the anti-piracy law proposals, now scheduled, must be advanced. On the European front, however, the discussion around the Digital Services Act is central, which represents a great opportunity to strengthen actions and tools for the protection of content on the web ". In order not to let our guard down and provide a further weapon against the phenomenon of piracy, "We Are Stories" is also ready, the new awareness campaign dedicated especially to younger audiences and to all those who dream and wish to work in the audiovisual sector: "6 commercials will be scheduled from mid-July, 3 linked to the dreams and aspirations of the new generations, 3 linked to the supply chain,then we will also do an institutional commercial ", he added," the direction will be an emerging young man who we will announce in the coming weeks ".