No, Spain is not one of the countries with the highest piracy rate, as some leaders in the audiovisual content sector usually claim. It is in fact the fifth state with the lowest piracy rate per user in the entire EU, as reflected in the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) 2023 report, published this Thursday and to which elDiario.es had access.
With 8.5 monthly accesses to pirated content, Spaniards are almost two points below the European average, which is 10.3, and a little more than one point above the country which records the most low level in this area, namely Italy with 7.3 monthly accesses per user. . At the opposite extreme are the Baltic and Northern European countries, with Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania (26.2, 23.2 and 21.7 respectively).
This year’s analysis is also the first to take into account the impact of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services, a technology that allows the transmission of television content online and which, in some cases, is used to access paid broadcasts, such as football and other sports. . However, the EUIPO highlights the difficulty in quantifying this category, which occurs via private networks and devices, which is why the impact figures are based on visits to IPTV recording pirate websites, and not on actual consumption.
As in the rest of European countries, television content is the most pirated in Spain (48% of the total). However, here too Spain follows the opposite trend, being one of the 9 members of the 27 where this type of delinquency has decreased compared to the previous year. Spain is also one of the countries with the lowest number of monthly accesses per Internet user to films, although in the case of music pirated consumption has increased.
The data contrasts with statements by the president of the football federation, Javier Tebas, who recently said that “40% of the Spanish population is pirates”, calling for stricter legislation and the possibility of being able to require operators to provide access. . the data of users who connect to IPTV services, although these also have legal uses.
“If we don’t solve this problem, we will find ourselves in a very complicated situation. The day we have the legislation, it will already be obsolete, because the pirate is in advance,” continued Tebas, announcing that La Liga will file “criminal complaints” against “Google, in Ecuador, in Brazil and in France too” for refusing to remove IPTV applications from the Android store In Spain, the employers’ association of football clubs requested the indictment of senior officials of Google, Apple and Huawei in a case against one of these applications, as reported in exclusive to elDiario.es.
“According to the study, Spain is not doing badly in terms of piracy in 2023 (a trend we have already observed in 2022),” says EUIPO chief economist Nathan Wajsman in statements to this media. Despite this, Wajsman says that “this is still a very high rate, which shows that we must continue to raise awareness among citizens about the risks associated with accessing pirated content.”
The report from the European Intellectual Property Office highlights that television piracy via IPTV is a growing problem in Europe. A previous analysis by this organization already estimated the revenues of this type of business at 1,060 million euros, and considers that they have increased by 10% so far.
Piracy where there is no alternative to the market price
The EUIPO highlights how levels of piracy at European level remain high and how they are linked to population and youth unemployment and income inequality. “This study sheds light on the consumption of digital content and the factors that encourage piracy. It is imperative to address the causes of this behavior, which often stem from the lack of access to affordable legal content and the need for greater public awareness of the consequences of piracy,” explains its director, João Negrão .
The report concludes that “the volume of legal supply helps reduce piracy in almost all areas.” He in turn points out that a greater number of legal platforms and TV channels is associated with less piracy. “Our analysis highlights economic and demographic factors that can influence levels of piracy, for example the proportion of young people in the population or the degree of economic inequality in society, but there are also other very important factors such as perception and attitude. against piracy, the availability of a legal content offering and awareness of this legal offering,” explains Wajsman.
Taking into account the age factor, the study shows that the young population tends to consume more pirated content, especially in the case of films. Another variable directly proportional to this crime is inequality: the greater the inequality present in a country, the more it tends to present significant piracy.
However, the results sometimes show the increasing complexity of this phenomenon. EUIPO econometric analysis shows that higher GDP per capita is associated with lower movie piracy, but higher piracy of live sporting events. This suggests that income level may have a complex effect on piracy, depending on the type of content.
