Skylink piracy update

[Len]

Skylink is able to accurately estimate the number of customers or pirates who access the service on a card share basis.

Speaking to Zive, Jaromir Glisnik, a member of the board at M7 Group, the owner of the DTH platform, added that the figure was in the few tens of thousand, perhaps 30,000-40,000, in Slovakia.

However, he added that it was unable to estimate the exact number of clients who illegally access Skylink through small operators, either on their networks or free of charge on the internet.

Glisnik also spoke about how the Czech channels Nova and Prima, despite being no longer officially available in Slovakia, are still watched. Indeed, several thousand customers have charged their cards to ones serving the Czech Republic and in doing so lost access to Slovak channels.

Glisnik refered to the case of Skylink’s top seller in Slovakia, which was found to be also selling a pirate service. Skylink filed a criminal complaint and renounced its contact with the companmy.

He also called for operators, broadcasters and other stakeholders to join forces in order to combat piracy in Slovakia.

Glisnik made a similar request at last month’s Bratislava Business Briefing, organised jointly by Broadband TV News and SES.

Skylink is the leading provider of DTH services in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.