The Czech Republic and Slovakia are strongholds for file hosting piracy, while streaming piracy is dominant in Romania.
Speaking at the International Content Protection Summit 2018, Marcin Przasnyski, MD, Anti-Piracy Protection representing The Creative Poland Association, provided an outline of the state play of piracy in five Central and East European markets.
In it, he added that in the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia there are 313 audiovisual piracy websites, 10 million users locally and 41.7 million visits monthly.
In Hungary, on the other hand, pirates are very much focused on streaming, with very little hosting. All told, the country has 231 audiovisual piracy websites, 3.3 million users locally and 18.8 million visits monthly.
Poland stands out for its diversity, with 721 audiovisual piracy websites, 15.5 million users locally and 77 million visits monthly. There is a lot of money in the business, with piracy sites making $240 million in 2016, and pirates and legal providers effectively go head-to-head.
Romania meanwhile stands out for its high internet speeds and the dominance of streaming piracy. It has 199 audiovisual piracy websites, 8.9 million users locally and 32 million viewers monthly.
Przasnyski made the point that Romania is probably one of the most promising countries in the region to move away from piracy.
He also identified key issues for the region as being the accountability of local sharing platforms, need of a bottom-up strategy and cross-border cooperation.
