TORONTO, Nov. 19, 2019 /CNW/ - Asian Television Network
International Limited (ATN) (TSX-V-SAT), Canada's largest South Asian Broadcaster and
pioneer broadcaster of Cricket, is pleased to announce that it is
resuming its mission of eradicating piracy after giving up on it as
an exercise in futility with respect of the FairPlay application.
ATN had the privilege of being an active member of FairPlay, a
coalition of the major stake holders of Canada.
The very recent Federal Court decision which prescribes and
mandates blocking of pirate websites by third party ISPs brings
back the wheel full circle and reaffirms that for every wrong there
is a remedy and that to provide such remedy the judicial system has
inherent residual jurisdiction in our common law system. In an
important decision released Friday, the Federal Court of
Canada issued the first Canadian
site blocking order against sites that predominantly facilitate
copyright infringement. The precedent-setting move is the first
time such an order has been made in Canada, and a judge says ISPs will have 15
days to comply.
In light of that, ATN is back, motivated and with total
commitment to play its full role in the fight against piracy. It
hopes and expects to see withering down of piracy and regaining of
lost ground by legitimate stake holders, including itself.
"We want to congratulate BELL Media, ROGERS Media & Groupe
TVA for their leadership in taking this very significant and ground
breaking initiative and our sincere gratitude to the Federal Court
of Canada for this
order" said Dr. Shan
Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN. "We see a light at
the end of the tunnel and we are happy it's not an oncoming train"
he added.
ATN recently made a significant submission to the Government of
Canada through The Broadcasting
and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) Panel and in light
of this remarkable and admirable decision by the Federal Court of
Canada that the panel would
consider the request more seriously with respect to signal theft,
copyright and protection of Intellectual property in Canada. ATN
has made significant investments in Canadian productions and is one
of the largest producers and distributors of Multi-Cultural content
in Canada and ATNs revenues have been severely affected in the last
few years due to huge piracy of content by way of illegal piracy
sites and illegal IPTV set top boxes that threatens the massive
employment, economic, and cultural contributions of Canada's film,
television, and music industries.
ATN is also working closely with various Broadcast Distribution
Undertakings to offer its customers a compelling and cost effective
package which will help customers to transition easily from illegal
IPTV to a regulated platform without making a big dent in their
pockets.
About ATN-Asian Television Network International
Limited
ATN serves Canada's diverse cultural communities with
over 50 specialty television channels. The Company offers its
flagship ATN-HD general interest service along with 7 other general
interest channels, 3 sports Channels, 7 news Channels, 5 Bollywood
movie channels and a variety of channels that include music,
lifestyle, and several regional language channels that includes
Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati & Marathi. ATN has been
a pioneer in the Production of Multicultural Television Programming
in Canada. ATN has its own State
Of The Art Production facilities. ATN channels are available on
various Cable, Satellite and licensed IPTV Platforms across
Canada like Shaw Cable, Bell TV,
Rogers Cable, Bell Fibe TV, TELUS Optic TV, Shaw Direct, Cogeco
Cable, and Others.
We rely on safe harbour provision.
SOURCE Asian Television Network International Limited
