ATN supports orders by Federal Court of Canada to block Piracy Sites

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

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