The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, today announced Venezuelan TV provider Simpletv as its newest member, bolstering its efforts to fight piracy in Latin America.

Established in 2020, Simpletv is a provider of direct-to-home satellite television services in Venezuela. The company has the largest subscriber base in Venezuela and offers more than 230 channels.

Simpletv expands ACE’s antipiracy efforts in Latin America, where content piracy continues to threaten the economy and impacts local and global content creators. Last year, ACE shut down 23 major piracy operations in Latin America, removing 129 domains that collectively attracted nearly 87 million average monthly visits. ACE continues to work with regional members and law enforcement and government agencies in the region to bring illegal operators to justice.

“It’s my pleasure to welcome Simpletv to ACE’s ever-expanding, global network of members dedicated to the worldwide fight against content piracy,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and Head of ACE. “Piracy stifles the creative market and harms local economies. Latin America remains a market ripe with opportunities to identify and address piracy operators, and with Simpletv on board, our fight grows stronger.”

“ACE’s explosive growth over the past seven years has been driven by strategic partnerships like the one we’re proudly launching today with Simpletv,” said Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel of the MPA. “Team members and partners based in dozens of countries, in Latin America and around the world, ensure that ACE is uniquely able to fight piracy wherever it surfaces.”

In 2021, the potential impact of digital piracy on the Latin American economy was an estimated $733 million USD per year.

“Piracy has been growing exponentially and affecting the telecommunications industry in Latin America, and Venezuela is no exception,” said Simpletv Executive Director, Carlos Lander. “The risks of piracy include tax evasion, funding of organized crime, no parental controls, and job losses. Piracy poses a threat to the industry and formal national telecommunications. We are honored to join ACE, a worldwide network of members committed to combating content piracy on a global scale. At Simpletv, we consider it important to unite to raise awareness about this problem that affects our industries.”  

This article was first published on ACE