Brazil Targets Piracy: $2.4 Billion in Annual Losses Prompt Ad Blitz

Piracy drains 12 billion reais ($2.4 billion) a year from Brazil's economy, according to a 2022 study by the Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), and Brazil's audiovisual sector is now answering with a coordinated counter-offensive. The Audiovisual Industry and Commerce Federation (FICA) announced at the Rio Film Festival's RioMarket that a national anti-piracy campaign launches at the end of October across free-to-air and pay television, radio, out-of-home advertising and movie theaters.

The campaign will first cover São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro — Brazil's three most populous states — before expanding countrywide, Gustavo Bastos, CEO of local ad agency 11:21, told Variety. His agency created the campaign pro bono. Local media, telecom and exhibition groups are supporting the initiative by donating free advertising space on their platforms.

"The theft of intellectual property is a problem that must be tackled worldwide. The loss of revenue is enormous and affects the entire audiovisual industry ecosystem," FICA president Walkiria Barbosa told Variety. "What is even more concerning is that ordinary people do not realize the implications of their actions when they use, for example, an illegal TV box."

"Fortunately, we have managed to bring together major partners to launch this far-reaching campaign, which is now getting underway," Barbosa added.

Who is behind the campaign?

The partner lineup includes:

• FICA, the federation spearheading the initiative
• 11:21, the ad agency that developed the creative pro bono
• Disque Denúncia, Brazil's anonymous crime-reporting hotline, which allows citizens to report suspected criminal activity without revealing their identities
• Claro, the telecom and pay-TV operator directly hit by piracy

Why a cinematic approach instead of a law-enforcement tone?

Bastos said the campaign will speak the language of films and series, using pirate characters inspired by pirate productions to communicate the dangers of illegal content.

"Anti-piracy campaigns generally adopt a law-enforcement tone, emphasizing repression, which tends to alienate audiences. We chose a cinematic approach instead, drawing inspiration from pirate productions," Bastos told Variety.

How big is the problem in Brazil?

The IBGE study found piracy practices in about 4.5 million Brazilian households. Jonas Antunes Couto, president of the Brazilian Pay-TV Association (ABTA), told Variety that illegal TV boxes — mostly smuggled from Asia — have become the sector's major concern.

Connected to TV sets and the internet, these inexpensive devices give consumers unauthorized access to movies, series, live sports and other content, often eliminating legitimate streaming or pay-TV subscriptions.

"Piracy is a global phenomenon. In our view, those behind this business are not small-scale operators, but large criminal organizations that engage in other illegal activities, including cybercrime, to finance their operations," Couto said.

Beyond the financial damage to pay-TV operators, streaming platforms, producers, distributors and exhibitors, the boxes may carry malware exposing users to data theft and unauthorized access to personal information.

Does enforcement actually pay off?

Fernando Magalhães, Claro's director of programming and content, cited a concrete result: a major anti-piracy operation in Argentina last year shut down one of Latin America's largest hubs for pirated content, and in the following three months pay-TV subscription sales in Brazil rose by more than 20%.

"But it's a cat-and-mouse game. As anti-piracy efforts become more technologically sophisticated, piracy itself evolves technologically as well," Magalhães said.

Whether a cinematic, character-driven campaign can shift consumer behavior where repression-style messaging has alienated audiences will become clear as the rollout moves from three states to the whole country.