In Panel 12, Andressa Pappas, General Manager and Director of Government Affairs at the Motion Picture Association (MPA) Brazil, presented a study conducted by Oxford Economics, commissioned by the MPA, on the economic contribution of the audiovisual industry in Brazil. The numbers are from 2019.
At the outset, Andressa highlighted the prevailing lack of awareness regarding the economic potential of the audiovisual industry in Brazil. “Within the creative economy, the audiovisual industry is one of the segments that grows above the global average.”
Today, the overall impact of the audiovisual sector on the Brazilian GDP reaches R$ 55.8 billion, generating 658,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs. Tax revenue amounts to R$ 7.7 billion. “The contribution to the Brazilian GDP is greater than that of truck, bus, and car production in the country.”
In addition to these figures, the executive pointed out other positive impacts generated by the performance of the Brazilian audiovisual industry, such as attracting foreign tourism, promoting Brazilian culture internationally, generating new income streams and tax flows, stimulating the development of new infrastructure, and training Brazilian professionals.
As for copyright protection, Andressa highlighted some sector concerns, such as the excessive creation of copyright exceptions and limitations (draft bills) and the scale of piracy, particularly online. “Exceptions and limitations should only be created exceptionally, following the rules of the Berne Convention.”
Hermano Tercius, Inspection Superintendent at the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), spoke about the agency’s work, which established an anti-piracy plan in 2018. “Over slightly more than five years, almost seven million unapproved products were removed from the market, amounting to over R$ 600 million.”
Tercius stated that specifically concerning the audiovisual industry, the product causing the most trouble for the agency is the TV Box, a device that turns a regular TV into a Smart TV. “The TV Box is not approved and allows users to watch movies, series, or TV channels clandestinely. Worse yet, through the device, personal data theft and corporate network invasions can occur. We have already removed around 1.5 million of these devices from the Brazilian market.” The last panel of the day was moderated by Luiza Tângari.
