CazéTV suspends French broadcast over VPN use abroad; understands

CazéTV did not say what kind of notice was sent in addition to the warning about the use of mechanisms to circumvent geoblocking, but this usually happens due to complaints from broadcast rights holders. In recent years, free viewing of sports competitions has suffered some problems on YouTube platforms. In some cases, an error when setting up the live broadcast that broadcasts a match, or “forgetting” to close access outside the country, has led to a drop in transmission, which is not the case today in France.

Another very different example: the GOAT channel, which also broadcasts events for free on YouTube, recently suffered in Series B with the exclusion of a live broadcast of a match between América-MG x Santos, but in this case what happened was due to an error in Globo’s anti-piracy system, which identified the broadcast as a pirated link that “violated” the privacy of the premiere (which did not exist for that match). The Rio broadcaster apologized at the time and gave an exclusive match of the Santos team to the GOATs as compensation.

Issues with the location of broadcast rights may become more frequent with free online broadcasts and will require platforms with mechanisms to block VPN connections. But they were unheard of in the era of streaming. In 2002, weeks before Brazil won the World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the government of then-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso was forced to issue a decree preventing Globo from encrypting the event’s signal on satellite dishes.

The decision was not made against Globo, as it first appears, but to free the broadcaster from a contractual requirement from FIFA, which did not want to access the signal in countries neighboring Brazil. At the time, 50 million viewers relied on satellite dishes to access World Cup matches. The contract between FIFA and Globo required the channel to prevent signal piracy, i.e. encoding.

Since the Brazilian system was still analog, the development would prevent audiences with satellite dishes from watching the World Cup. Globo had an obligation to comply with this contract, but the FHC decision “protected” the broadcaster from legal consequences. In other words, the World Cup was not banned in this system and there was no action by FIFA, since Globo was legally bound by the decision that had the force of law.

Watch the full note from CazéTV: